I’ve never reviewed Volume 12 of MURCIÉLAGO because it’s probably one volumes with the least lesbian content in the series. It does, however, contain a tale of obsessive love that, while incredibly bizarre, is not at all creepy (in the sense of it being straight up horror and not sexual in any way.)

Someone is killing the traditional swordmasters of Japan. Kuroko and the gang are called into to track down the killer, who appears to be a phantasm. In actual fact, she is a phantasm, the soul of a deeply broken woman who would have been the greatest sword wielder had she lived. Instead, killed by her sister, she has possessed her sister’s body and in enacting her vendetta. To combat her, Kuroko challenges her to a duel, but Kuroko may have, at last, met her match.

This volume still has more straight up action than almost any previous volume, which is both really interesting and not at all interesting, as the art is less worried about the specifics than the general effect.

A short epilogue lets us join in with Kuroko as she takes sniper Reiko out for some new clothes. We get to see Reiko play dress up and are left knowing that she’s buying them for her girlfriend, which is the only Yuri we get in the volume, but I’ll take all the Reiko I can get. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 For this series, it’s quite good
Story – Same as above
Characters – 8
Service – 3
Yuri – 1

Overall – 8

An even more action-packed and fight-filled volume of MURCIÉLAGO than usual.

Next up, we’re gettin’ weird. Again. ^_^

In a world where almost everything is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s Chthulu Mythos and all bad guys are deranged, and violence is almost always the answer, “horror” becomes relative.

In MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 11, horror is indeed relative…and also relative. The Deep One arc, which began with a giant shark, ends up as it inevitably must, in a lab where human brains are stored. The arc allows us to get an unusual glimpse into Tsuru’s past. It will come as no surprise, I hope, that it is filled with horror, while the deeply broken priest and his mother decay into even more gibbering madness than ever.

(It suddenly dawns on me that I have lost a great number of opportunities to write reviews of this series in Lovecraftian patois. I am saddened by the loss. I can’t do anything about it now and the next few volumes aren’t conducive. Bleah. I’ll just have to wait for another opportunity.)

We all get an unexpected few days off, filled with sea slugs and bonding with murderous children and ugly lesbian sex before the new arc picks up. When it does, we probably could not have expected that it would be a young woman possessed by the spirit of a master swordsman. But, it is.

Ratings:

Art – As I said in my review of the Japanese Volume 11, you have got to know what you’re in for by now
Story – Same as above
Characters – 8 Cheerful psychopaths, ftw
Service – 9 Sea Slugs and ugly lesbian sex
Yuri – 9 Ugly lesbian sex ftw

Overall – 8

I know I keep telling you I love this series. I adore the bizarro deaths, the creepy complications, the hideous monsters, the ugly lesbian sex and the fact that a psychopathic lesbian and her pack of cheerfully amoral, exceptionally violent friends are the protagonists. As the author never hesitates to remind us – there are no good guys here. Only good bad guys.

Thanks very much to Yen Press for the review copy. It’s always such a pleasure to read this series. Except when it isn’t. ^_^

We are fairly far in to this series now, so if you’re just tuning in to the this blog and have never heard of this “violence Yuri” manga by Yoshimurakana, you might not understand from anything I am about to say what this manga is about. So let me be plain – this manga is about a psychopathic predatory lesbian and her harem of sociopaths and murderers who all kill people that the police can’t quite stop. Breasts are huge, the lesbian sex is atrociously ugly and the means by which people die are creative and bloody.

In MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 9, the gang takes a stand against The Sakura Pruning Group – a terrorist relic of World War 2 – in the sewers. After which we all go fishing because that is totally a great way to blow off steam after a below-the city battle to the death. And some ugly lesbian sex on the beach for Chiyo and Kuroko. Joining the is former Virginal Rose student Narumi, who was fought to a standstill by Chiyo.

After which Hinako’s dream comes true and she gets to fight a giant robot in a robot of her own. This story adds a mad scientist to our roster of killers and crazies. This can’t be a bad thing.

And finally we get a couple of shorts, including one about a well-matched pair of incestuous sisters, notable mostly because it has some of the least ugly lesbian sex in the series.

It’s a volume jam packed with violence, and death, murderers and thugs and whatever Hinako is and ugly lesbian sex. In other words, a good strong volume of MURCIÉLAGO.

Ratings:

Art – How can one even judge the art? Good? Bad? Both?
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – 9
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Still probably my favorite volume since the Virginal Rose arc and I’m with Hinako – giant robots are just what this series needed. Next volume, a giant shark!