In Switch volume 13, the series concludes with a dramatic action-packed ending. Kai Eto's secret past is finally revealed and the past connections between him and Hal Kurabayashi are finally solidified. The fate of the drug, Switch, is also finally revealed as Kai comes to terms with his alter ego.
Overview:
This volume, more than any of the previous volumes I've read, really shows what Naked Ape are capable of doing. Previous volumes of Switch were mediocre. They were good reading material while waiting at the doctors office or at an airport, but they lacked the kind of grip that really puts them above the rest. For volume 12, I attributed this mostly due to it being a setup volume for the finale, volume 13. For the other volumes, it was a lack of any real plot twists or attempts to break cliches or conventions; volume 13 does do that to some extent and also has more action than one would expect for an “action” detective fiction manga.
While Switch, particularly volume 13, does break a few molds and has a few surprises, particularly the whereabouts of the Switch drug, for the most part everything is out of the script of a modern detective story set in real life. It's not noir since the cops emerge (mostly) victorious, but it's not as nicely ended as most police procedurals; the cops score a major victory, but it's not complete, and the main characters' ending is more bitter-sweet and inconclusive.
The story, by Saki Otoh, as mentioned was far better than the previous volumes. She did a great job of building up suspense and developing characters. It is clear that she had a lot of planning for the backstories of the major characters by the way the ending turned out. This is evidenced with Hal's father, Toki Kurabayashi, whom we really only discover a lot about in this volume. We have had hints given throughout about what he did for a living, but not much on the character himself. Otoh really shows just how well one volume in a manga can bring out a character you knew almost nothing about. The introduction of him, and the Ryugen crime boss, as major characters this late in a series—the conclusion—and still pulling it off with Toki shows Otoh's real skill at storytelling.
The artwork, mostly done by Nakamura Tomomi (cover art is by Otoh) is decent for the last volume. Her character drawings are quite good, some of the action panels are also depicted quite well, but with a few exceptions there's nothing special about the latter, which at this point in the manga is what I'd expect some work to go into. There aren't any splash pages, except after the story ends, which I find somewhat unusual. I didn't expect many, and I prefer not having a ton of them as is common in many action-oriented comics, but I find the lack of one even for the climatic moment when the police take down the Ryougen odd. She does have some great effects with her manga drawing, particularly the continual use of non-right angle edges for the panels helps give the manga a sense of dynamic motion. There are hardly any rectangular panels in the entire volume and they get fewer as the volume progresses.
One thing that really annoyed me about this volume had to do with Viz's quality standards. Many of the text bubbles had print along one edge of a text bubble with almost no white space on the one side and a massive amount on the other. Sometimes they even hyphenated words that could, if they'd used their space properly, been displayed unbroken. This didn't occur in every panel, but it was often enough that it became distracting, especially toward the end of the volume. The translation was still understandable, but I'd expect better quality from a major company like Viz.
Overall, Switch volume 13 has a great climax with a couple of interesting twists. If you've been reading this series so far, you don't want to wait for this volume.
ComicsOnline gives Switch volume 13 3 out of 5 stars.
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