KENT continues to bring to life a riveting daikaiju series that delivers a high octane battle between beasts at the forefront of the second volume of GAEA-TIMA the Gigantis. At the same time, the book provides a surprisingly human story of helping someone go through the difficult steps of monstrous change for the better by just having hope in them. Volume two does a fantastic delivery on all ends, keeping the reader hooked with the series and its fast-paced kaiju action while also taking some careful time to worldbuild and enrich its focal characters.
The absolute highlight of the volume is continuing the battle between GAEA-TIMA II and the insectoid sea creature, Hettorga. KENT brings to life a fast moving collection of panels that pays terrific homage to classic giant monster battles, with GAEA-TIMA and Hetteorga duking it out on the shoreline while Miyako Morino, GEA-TIMA’s guardian, and Tatsukumi Matsushima, who is a daikaiju researcher, look on from afar. With their efforts (along with the military) assisting GAEA-TIMA, eventually victory comes through, with GAEA-TIMA surprising everyone with a new form that seems to be a surprising homage to Aqua Mothra from the 90s Mothra trilogy.
From there, the story somewhat skids to a stop as a somewhat political behind the scenes side story begins to brew. Tastsukuni is tasked with navigating his passion for giant monsters and the bureaucratic jargon of the daikaiju biological research group he works for, which is better known as Fune. While a little slow on its dialogue, these sequences do help expand the world and help raise the stakes of why GAEA-TIMA needs to succeed. If man and monster can’t get along, then their only other option for the world is simply: Destroy All Monsters!
It should be noted that personally, I was not the biggest fan of episode eight of this volume. While I do appreciate that it shows a somewhat interesting behind scenes sequence on how vinyl figures are made, I think that this episode boils down to reminding Miyako to keep the figure housing GAEA-TIMA’s orb on her and away from the wrong hands… but sadly, it feels a bit redundant. On the bright side, this chapter introduced researcher/hacker Kotama, who I truly hope we get more of later down the line in future volumes.
While this volume may not be as strong as the first, it is still a pretty solid daikaiju narrative that adds some very much needed freshness to the genre as a whole. Volume two seems to be setting the stage for bigger challenges that Miyako and co. must soon face with GAEA-TIMA, whether they like it or not.
| Overall Score: 9/10 GAEA-TIMA the Gigantis Vol. 2 is a a fantastic continuation from the first one, as the titular monster battles another unique daikaiju all the while the human plot begins to expand the world and showcase the stakes at hand. |
