They say that certain chosen humans meet angels unaware. And…they're not wrong. Invisible angels get plenty of entertainment in Platinum End, assisting humans as they play a dangerous game to see who gets to be the next god! When everyone’s got the power, it's the smartest (and most ruthless) player set to win the marbles! And one of the contestants just dropped dead…

Back in the debut volume, we met Mirai Kakehashi right as he jumped off a building to his (apparent) demise. His life has been an outright disaster since the day his parents and brother died and his cruel aunt and uncle enslaved him. Yet the escape he gets isn’t the one he’d planned for; enter a shiny girl with wings who catches him in midair! Announcing herself as Nasse, his guardian angel, she grants Mirai a pair of wings to fly at light-speed, a set of red arrows that compel thirty-three days of slavish loyalty from ANYONE, and another set of white arrows that cause instant death.

With these gifts, Mirai frees himself from his family’s control and starts a new chapter in his life, only to learn that there’s a small, um, complication. See, Nasse’s only one angel of twelve; each of has chosen a human–specifically one who’d attempted suicide–as a candidate to rule heaven and earth as the new god!

Trouble is, one of the other “God Candidates” just died. Specifically, from getting shot with a white arrow. Turns out that murder is a totally kosher way of winning godhood, and at least one of the contestants is perfectly willing to cross any and every moral line. (He also likes dressing up as a superhero.) Mirai’s gonna need to think fast if he doesn't want to pop his (prospectively divine) clogs after all, especially since he just found out that his crush, Saki, is also a candidate.

There’s no point trying to hide the comparisons with Death Note. Seriously, it’s a manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata about a teenager given magical powers by an amoral supernatural entity. Yet this is no mere throwback; these are two storytellers who once created an unforgettable thrill when they combined highly-specific magical rules with the limits and concerns of an otherwise realistic world. And they’re doing it again!

Most of this volume’s page count consists of a large, public conflict between several other newly-introduced god candidates and the villain (who, for extra bathos, dresses as the Sentai superhero “Metropoliman” during his public appearances). Silly as it sounds though, this is still a supernatural fight to the death, so the tension’s at an all-time high. Plus, while it’s basically just a preliminary battle, every fight between god candidates reveals more about what their angelic powers can and cannot do.

And we find out VERY soon just how much they cannot do, at least when your opponent has identical abilities, zero moral hang-ups and a genius intellect.

As such, Platinum End continues doing its job; the previous volume introduced the characters and established how the setting’s magic works while this volume sets up the dynamic between the protagonists, the antagonist and the grey characters (e.g. Nasse) who stand in the middle. Mirai continues his character development, having gone from an utterly suicidal wreck to a young man willing to fight against his new oppressor. Saki, meanwhile, is still playing her cards close to the vest. Right now, all we know about her is that she’s a god candidate (which means that she’s attempted suicide recently) and that her only angelic power is a set of red arrows. Otherwise, she’s pretty taciturn; let’s hope we’ll learn more about her soon!

Our villain, meanwhile, is quickly displaying that his real power really isn’t his new angelic abilities, but how freaking GOOD he is at cooking up his battle strategies! Seriously, this guy’s a total psycho and it’s terrifying! Unlike Mirai, he’s got a very Light Yagami-esque view on “goodness” and has no problem killing people–innocent and otherwise–who stand between him and power. Yet like Mirai, he’s also one of only three god candidates to get white arrows through his (special rank) angel. And since Mirai can’t even bring himself kill anyone, at least as of yet, this raises some very ticklish questions: even if Mirai can outsmart him, how can he put a permanent end to a ruthless murderer’s killing spree without resorting to using his own killer white arrows? Will murder, in the end, really be the only option? Good thing angelic powers are useful for more than just killing!

Now that we’re in the “meat” of the story proper, things are REALLY getting serious. These veteran creators' new magical detective story is underway proper, and the twists will keep you guessing even to the very last page!

Platinum End Vol. 2 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata is available here by chapter or in graphic novel format. 

by Chris Turner