Overall, for those wanting an action manga series with a solid storyline and enjoyable characters, “Beet the Vandel Buster” vol. 2 is recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2002 by RIKU SANJO, KOJI INADA/SHUEISHA Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Beet the Vandel Buster vol. 2 (冒険王ビィト)
STORY AND ART BY: Story by Riku Sanjo (ä¸‰æ¡ é™¸)/Art by Koji Inada (稲田 浩å¸)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shueisha
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Shonen Jump Graphic Novel/VIZ Media, LLC
RATED: A for All Ages
Available on December 7, 2004
Not only is Beet’s arch-enemy, Beltorze, alive, but he’s more power than ever. Beltorze has returned as a seven-star Vandel, the strongest Vandel of all. And after meeting with Shagie, chief of the Dark House of Sorcery, he could become even stronger!
In the second volume of the Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada’s action-driven manga series, “Beet the Vandel Buster”, both Beet and Poala join forces to take on Vandels!
But it’s revealed that Beltorze is alive and he has become the most feared and most powerful Vandel out there, become a seven-star Vandel. But just as powerful is another Vandel named Master Grineed and he is looking for a powerful Vandel Buster to beat.
And sure enough for Beet and Poala, they confront both Master Grineed and Beltorze.
Find out what happens to them in the second volume of “Beet the Vandel Buster”!
What is “Beet the Vandel Buster”?
In 2002, mangaka Riku Sanjo (“MD Geist”) and illustrator Koji Inada created “Boken o Bito” (which literally translates to “Adventure King Beet”). Published in Shueisha’s “Monthly Shonen Jump” and an anime series which began airing on TV Tokyo, and now the series will be released in the U.S. courtesy of Viz Media.
“Beet the Vandel Buster” is set during a time when Vandels, evil creatures with magical powers, spawn monsters to kill humans. This time is known as the “Dark Ages” and a group of Vandel Busters known to fight against the Vandels are the Zenon Warriors led by Zenon, Cruss, Alside, Bluezam and Laio have arrived in town.
Inspired by their heroism, a young boy named Beet becomes a Buster and tells the group that he is now like them and wants to train. Of course, being the clumsy guy that he is, his friend, Poala doesn’t think so much about Beet becoming a Buster. But one thing about Beet that is known, he is able to go on for three days without sleep.
One day as Beet fights off low level monsters as training, the most feared Vandel, Beltorze has shown up in the town.
As they fight against Beltorze, when Beltorze sees Beet, he blasts a hole in him and the moment the Zenon Warriors pause to think about Beet’s death, Beltorze uses the opportunity to send a fatal blow on all Zenon Warriors.
Near death, the Zenon Warriors, give all their energy including their Saiga (their weapons) to save Beets life and the last image that Beet has is all Zenon Warriors using their last strength to fight Beltorze.
When Beet awakens, he is healed but the Zenon Warriors are no more.
Three years later, Paola has become the guardian of the town, while Beet has been gone the last three years training.
The town has been overrun by monsters thanks to a Vandel known as Mugine, who has been turning the locals ponds and marshes to rot. Poala and a group are planning their attack on Mugine, but as she goes to infiltrate Mugine’s headquarters, she finds out that the group she was with are actually monsters in disguise. It is revealed that Poala is a level 21 Buster and as she is about to be killed by Mugine, coming to her rescue is Beet.
But how has Beet changed within the last three years?
“Beet the Vandel Buster” is an exciting and captivating manga series about a boy, who is considered an underdog, afraid of pain, clumsy and not so smart.
But the boy has a lot of heart and in someways, I can see people making comparisons of this manga series to “Naruto”, but instead of ninjas, we have Busters and in this case, a group of top level Busters sacrifice their lives to save Beet’s life and entrust them with their Saiga (weapons).
In volume two, Poala joins Beet and she starts to see how powerful he is, because he has the five Saiga entrusted to him. But just because he’s powerful, doesn’t mean he’s unbeatable because Beet has one major weakness and that is the fact that while he can fight for three days straight with no sleep, right after those three days, he literally has to sleep for an entire day. And for Poala, that leaves her open to Vandels.
But to make things even more difficult for both Beet and Poala is that Master Grineed, one of the powerful Vandels out there, has his eyes set on both Beet and Poala. And to make things worse, Beltorze has arrived.
And with the top level Busters unable to beat him, what happens when Beet takes on Beltorze?
The story by Riku Sanjo is well-written, somewhat banal but the storyline of Busters and Vandels is rather fascinating and if you enjoy action manga, it’s quite entertaining. And Koji Inada’s illustrations are unique to manga, he has a style that while he’s compared to Akira Toriyama, his artwork is his own style.
The manga is rated A for “All Ages” but there is a little violence but no visual imagery of major violence that parents have to worry (on the human side, but monsters are cut down by Beet and Poala’s weapons).
Overall, for those wanting an action manga series with a solid storyline and enjoyable characters, “Beet the Vandel Buster” vol. 2 is recommended!