Satoru Noda

The story is fast-paced and exciting, the setting interesting. I liked the historical/"how to survive in the wilderness" details. This manga is too violent for my taste, however. It is also a bad sign when you like the way landscapes, animals, etc are drawn much more than the main characters. It was an interesting effect that I can't explain, I could hardly look at the characters and their facial expressions without a shudder. I very much doubt that I will continue this manga series...

The bestiality cliffhanger gets resolved fairly quickly, allowing the characters to finally start converging on the prison where the treasure map mastermind is being held . . . EXCEPT here's just one more guy with tattooed skin and a special ability we've just stumbled across. One of the funniest cliffhangers of the series makes up for a little more foot-dragging on the larger plot.

The wacky adventures in this volume are fine and fun -- prison breaks, psychics, imposters, a crazy gun inventor, a hydrogen blimp -- but they do feel like filler as the creator aggressively vamps while moving the characters from point A to point B.