Y: The Last Man, Volume 8: Kimono Dragons
Yorick, 355, Allison, and Rose have finally reached Japan. Allison and Rose stay in Yokogata to check out Allison's mother's old lab, figuring it can't be a coincidence that Ampersand was brought through here, and 355 and Yorick head to Tokyo to follow his signal. Allison and Rose find Allison's mother, but Toyota found her first. She stabs Rose through the stomach and takes Allison's mother hostage, saying she wants Ampersand, and now it's Allison's job to find him. Meanwhile, Yorick and 355 get mixed up in the Japanese mafia, which is now being run by a coked up former Canadian pop star named Epiphany who has an unnatural attachment to Ampersand. The character bits in this one were great -- especially all the stuff with 355 and Yorick, who finally open up to each other and let all their crap out -- but the rest of it feels like the last couple volumes have, like Vaughan is more concerned with moving the pieces into place than he is with character, with literally moving the characters from location to location. It's still absurdly readable, but the depth is largely gone. (Luckily, I know it comes back with a vengeance in the last two volumes.)
The volume closes out with two one-shots. The first, "The Tin Man," finally gives us Allison's backstory, delving into her family history with both her mother and father, and her troubled relationship with America, her sexuality, and her controlling emotionless father. Gehenna finishes up the backstory delving by telling us about Alter's past. It makes her slightly more relatable, but I still find Alter to be an incredibly frustrating character that I think the story could have done without.