Murcielago vol. 4

Could it be?  A volume of “Murcielago” that doesn’t contain anything to aggravate or offend me and focuses only on providing gleefully violent fanservice?  Well, you could argue that there’s some transphobia in the representation of the figurehead of the cult at the center of this volume and Kuroko engages in some more questionable behavior with Rinko in this volume as well.  Even if you can’t completely discount these things they’re either a minor or fleeting part of vol. 4 which is close enough for me to call it a win after vols. 1-3.

The main story, which involves Kuroko infiltrating an all-female cult to rescue one of its members, does offer an interesting twist on how you’d expect this story to go.  Most “infiltrating a cult” stories tend to hinge on the protagonist being strong-willed enough to resist or eventually overcome the brainwashing they’re subjected to.  In the case of Kuroko, she willingly submits to the cult’s embrace because they not only tempt her with the promise of being able to have sex with every girl there, but the biggest, blondest, and breastiest girl there all but throws herself at our protagonist.  It’s no surprise to see Kuroko get flipped to the other side — she’s being offered to live in her own kind of paradise.

Of course, when her yakuza girlfriend Chiyo finds out about this she grabs her katana and heads straight to the cult’s headquarters, with dim-witted “ninja” Hinako as company, to get her woman back.  Even if the results aren’t as action-packed as I would’ve liked, the story still manages a decent amount of suspense as I was wondering how it was going to resolve itself right up to the climax.  So yeah, vol. 4 is an improvement over what has come before.  Now let’s see if mangaka Yoshimurakana can keep the upward trend going through vol. 5.