Manga: Clockwork Planet 9

Clockwork Planet Vol 9 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Naoto and his crew continue their deep descent into the dark world of Shangri-La, where crime, betrayal, and peril run rampant. The two geniuses, Naoto and Marie, attract evil forces in the hellish underbelly of society, and their fates slowly become locked together like rusted cogs. Shangri-La runs on death, and its strongest leader wants Halter to execute a tricky tradeoff, but will the decision Halter makes be the right one...? And when an unfamiliar face from the Initial-Y series appears, RyuZU might be in trouble! 

This volume is off to a rather ominous start....I have to say I was in two minds about the whole thing. It's been a while since the last volume, and my memory isn't that great but I was questioning if what I was seeing was really happening!? I was kinda hoping it was just a ruse but...well. 

I liked seeing Marie have a bit of a vulnerable moment when she had her crisis of confidence thanks to the old clockmaker man calling her an amateur. Of course Naoto gets on with him like a house on fire. 

Poor old Halter meanwhile, gets dragged in to an uncomfortable situation. I wasn't sure what he'd do, but I was waiting for him to have a way out of it...things are definitely going to kick off amongst our little group next volume! As it is, we see our little group splinter in this volume as certain things have to be done to save the Shangri-La grid. 

Aside from the crisis our characters are facing we also get to meet Kiu...the leader of Arsenal who is 100% off his rocker. He oddly reminded me a bit of the Joker but not as good. 

We end the volume on quite a dire note, with Naoto dealing with a literal mad man and the final few pages herald a new character...Temp. Temp is another initial Y series and she's a bit....clumsy. She could make things very interesting once again. Don't get me wrong, I feel like things have picked up again and gotten more intriguing with this volume and the plotting and betrayals, but throwing in another initial Y series should further liven things up!