Review: #816
Title: Accel World 12: The Red Crest
Series: Accel World - 12th volume
Author: Reki Kawahara
Comments: The Red Crest continues on with the duel between Silver Crow and Wolfram Cerberus, which was one of the highlights of the previous volume. It ends fairly quickly into the novel and then launches into the next mini arc, in which Silver Crow continues his efforts to obtain the Theoretical Mirror ability in order to be able to launch an attack on a boss. When you summarize it like that, you come to realize just how much of a tangent the author had gone onto when writing this series. As a result, The Red Crest never felt like it was advancing the plot at all. The self contained plot within this volume is weak at best and lacks focus. New characters are introduced including an avatar with the body of chocolate and the ISS Kits continuing to be a menace. Kuroyukihime lets loose some more bits from her history, including some pretty significant revelations about the other Pure Color Kings but that does not save the volume. The ending is predictable and cut short with a “To be continued” promise along with the contrived appearance of a returning character. There is a short story at the end of the volume that expands on Sky Raker’s backstory. It is as much for fan service as for character development, and can feel tedious thanks to the author’s tendency to provide massive summaries of past events and paragraphs of exposition.
Rating: 6/10