A manga by Oishi Romy and Meshe

When I last looked at a chapter of Lockdown Zone Level X, I was speculating on exactly what was happening with the newest version of “X” (pronounced “Sai”), the adversary that keeps changing forms in this story. For those coming in late to these reviews, this manga involves a “Groundhog Day Loop” wherein the two main characters, Ryoka and Shuhei, keep waking up in the middle of an attack by some monstrous force. It starts out as a chameleon looking creature on the roof of an apartment building, then an eyeless stalker with sharp blades, and now a form known as “Hansel and Gretel”. As the heroes move up in the building or defeat a version of “X”, they seem to move onto a new level, as if in a videogame.

“There is a new version of Sai for Ryoka and Shuhei to defeat, but this new one might come out of a Grimm Fairy Tale. Who is the main character in this tale and will the pair be able to overcome the wicked witch?”

I speculated that Hansel and Gretel were the monsters, but it appears I was wrong. They appear to be another pair of people stuck in the loop and being stalked by a HUGE monster that looks like a wicked witch. This could still turn out to be a ruse, but seeing that one of the children gets eaten here, I would be surprised. Now having to try to keep two additional people alive against a foe that traps people in invisible wires then eats their heads is going to be tough.

We don’t get much here in terms of seeing the heroes fight back, but if this follows the patterns that previous chapters have been using, we should see a better plan come up, then possibly a retaliation in the chapter after that. In some ways, this comic is a bit too “episodic” in many ways and becomes predictable in terms of how these creatures are handled, but who knows, they could change it up.

This is one of the more interesting chapters of Lockdown Zone Level X chiefly because the way in which “X” attacks the heroes is somewhat more sophisticated than before, and is starting to veer away from a “giant monster of the week” format into a more cerebral format. We still don’t exactly know what is going on here, so I am excited to read more. This manga can be purchased by chapter on Amazon in a release format that seems somewhat irregular. Once I get to chapter 11, that appears to be everything available currently, so I may end up having to slow down substantially afterwards. We shall see, and I will try my best to keep these going.