Dai Dark vol. 9

Damemaru is back on the team and to celebrate, he takes Sanko out for the best udon in the galaxy! Then, it’s back to trying to figure out the mystery of Zolar – until something even more mysterious comes up.  While researching the history of “Zaha Sanko” in the galaxy, the one we know finds an instance where someone may have actually been granted a wish due to his bones.  So the Four Little Shits take a detour to investigate it the only way they know how:  Through shopping and murder sprees!  It works, too, as Shimada Death finds a clue to what they’re looking for on the cover of a heavy metal album.  Meanwhile, Inapika Viper and Taytor Hassoku are struggling with their various research projects for Photosfere.  Never fear, however, as they’ll just need to throw more (living/dead) bodies at their problems until a solution reveals itself!

There’s less wheel-spinning here than there was last time, even though it still feels like “Dai Dark” has lost a good deal of the momentum it once had.  I’m not going to say that it isn’t fun seeing our protagonists buy all sorts of weird stuff of varying usefulness, murder a whole bunch of evil weirdos, and see Damemaru die at least once in this volume.  Yet there’s always the feeling that this series could devolve into nothing but random bits of fun dragged down by drawn-out plotting as its predecessor did.  Connecting the stuff with Inapika and Taytor to the main plot would certainly help, but it appears that I may just have to content myself with seeing Shimada Sanko (or is it Zaha Death – now with extra Hole in Chest action either way) tracking down Misetani Box in vol. 10 to finally see what her deal is.