Murcielago vol. 24

Up to this point, nothing has stopped Kuroko Koumori when she enters the fray.  This time, however, she’s up against a goth-loli giant/mini partnership with enough armaments (and arms) to level the mountainside they’re fighting on.  Will this be the one time in the series so far where everyone’s favorite lesbian serial killer killer and profiler actually breaks a sweat during combat?  That is what happens to both Mitsurugi and Kurogane when they team up to take on Rindou when he makes his move to escape police custody.  Then there’s Celine and Yukari, who are homing in on the main reason they’ve come to this mountain in the first place:  To find the key ingredient to Hakua’s immortality serum.  Too bad for them the one person standing in their way is… Hinako?

A lot happens here in vol. 24 as “Murcielago” still feels like it’s heading toward some kind of climax.  Some parts of it are easier to follow than others as this “Tozakura” stuff isn’t making a whole lot of sense beyond the base elements it shows off to drive the plot.  The fight against Puppe-chan is also a little difficult to follow in the first half, even though I appreciated how crazy it got – to the point of making Kuroko exert a little effort for the first time in forever.  Yet the three-way fight between Mitsurugi, Kurogane and Rindou was quite well done, and Hinako is used to great effect in the volume’s final pages to set up its cliffhanger ending.  All this means is that this series is firing on all cylinders down a rickety track that may or may not lead to something, but it’s still pretty entertaining to see it in action right now.