Manga: Aoharu X Machinegun 14

Aoharu X Machinegun Vol 14
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Toy*Gun Gun claims victory in their second match at the TGC! But when Matsuoka is told he must go to the hospital, their win may be short-lived, as their team would fail to meet the three-member requirement without him! Also off his game is the usually invincible Midori, who gets the wind knocked out of him by a vengeful figure from his past during Star White's second match. With both team leaders the worse for wear, will both Toy*Gun Gun and Star White be able to make it through to the next round, let alone the finals?! 

Of course Toy Gun Gun's victory is short lived, what with Matsuoka getting injured and not being able to compete! Luckily just before they have to forfeit Haruki finally decides to show up, like....take your time dude. But the three of them have to go in to their next battle without Matsuoka and try to win for when he comes back! I have to say I was living for Tachibana lowkey bonding with the 11 Dogs brothers at the beginning of this volume! 

TGG's next opponent left me screaming, because I loved Captain Sagara and her two teammates the last time we saw them. They are Wage Slave, and this time round we get to take a look at a hostage match, and switch things up with an urban setting, once again keeping this competition fresh and providing more to intrigue us. It also seems there's some dissension in the ranks of Wage Slave, which meant we got to take a closer look at Sagura, Yukawa and Koumoto's lives, which shed some more light on to the dynamic of their team. 

While this is going on Star White have their next match too, and they're up against Dagger Snake who specialise in hand to hand combat and wow.....they straight up took Midori down and I was shook. I enjoyed switching between both of the matches, it was done to leave you wanting more and excitedly turning the pages. 

Perhaps the most excitement from this volume comes from finally finding out what happened with Midori and Matsuoka when they where on Agartha, and why exactly Midori decided to cut ties with Matsuoka. Holy wow, it had me looking at Midori in another light, I thought he was a bit of an a-hole for how he treated Matsuoka but seeing his reasoning behind it...bless him. He's still a bit...odd at points but he did it with good intentions. I liked getting to see more of the relationship between the two of them, but getting to explore Midori's character and motivations a bit more was a highlight of this volume for me. 

We also have Haruki's dad make an appearance at the competition thanks to his twin Haruka, to watch the match and watch Haruki be team leader. We do get some insight in to their dad which goes some way to letting you understand him a bit, but at least things do get resolved for the better. 

This volume has the usual action and we get to see a few twists and tense moments, but it's also eye opening when it comes to getting to know the characters as we delve in to the background and motivations of multiple characters which adds some intrigue alongside the battle heavy-ness of the volume.