Murcielago vol. 5

It turns out that the previous volume was just a fluke and “Murcielago” isn’t done pushing buttons or the envelope just yet.  In fact, I can see the subject matter in this volume causing even more people to give up on this series altogether.  That’s because the mass murderer of choice here is one who targets little girls and discards them by choking and snapping their necks after he determines that they’re not the one he’s looking for.  The girl we saw at the end of vol. 4 is one victim of his handiwork, one more dies over the course of the volume, and we eventually find out that there have been many, many more victims in addition to them.  It’s disturbing stuff, all the more so because it’s being delivered at a point where I though the title was done trying to shock me.

The thing is, if you can get past all the dead little girls, that this awfulness makes the actual story more involving that “Murcielago” usually is.  When Kuroko’s police handlers get involved in finding out what happened to another missing little girl, she winds up investigating things as well. Though this should be a sign that things will work out all right in the end, I still couldn’t shake the fact that — given what has come before — that the kidnap victim could meet the same fate as those who had come before her.  “Murcielago” does love to push its buttons after all, regardless of how disturbing the results might be.

That tension had me reading through the volume faster than usual, while the ending…  Let’s just say that I’m still onboard the series for now even as it tries to find new and terrible ways to push me away.  On that note, the preview for vol. 6 promises the most “taboo” content yet as elementary-school-aged serial killer Rinko starts attending a new school with Kuroko overseeing things.

Then again, maybe I should take the hint…