Murcielago vol. 7
What fresh hell awaits us in this volume? Not much, all things considered. Compared to previous volumes where I was expecting “Murcielago” to stop trying to shock me, only to be proven wrong in unsettling and/or skin-crawling ways, this volume is relatively sedate. A kid gets stabbed in the head, a woman gets part of her head chopped off — these things are pretty much business as usual for this title. The most disturbing thing in this volume is seeing the abusive state of the lesbian high school couple from the previous volume and even that’s only for a couple pages.
If the paragraph above seems like I’m complaining about the lack of shocking content in this latest volume of “Murcielago” then you’re not wrong. I’ve been waiting for the point when this series would settle down and start delivering some storytelling with more substance than it has shown up to this point. Has vol. 7 finally delivered on this expectation? Not quite. After an opening chapter which features possibly the worst thing to happen to Kuroko so far in this series, the latest arc kicks into gear after a member of an extreme right-wing organization from decades ago escapes from prison. He’s been planning this for a while and has managed to not only ring in a few killers to help him, but a chemical agent that can turn ordinary people into crazed psycho killers.
All of this is pretty standard-issue as far as storytelling goes for “Murcielago.” Though the mastermind and his henchmen don’t really stand out compared to the other psychos that have graced its pages, the story itself moves along at a decent clip and without too much dumb to drag it down. In particular, I liked how the chief of police was more on the ball than I expected him to be here and burly AF bartender/brawler Ran Sabiura looks like she’ll make a nice addition to the regular cast. Not a bad volume overall, even if the series still has yet to demonstrate that it has anything truly memorable to offer beyond its most envelope-pressing moments.