Title: Mujina Into the Deep Vol. 2
Author: Inio Asano
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 199
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Dystopian, Action
Publication Date: May 20, 2025
The Story
Needing to prove herself to Nive, Ubume ends up accepting a job to assassinate the Megidos, perverted people who are apparently abusing underage children under the guise of media training. Although she was hesitant at first, once she learned that they had a high-level mujina protecting them, she felt that this was a good opportunity to get back into Nive’s good graces by proving that she could still get a job done without any issues.
Meanwhile, we have a couple of run-ins with Tenko. She meets up with Ubume and Juno at a café, and then she invites herself over to her apartment to play video games with Juno. What her goals are, aren’t truly clear; however, what we do know is that she eventually wants to kill Ubume despite being a fan of her. Juno, on the other hand, is a fan of Tenko and wants to get her autograph.
We are then taken to a brand-new character named Mai. She works at a host club and is in love with one of the customers; however, whatever hostess who gets the most tips gets to sing the final song of the night. Mai never gets that opportunity; however, a mujina does, and Reiya, the guy she’s interested in, flocks to her. So, she decides to sell her human rights and become a mujina. When she gets 200 million yen for her rights, she’s able to “buy” Reiya’s love; however, things don’t work out the way she had hoped, and she can’t get her rights back. Turning to clean boost (CB) as an answer, she becomes the very thing that she became jealous of!
While this is going on, we are also introduced to Kashio and Yuhang, two members of Public Safety who mix like oil and water. They are both summoned to be a part of Division 9 to hunt down dangerous Mujina and it appears that Ubume is first on their target list!
Characters
Some nice character development and a few new characters in this volume!
First, Tenko got a bit of development. She’s just as horny and psychotic as ever; however, it’s a natural psychosis and not a side effect of clean boost because she admits that she doesn’t touch the stuff. So, she’s just naturally messed up! Sounds like an Inio Asano character to me! It’s a bit strange that she would continue to interact and hang out with Ubume when she wants to kill her, but she’s also her fan? Maybe it’s some kind of weird murderous affection that she has for her, or maybe there is another reason. After all, she is encroaching on Ubume’s territory as a mujina and even caused her to fall out of Nive’s favor by stealing a job from her. She is quite the unpredictable loose cannon!
Ubume doesn’t get much in the way of development. She does want to redeem herself with Nive for messing up the job that Tenko got involved in, which is why she took the Megidos job for free. Both smart and stupid at the same time because she didn’t get paid for the job, which did nothing to help her 800 million debt for the rights card, but it did raise her rank and now she’ll get more jobs which will pay. Risk versus reward at its finest.
Juno is being forced to get a job after some “modifications’ were made to the public records, and she became Terumi’s official daughter. Nothing like a little black market adoption! She’s continuing to be a brat and more of a free spirit, but she does break down and get a job… at a bar. I mean, it’s better than nothing, right?
Now, we have our new characters, with the first being Mai. She’s just a hostess who is sick of not being able to pull her weight at the club. Her jealousy over the mujina who has everyone’s attention forces her to sell human rights, all for a customer that she naively fell in love with. Of course, he takes her home when she has money, but as soon as he finds out she’s a mujina, he freaks out, making her regret her decision. When she goes back to the dealer to get her rights back, he’s willing to sell it back to her at double the price! Without having 400 million, she turns to clean boost and now becomes another mujina that Ubume may have to contend with… especially since they discover that she has a knack for being an assassin and they want her to have a duel against a certain someone (not Ubume!)
Lastly, we have Kashio and Yuhang from public service. Kashio is quite the laid-back person, while Yuhang is strict and quite ruthless. When he leads a mujina raid, he makes it clear that women and children are not to be given special treatment, and lethal force is authorized for the slightest bit of resistance. Kashio, on the other hand, likes to use his smooth talking and gilded tongue to try and convince mujina to give themselves up. He almost has one do so until Yuhang just comes up and shoots her because he feels Kashio is wasting too much time. They don’t enjoy working together, but are being forced to, which is going to make them a dangerous duo and a good source of comedic relief from time to time.
Final Thoughts
The second volume picked up a bit and felt a lot more like an Inio Asano story. Random acts of crudeness, characters just blurting things out without any filters, and some nice intertwining plots are had here… all hallmarks of Inio Asano’s storytelling style. The first volume had some hints and traces of it, but the second volume brings us back to that classic Asano style I’ve been looking forward to reading in this new series.
Even though Ubume is the main character, she did take a bit of a backseat for about two-thirds of the volume, but that’s fine because it allowed for the series to do a bit of world-building along with some character development. We received a few more characters in return and still furthered Ubume’s journey of redemption to get back into Nive’s good graces. We also saw just how savage Nive could be… especially when it came to their, now, 798 million yen debt. (Hey! It’s going down!)
Overall, it looks like things are about to get interesting. Mai looks to take center stage in the next volume, and we will see a bit more of Ubume since she is the Mujina of Interest for this story arc. I have a feeling that Mai isn’t going to get killed off. She might end up at Terumi’s apartment along with Ubume and Juno… then again… the person she’s supposed to duel might not be so lenient, but we’ll see. As for Ubume being the Mujina of Interest, it means we’ll see more of Kashio and Yuhang. Whether or not they make their move right away remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I can see Ubume and Mai’s arcs taking up the entirety of the third volume. Guess we’ll have to wait to find out if I’m right.
Good stuff!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
