Title: Astro Royale Vol. 5
Author: Ken Wakui
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Action, Supernatural
Publication Date: April 7, 2026
The Story
It’s another action-packed volume of Astro Royale because the event based on the namesake of the manga, the Astro Battle Royale, has officially begun! The prize of this tournament is a precious piece of the Daybreak Ore, and of course, anyone with an interest in it is here to try and claim it. After a rather short preliminary battle royale, we are left with 8 participants who will fight to earn the right to face off against Shikaba Yotsurugi. If they manage to beat him, they will win a piece of Daybreak Ore.
Of course, Hibaru and Terasu are among the remaining eight. While we don’t see all of the matches, we do get to see Hibaru vs Hachiku Nekosogi and Hibaru vs one of his adopted brothers, Taira. To make things rather interesting, it was announced that the Japanese Yakuza Association is sponsoring this tournament. This is the group that Hibaru’s father, Kengo, was the former leader of. Now, it is led by Yoshiki Tendo, Chairman of the Genbu Clan, Natsutora Godai, Chief Representative of the Kanetora Faction, AI Yashiro, Chairman of the Ryurin Clan, and, surprisingly, Shikaba Yotsurugi (in which the reason for why is revealed later).
Once we get through Hibaru’s matches, Shikaba proclaims that he will see him in the finals… which I guess means everyone else lost their matches, including Terasu, but all of that happened off-camera. With one obstacle left in his way, can HIbaru take the Daybreak Ore?
Characters
Before we get to the main development points, we were treated to a bit of backstory for Hibaru’s first opponent, Hachiku Nekosogi, otherwise known as Fireball Bullet. He’s a hand-to-hand combat fighter, but can manifest sparks for explosive power. While he claims that he’s fighting for his clan, he’s mainly doing it because he’s fighting for his brother, in which the clan is, essentially, holding him hostage and using that bond to control him.
We get a minor character for Terasu’s fight… Naito Saotome… some prima donna who gets his power from the cheers of girls who swoon for him. It’s just a comedy fight for entertainment purposes. Of course, with Terasu being a main character, he wins, but how he wins… well… it’s just as anti-climactic as anything I’ve ever seen.
Then, we have a ton of battles off-screen so that we can get to Taira vs Hibaru. This is where we learn a lot of backstory on the Yotsurugi family, what happened to Kengo during his final days with his illness, why Taira is following someone like Shikaba, how Shikaba ended up in his spot with the Japanese Yakuza Association, how he ended up as one of Kengo’s adopted sons, and his history with Taira before any of this even happened. It’s a HUGE lore dump that answers a lot of questions, but also raises a couple of others. One of the plots, though, just felt like a cheap way to manufacture some tension between Hibaru and Shikaba for the eventual battle with them in the finals.
Final Thoughts
I understand that this is the penultimate volume of the series; however, rushed is the word of the day when it comes to this story arc.
Samidare vs Taira
Kogane Godai vs Rikuya Goda
Winner of Kogane vs Rikuya vs the winner of Terasu vs Naito
The winners of the aforementioned previous two matches vs Hibaru, since we saw him beat Taira
All of those matches never shown, never mentioned, never even hinted at! After Hibaru beat Taira, which was a Semi-Final Match, we never saw the Finals. All we see is Shikaba saying that he’ll see Hibaru next. Unless they show the finals in the next volume, it’s just assumed that Hibaru won. What if it was Terasu? Did he have to fight the guy stuck by him? So many loopholes here. With a series this short, introducing a tournament arc in the second-to-last volume probably wasn’t the greatest of ideas because this is the situation we’re left with.
This means that in the final seven chapters that are left, we need to resolve the tournament arc, resolve the Daybreak Ore, have the final battle with HIbaru and Shio (because we all know that’s how this is going to end) and see Hibaru restore peace and changing the ways of the Yakuza (again, it’s not a spoiler because it’s painfully obvious that this is how it’s all going to go.)
The only thing that could end things on a super sour note at this point is that the final volume just doesn’t conclude. It leaves things completely open with nothing resolved. I doubt that will happen, but I’ve seen series do that before. They get canceled and don’t have the chance to finish, so everything remains wide open. Again, I don’t see that being the case here because this was a complete rush job. If I were to hazard a guess, Ken Wakui was in the middle of drawing this arc, then his editor called him and told him the news. That’s why the first couple of fights feel fleshed out, and the ending looks like someone pressed the Fast Forward button, shrugged, and said: “welp, we’re at the end.”
In any event, I’m hoping things are given the time to breathe in the last volume, but with so much left to get through, and only seven chapters to do it in… I fear that this will be another series where I have to proclaim “it had too much potential, but…”
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
