Murcielago vol. 18

This series has been treading the waters of “Not as Good as it Once Was” for a good long while now.  I keep waiting for it to either step up its storytelling game or to give us some signs of its old, nasty self that thrived on shock value.  What I was not expecting was for the series to deliver both of these things in this volume.

Let’s start with the wrap-up to “The Magic-Bullet Archer” which gave us a previous-volume cliffhanger as Hikaru’s other personality asserted itself against rapier-wielding serial killer Hazuki.  There’s not really a fight… but things get incredibly bloody regardless thanks to the killer’s vivid imagination.  Mangaka Yoshimurakana does a great job of utilizing the violence here in a psychological way that expertly ratchets up the tension and showcases Hazuki’s disintegrating mind.  Figuratively, and literally!  I was surprised by what I read and this marked a great start to this volume.  

It’s followed by a transitional chapter that ends on a grim note.  That would be the discovery of a brutal family murder where the daughter was killed slowly while her father was made to watch.  While it’s clear that this is the work of the main storyline’s new psychopath, things jump quickly over to its other focus.  That would be the new transfer student at Rinko’s elementary school, Noel.  She’s a very classy girl who becomes fast friends with the reformed murderer.  The thing is, she’s got a secret that only the audience is aware of:  Rinko killed her dad.

The thing is that Yoshimurakana only touches upon half of the potential drama from that setup in this volume.  The rest of it is going to wait because Noel soon falls into the hands of this arc’s psychopath.  Before you start expecting the worst, her family situation is such that she’s not immediately murdered by this guy.  No, he decides that he wants to adopt her so he can replace the daughter he lost long ago.

What’s really surprising about this is that the killer actually wants to be a good dad.  His treatment of Noel is respectful and even appropriately paternal.  Despite all of his good intentions, and willingness to shave his “Crazy Beard” off, it’s impossible to forget that this guy butchered a family in a genuinely horrific way earlier in the volume.  The feeling that he could snap and kill Noel in the same way never leaves throughout the rest of the volume.

By the end of the volume, though, Kuroko has become involved, which means it’s only a matter of time before this killer dies a bad death.  This is still “Murcielago” after all, which means that there are also some less-than-savory nods regarding the closeness of the girls at Rinko’s school as well.  That said, the majority of this volume does a much better job than usual at balancing shock value alongside genuinely suspenseful storytelling.  I’m genuinely happy about this development, but it’s not the first time this series has looked like it’s getting it’s act together only to whiff the follow-up.  I want to believe it’s not going to do that this time, but I won’t know for sure until vol. 19 arrives in May.