The action moves to a new locale in Astro Royale chapter 34 as Hibaru and Terasu set off to recover a piece of the daybreak ore. This might be the start of a new arc, but will it be marred by the same shortcomings?
Back when I discussed chapter 27, I was very up front with the fact that I don’t like Astro Royale very much. One of my main problems is that it feels like a cheap attempt to make the surface level elements of Tokyo Revengers work in a battle manga, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its own set of flaws too. Chief among them is the sheer lack of interesting characters: the protagonist is incredibly milquetoast and so are the antagonists so far, even if I have something of a soft spot for Terasu.
Nevertheless, Astro Royale chapter 34 marks something of a fresh start for the series. Although the fight with Himuro had all the air of an early cancellation, Ken Wakui’s subsequent decision to boldly widen the scope for the series by opening up the setting and setting up several future plotlines clearly represents something resembling confidence on the part of the author. More specifically, what that means is that Hibaru and his allies are now in the midst of a fetch quest to retrieve all six pieces of the daybreak ore that fell as meteorites in various places across Japan and caused the outbreak of special abilities in the first place.
Up first on the docket is Yokohama, where a contest is apparently being held to give away a piece of the ore. Somewhat coincidentally, Hibaru’s friend from high school also has a request for him there too: his sister has been kidnapped by the eighth adopted son of the Yotsuragi family, also known as the Yokohama Immortal. To accomplish both the larger objective and this subquest, then, it’s off to the ruins of a once great city they go.
When considering the lack of interesting characters thus far, Astro Royale chapter 34 initially gets off to a great start. Not only is the Yokohama Immortal we are first introduced to visually striking because of his grizzled character design, he also keeps an interesting array of goons on hand in gimp suits. For some reason, however, it turns out that this person was simply using the Immortal name to terrorize local citizens before Hibaru’s arrival caused the real Immortal to come out of the woodworks and serve up some gangster justice.
To be honest, this is a bit of a baffling narrative choice, especially when the real Immortal shares a very similar character design to Terasu. This doesn’t take away from the good first impression that the fake one gave, however, nor does it detract from the awesome fight scene centered around the falling of his cigarette ash. Learning how to love Astro Royale may just end up being my personal journey for 2025: I hope you'll join me along the way.
You can read Astro Royale chapter 34 in English for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.
