“Kuroko’s group goes to a hot spring deep in the mountains, where the entirety of the land is owned by the wealthy Yamatsukami family. But right as the family is going to decide the next heir, the third son is found murdered… To make matters worse, the only road in and out of the area is suddenly destroyed! Cut off from the rest of the world, the family begins to whisper about a mysterious “Ayako.” With little to go on, how will Kuroko solve this closed-room case?”

Not gonna lie – that synopsis does a better job of summing up the plot of MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 20 than anything I could have written, Kudos to whomever at Yen Press was responsible for that.  ^_^

Super creepy murders, a family secret, probably someone being buried alive, Hinako running off after bugs, large breasted women…you know, a typical volume of MURCIÉLAGO.

But when Reiko, our crazy-eyed, hot sniper shows up, I wondered where this story was going. It’s not like I have to be convinced to keep reading, I’m clearly in for the whole mishegas on this. 

The extra chapter was a hoot, however, as Kutsuha, Reiko’s…whatever she is… introduces herself at the end as a variety of famous people, including a kind of Rose of Versailles’ Marie Antionette in a little tale meant to praise Reiko. These pages had me laughing out loud, all out of proportion to the actual story. I guess any humor after 170 pages of death, manipulation, lying and torture is extra funny. _^_

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – Weirdly, still mild on the sexual stuff, but murdery service is pretty high.
Yuri – 1

Overall – 7

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 21  is slated for a May release in English and has been out since March 2022 in Japanese. Volume 22 seems to be the last one available so far in Japanese so far, so we may catch up to this series this year.