So, MURCIÉLAGO. It’s still not good by any conceivable metric. And, while it never crosses the line into actual exploitation, it gets reallllly close pretty constantly. Therefore, I am bundling MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 18 and Volume 19, as a pair, so I can binge and purge the whatever it is that keeps me coming back to this gorefest. ^_^

Volume 18 wraps up the story of Sendou, the yakuza failure who kills people with a fencing sword, as he dies pretty much as ignominiously as he deserved. Of note was the fact that Chiyo-chan and Kuroko are now so much an established couple, the mangaka immediately tires of them. ^_^

In the new arc that begins after boring adult murders, another new, creepy man preys on girls because apparently that is what adult men want to read about. That’s not weird at all or anything. And what we are given is a a love so toxic and bent that girls are dying because a bereaved father has lost his mind to grief, magically ignoring the fact that he was a shitty person in the first place, as shitty people always seem to.

Serial killers are so common in Rurie no one would probably really care all that much about this one, except that Rinko becomes involved. Rinko, you may remember was another victim of a creepy serial killer…only, in her case, her father trained her to become an assassin herself, preying on people he wanted dead. Rinko has found a loving and perfectly suitable home living with Kuroko and Hinako, and Ai. A family of mentally unstable murderers, but a loving home nonetheless.  Proof of this is Rinko attending school, making real friends including Noel, a classmate with whom Rinko is very close. And potentially growing closer. Even Kuroko notes that Rinko and Noel are heading towards more than friends. She’s chuffed that her adopted daughter is so on the team. But in between them lies a horrible secret. Rinko is the person who killed Noel’s father and she’s afraid that it will ruin their friendship…until Noel is kidnapped by the current creepy dude.

In Volume 19, Noel is exceptionally cool under pressure, in a way that I know for sure I would not be. She plays along with the kidnapper, in hopes that the longer she survives, the longer she has to find a way to escape.

Kuroko, of course, ends up seducing Noel’s mother. Because of course she does. Team Kuroko does track down Noel’s whereabouts and for the very first time in her short, violent life, Rinko is a hero as she rescues Noel. During their tearful reunion, Rinko admits the truth to Noel, who says she likes Rinko too much to ever blame her. And they go on to become besties, as one might if one lived in the capital city of serial killers, elder gods and other indescribable horrors and unspeakable terrors.

As usual the final portion of the book is tied up in whatever Hinako is thinking, which is always impenetrable.

The next volume which is out in Japanese, is set up by the reappearance of the sniper with the spiral eyes, Kuchiba Reiko. I await it with glee. Or dread. I’m not really sure which.  Gleeful dread. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – Almost none, comparatively.  How creepy is that? Some mild nudity.
Yuri – 8 

Overall – 8

 
Volume 20 is out in Japanese and will be arriving in English in October.

This manga is such a specific flavor of fucked up, I feel like I can’t really stop reading until it, or the world, ends.