Okay, this series is just big dumb fun. When I say "dumb," I don't mean stupid, I just mean not deep. And that works for me! I'm here mostly for the shit-talking (of which there is plenty), but the fighting is pretty fun too. In this volume we learn the outcome of Thor vs. Lu Bu, a fight with an explosive finish. Then, after the arena has been cleaned up and repaired, Round Two begins. The contenders? None other than Adam, the progenitor of humans, and Zeus, the progenitor of the gods! I was wondering about some of the humans on the list of contestants, what powers they would end up having to make them candidates for Ragnarok, and Adam's makes so much sense that I'm annoyed with myself for not thinking of it! This volume ends with the bout *looking* like it's over, but we all know how that usually goes. I'm honestly enjoying this series more than I thought I would! I appreciate that it doesn't DBZ the fights - they're fairly quick and to the point, not dragged out pointlessly, and there's a good amount of snark flung about for laughs. I can't think of anything I dislike about it so far, and I'm looking forward to the next volume!

#RecordofRagnarokVol2 #NetGalley

Thor vs Lu Bu concludes in Volume 2 of Ragnarok with Thor finally victorious. Round 2 is supposed to be Shiva vs a human, but Zeus decides to intervene and move himself up the schedule. So Round 2 is Zeus vs Adam, the first human. And what a fight this turns out to be! Surprisingly close, Brunhilde chose a very stealth candidate. It will be interesting to see what comes up in the next round!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this volume!

This was a really fun volume! We finished the first round of fighting, started and finished round two. I can't wait to see who's fighting in volume three!

Record of Ragnarok Volume Two concludes the battle between Thor and Lu Bu, and the second battle of Ragnarok begins.

Record of Ragnarok Volume Two
Written by: Shinya Umemura and Takumi Fukui
Publisher: COAMIX, Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: April 19, 2022

The first two chapters focus on the ongoing battle between Thor and Lu Bu. Right at first, each time that it looks like Thor is going to win, something happens that allows Lu Bu to continue. Overall, these first two chapters are a rather quick read due to all of the action associated with the battle. Lu Bu has a very impressive final move, and I appreciated getting to see a flashback of how he developed his weapon in order to come up with his final move. Unfortunately, though, it’s just not quite enough to keep Lu Bu in the fight. But considering he was a human up against a god like Thor, he actually did a lot better than the gods (or anyone else, really) thought he could. Unfortunately, this was still a loss, so it’s not a great start for trying to save the existence of the human race. I will give a brief content warning for this battle and say that the depiction of Lu Bu’s defeat is on the gory side.

It’s up to Brunhilde to choose the next fighter for Ragnarok. The person she picks is a bit of a surprise at first, but after she explains her choice and we see the actual battle, it makes sense. Her choice: Adam (the first man). Out of all the people on the human fighter list, he would be the one who would have the most reason to hate gods. But when Adam makes his appearance in the ring, though, I almost laughed. In this series, Adam is given a “bishonen” look, and all he’s wearing is a strategically placed leaf. You can’t blame the gods for wondering why this scrawny guy who doesn’t look terribly strong has been called to fight.

Adam was supposed to battle the Hindu god, Shiva. However, there’s a change in plans with Zeus interferes and forces his way into the battle. Wow, Zeus is…… something else. He’s an old man who tries to make a “flashy” entrance into the ring, and he comes across as an old guy who’s “trying too hard to be hip.” That had to be kind of embarrassing for the gods to witness. And I can’t blame Brunhilde for getting pissed that Zeus went out into the battle, especially with that display he put on.

But this means that the second battle turns out to be against the father of man and the father of the gods. Before their fight begins, Adam merges with Reginleif, the seventh Valkyrie sister, and this gives him brass knuckles for his weapon. It turns out Zeus is going to fight bare handed, so this ends up being a better weapon for Adam than anyone initially expected. Their fight goes for the remainder of the volume, but it turns out it’s not going to be as easy for Zeus and he expects, because Adam has an ability that no one is aware of, and it’s actually pretty impressive. I don’t want to spoil the explanation, so all I will say is that when you read the explanation, it makes perfect sense. It appears the winner of this battle is decided at the end of Volume Two, but there’s always the chance that the one who’s down may not necessarily stay down when the action in Volume Three commences.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Record of Ragnarok Volume Two, although I still can’t get over the design choice for Adam. To be honest, I hadn’t expected him to be portrayed with a “bishonen” look. I wasn’t expecting a buff guy or anything, but I was expecting him to be a little more… “average.”

The ending of the Thor and Lu Bu fight was the realistic way to conclude it. While I was cheering for Lu Bu, I knew deep down that there was no way that he could possibly win against Thor. There were a lot of action panels included throughout this volume for both of the fights, but there was also just enough character development and explanations included to balance out the action.

If you’ve read and enjoyed the first volume of Record of Ragnarok, then I think you will be satisfied with how the story continues in Volume Two.

This volume is literally crammed full of action and even though it’s not the art style I usually enjoy, I’m really blown away by the detail and the way the battle scenes are drawn!

The second volume, while sill maintaining the interesting art, isn't any better than the first. This series is all yelling, bombastic id. It's trying to appear to be edgy and hard core but just doesn't land it for me. I'm sure there is an audience for this, but I won't be reading more.

This volume finishes the Thor/ Lu Bu fight in the first volume and graces us with the glorious absurdity that is Adam versus Zeus. Between Hermes rocking out on the violin to power Zeus up, (And Mozart is there, too, I guess,) to Adam's surprising powerset. This is still proving to be a fun and engaging action story. If the first battle was about humans and deities finding worthy rivals in one another this one sets up a battle of ideals.

Amazing! Even better than the first. More surprising, still a lot of action and the pattern of the series just look like it could almost go on forever and still be amazing at every volume!

Simple, yet clever. This series is going to become a new addiction. Looking forward to putting it in the hands of readers who are caught up on their favorite shonen and want something new.