Murcielago vol. 9

Do you know what “Murcielago” has been missing up until now?  If you said, “Giant Robots,” then this is the volume for you! Is it the volume for me, though?  While I’d never accuse “Murcielago” of being realistic in any fashion, the presence of mecha does threaten to break the particular kind of suspension of disbelief that it has built up over eight previous volumes.  I can’t complain too much because the fight that results from the evil scientist in a giant robot and Hinako’s dumpling robo (trust me, just go with it…) is pretty damn spectacular. Honestly, the scale and spectacle of the mechanized throwdown is impressive enough to make me think that mangaka Yoshimurakana should go full sci-fi and make it the focus of her next series.  I’d even go so far as to say she should take on a “Gundam” manga, if it weren’t for the fact that they’ve got standards as far as their fanservice is concerned. Yoshimurakana, as we’ve seen MANY times before, clearly does not as she demonstrates again in this volume’s bonus story.

In fact, the action is once again the main draw of this volume as the first couple of chapters deal with wrapping up the previous storyline in dynamic fashion.  Kuroko finally has it out with Higaki, the leader of the Sakura Pruning Group, in an exciting swordfight that contains a “Made you look,” moment that other creators can definitely learn from.  We even get some more hints towards the main plot of the series and our first look at its mastermind. Crazy as it may sound, it seems as if there has been a method to Yoshimurakana’s madness and that every story in this series to date is connected here.  Yes, even the one in this volume about the giant robots. Same goes for the mystery of Hinako’s origins as well, though given the character’s generally annoying presence the mangaka has some work ahead of her to convince me that it’s not going to be completely dumb.