“Mech Cadet Yu” #12 marks the end of Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa series, and the final battle for Yu, his team of mech cadets, and the entire world. Read on for our review, but beware, as there will be some spoilers for this final issue!
Written by Greg Pak
Illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa
Colored by Raúl Angulo
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Stanford and the other cadets will rely on all their training to try and save the world in the final issue of the critically acclaimed, fan-favorite series.
Since the series began, “Mech Cadet Yu” has always been about the bonds between the different characters. The first arc, when it was still just a four-issue mini-series, was all about Yu becoming accepted by his other cadets and bonding together as a team. As the series has gone on, it has become more and more about the bonds between pilots and their mechs. Specifically, the relationship between Yu and his mech, Buddy, and the relationship between Park and her mech, Hero Force.
It’s been an interesting emotional heart for the series, and Greg Pak’s scripts have done a good job of weaving the emotional, character beats into a story that never once stops being fun and action packed. However, when the focus has landed on the bond between mechs and their pilots, the series has never worked quite as well as that original four issue mini-series, where it was about Yu and his other mech cadets coming to terms with one another.
Part of that is because the robots never speak. They aren’t ever given defined enough personalities that it makes sense that they should be treated like people. The story seems to be arguing that there is something inherently sentient about these massive mechs, and that it is wrong to treat them simply as tools, however, the script never gives them enough to do to really show that they aren’t just robots. We never get to know the mechs enough to have a deep bond to who they are, or what their personalities might be. The mech that the series got us closest to was Buddy, and even with Buddy, there is still some distance. He makes noise, but he never really seems like more than Yu’s pet.
The times when the connection between Yu and Buddy do feel real, it almost entirely comes down to the way that they are portrayed together physically. Takeshi Miyazawa draws some fantastic robots. The designs for all of the mechs look fantastic. There is a simplicity to the lines of the mechs that is combined with the wear and tear Miyazawa gives them, that gives all of the mechs an aesthetic I can’t get enough of.
The coloring, by Raúl Angulo, helps to cement that worn-down aesthetic on all of the mechs. Angulo’s coloring matches Miyazawa’s simple lines, giving all of the mechs and their characters bright, simple, primary colors, which makes the mechs stand out during the action scenes, and makes all of the art easily legible. Angulo’s colors make the already dynamic art colorful and expressive, are really well done throughout.
For the relationships between the human characters and their mechs, Miyazawa does this almost entirely through scale, positioning and angles. The mechs themselves never actually emote, which can make it hard to understand how they are feeling. But the way Miyazawa frames the human characters next to their mechs, or the angles at which they are drawn, is almost enough to bring out the emotion from the static faces of these mechs. There is a body language that imbues the mechs with almost enough life that they feel like actual people.
And yet, it’s that word, almost, that is most important. The connections between the pilots and their mechs never come together enough that when one of the mechs dies, as it does in this final issue (I won’t spoil which one) it doesn’t so much feel like a living character that is sacrificing itself as it does a character’s favorite car getting crashed. Which, unfortunately, is the almost immediately replaced with the a newer, more powerful, even fancier mech.
I have a hard time being this negative about the series. This is a series that, I have loved pretty consistently since its beginning. And even in this final issue, I think there are still things to love. The final sequence of the issue returns to the bonds that were most important in the original mini-series, that of Yu and his other cadets, which gives the entire series a good, emotionally fulfilling ending. And on top of that, the actual action sequences in this issue are a ton of fun. Which is something I don’t want to downplay, as fun mech action is definitely one of the main, important draws of this series. Though the ending to the beg climactic battle does feel a tad anti-climactic.
At the end of the day, “Mech Cadet Yu” #12 is a bittersweet final issue. For one, it brings this series to a close, which makes me sad that I won’t be able to read any more of it. It feels like “Mech Cadet Yu” never quite lived up to the promise of the series. It’s really disappointing for me that the connections between the cadets and their mechs were never fully fleshed out, and now will never get the chance to be. But, as a whole, for fun mech action, this is a series that was a ton of fun, and “Mech Cadet Yu” #12 is no exception.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – In its final issue, “Mech Cadet Yu” doesn’t quite stick the landing but is still able to provide a very enjoyable ride.