Title: Queen’s Quality Vol. 22
Author: Kyousuke Motomi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
Publication Date: May 6, 2025
The Story
We wrap up the backstory involving Kaede, Fumi’s mother. Once Tsubasa recounts everything through the Silver Snake’s point of view, we rejoin Kyutarou as they wrap up their conversation with the White Cat. Suddenly, Kyutarou bursts into tears as his mind is still linked with Fumi. Her memories returned, and she remembered everything that happened with her mother and how she sacrificed everything, including her life, to protect her. Kyutarou excuses himself to check on Fumi, and we get a bit of a time skip.
The Silver Snake had fully consumed Tsubasa; however, he wasn’t content with keeping his vessel. He went into a deep coma so that he could look for Tsubasa’s essence and return it to his body. Since it would be an undetermined amount of time before he would find Tusbasa’s essence, they admitted him to a hospital to help keep his body healthy. With that out of the way, the White Queen makes a sudden appearance and tells Fumi about the door that leads to the casket as if it were some sort of invitation. Despite knowing the risks, they decide that The Casket is the place they need to head next.
Once inside, they are greeted by The White Snake, the true form of The White Queen. She puts them through a test before divulging her past, who she was, and what she has become!
Characters
There was a LOT of character development in this volume… starting out with Kaede. We wrapped up her backstory and how The White Queen gave her enough of her power so that she could protect Fumi, knowing full well that she would become the next vessel for the queen. We learned that this left The White Queen as a dormant shell within Fumi. She was incubating inside of her, regaining her strength. Later on in the volume, when they enter the casket, the White Queen explained that during this time, she saw Fumi’s heart and how she was different from her previous vessels. She didn’t bring despair to the world, which was the wish of The White Snake, but instead, she resonated with people’s emotions, and that, in turn, infused a bit of emotion and humanity into The White Snake, changing their outlook on things forever.
As for the rest of The White Queen’s development, she recounted her history, what the ancient humans were like, and how vessel after vessel all turned out to be the same. She also explained how she got locked inside of the casket and that the White Queen was simply an avatar she created since she couldn’t directly interact with the human world while imprisoned. Tsubasa/The Silver Snake also talked about some of the power The White Queen has, which, if I must say, is quite an overpowered ability, but I can see how Fumi could use it in more creative and alternative ways.
As far as The White Cat is concerned, we knew already that it was an essence of Kaede; however, we learned how The White Cat was created/came to be.
Silver Snake changing his mind and wanting to give Tsubasa his body back proves that snakes don’t need to devour everything. When Silver was able to fulfill Tsubasa’s wish, his wish was fulfilled too, and it changed him, but in the same way that the White Snake changed after being infused with a bit of humanity. I’m starting to see the connection here of how snakes change their perspectives. Perhaps, they just need to be infused with humanity and emotion to come around. We also saw this with The Black Snake/Kyutarou as well.
As with Fumi, she has all of her memories back now. Even though it left her in an emotionally rough state, it also steeled her and made her stronger… so much so that she didn’t have any hesitation about wanting to open the casket and peer inside… even if it meant that it would most likely be a trap to draw Yanagi and K out of hiding. It shows just how much she has grown since the early days of this series!
Overall Thoughts
I truly believe that all of the pieces of the lore are in place now. If there is more lore/backstory to tell, it would only be tying up loose ends. We’ve reached our final destination with opening The Casket, and now that we’ve learned what The White Snake/Queen is, was, and has become, the only thing we need to do is take down Yanagi and end things once and for all. Of course, opening the casket is like sending up a massive signal flare, so there is no doubt that he is already on the move. Whether or not the final battle will take place inside of The Casket, the real world, or within a dimension created by The White Queen’s power remains to be seen.
There are still three volumes left to go with this series, so anything is possible. I do believe The White Queen has more story to tell, although I don’t know what more needs to be said. Everyone’s identity and past are out in the open now. Even with The White Queen’s backstory, we learned the true nature of The Black Snake and why she tried to kill Kyutarou when she was awakened. But the way she is now, it’s obvious that she could be seen as an ally rather than an enemy. I guess the only missing piece of the puzzle is why Yanagi wanted The White Snake/Queen. Perhaps he wanted the Despair that she could bring, but now that she’s different, would he try to take her power for his own and bring Despair back? For what reason?
Once the final battle approaches, I’m sure we’ll get the evil villain dialogue before the fighting starts. The last bit of information we need to complete this story is coming!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
