Two-and-a-half years ago, I discussed Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General, (cripes that title) Volume 1. Well, now we're up to volume 6. Jin has been slowly expanding the fictional world since then. Adding other villain organizations that had loose cooperative relationships with RX, as well as a larger hero organization that Braveman is part, including some trainee heroes. Volume 4 revealed there was another, far more covert villain organization that infiltrated the heroes and crippled them, forcing the General and the rest of the RX Organization (now up to 12 members) to actually save the city.
Then Jin spent what felt like 90% of volume 5 making tentacle sex jokes after Scientist-San's tentacle monster took human form (now called X-Chan) and became infatuated with the rebellious teenage son of one of the city's greatest heroes. Fortunately, Jin mostly leaves that behind in volume 6.
Look, I said mostly. There's only two bits about it in this volume, thank goodness, as Jin seems more interested in setting some things up for whatever is coming next. One of those is that the police have established their own squad to deal with villains and monsters, since confidence in the heroes isn't real high. We only meet two of them, a rabbit in a trenchcoat and fedora, and his partner, a loud, hyperactive lady with superpowers and an extremely revealing costume. I don't care much about that, with the rabbit going on about how in his eyes, the heroes are just as bad as the villains. OK, thanks Gyrich, fuck off.
The other development is that more members of the shadowy villain organization pop up, including a scientist who cloned the General after being impressed with her energy and abilities. Ultimately three of the clones escape and try to decide what to do next. Which leads to them trashing the General's reputation as they are introduced to the harsh realities of capitalism.
That part works better for me, because the clones, even when they're the focus, don't seem to hijack the story as much as the cops. The rabbit just keeps talking and no one gets a chance to rebut anything. With the clones, there's an opportunity for back-and-forth, which works more to a comedy angle. The rabbit cop and his hyperactive partner aren't very amusing. Plus, it gives the general an opportunity to show that she's not a particularly evil person, just obsessed enough with Braveman to make really bad decisions.
Beyond that, it's a lot of brief one-off chapters, mostly about different relationships between coworkers. One chapter is all the henchmen and Scientist-San's creations having a private party/bull session. Or the General trying to learn hypnosis, and accidentally making Secertary-Sama confess her feelings for their leader. Braveman agrees to test a new energy drink a scientist in their organization devised, which makes him susceptible to suggestion and nets the General a date. A couple of trainee heroes spot the General on her day off, and tail her because they suspect she's up to no good. Basic set-ups that allow for a variety of jokes. Some meta, some lewd, some just people behaving like morons.
For the most part, despite their various hang-ups Jin depicts the RX group as being fairly tightknit, which I really like. The Boss isn't some brutal overlord, he's actually sort of a putz, but one who works a part-time job to try and help fund their schemes. Secretary seems cold and businesslike, but other than certain breaches of etiquette, she handles being surrounded by morons pretty well. They're allegedly villains, but other than the General making Braveman's life hell, they don't really do anything evil. But you can see how the work environment would convince them to stick around, despite everything else.
I was wondering, after volume 5, if I just needed to give up on this series. If Jin was going to spend all his time on tentacle jokes, I was done. This volume was a nice return to form, and hopefully he can build from here in volume 7, which comes out in this fall.
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