Completely surrendering to his monomania, General Wodan throws out all subterfuge and resolves to just crush his problems in a big robot.  With an insane general rampaging the responsibility of stopping him and ending his Valhalla falls to: a human girl, her robot protector, a living camera and an opposing commander with seriously bruised special shock-absorption padding.  

The first half of Volume 4, Born to Lose, is the conclusion to the Valhalla arc. It unfortunately suffered due to real-world circumstances. Takaki was seriously ill during this period so it is not surprising that the ultimate showdown with Wodan is underwhelming. Especially compared to Chrome’s pervious fight with Hildr. While perfectly understandable why this would be the case it is still a disappointment.  Especially as Wodan’s total abandonment of subtlety removes his only interesting traits in favour of just being a loud obstacle for our heroes, one that refuses to muster up the creativity to say anything entertaining as he fights. 

Takaki’s health issues also explain why afterwards the series slows down to softly reset before moving into a new arc. During this acclimatisation period Takaki’s discussions of artificial life focus less on abstract ideas and instead focuses on the possibility for humans to transcend the limits of health to become lifeforms able to pursue their ambitions forever.  The section feels a lot more personal and more keenly thought out than other debates in the series. 

This new arc introduces Heaven Land figures R and D (haha) who reveal they have split opinions on the 12-year old Roue, as the last human could reshape or destroy their community. Leading both of them to make her future a game: R deploys her Elephant Unit to kill Roue while D mobilises his Donkey Squad to escort her as an honoured guest.  

Regretfully the weakest volume of Heart Gear so far but still containing promise.  Both with a new suite of characters and with the author finally being able to articulate his bigger ideals as more than set dressing for action scenes.  Still featuring the author’s stylistic flourishes that make the journey interesting to look at; Heart Gear is hovering around the point where it will lose me but still has not convinced me to do so.