Murcielago vol. 8

This makes two straight volumes of this series that haven’t managed to disturb or shock me with their plot developments.  Could this mean that “Murcielago” is finally starting to trade on storytelling skill rather than shock value?  Only if your tastes trend towards psychopathic badass women facing off against equally bad opponents in over-the-top matches of skill.  Vol. 8 continues the “Sakura of Oblivion” storyline as an old-school revolutionary and his henchman try their damndest to bring chaos to Tokyo.  While deranged serial killer Yukio Senzaki tries to take on the cops themselves, Kuroko and the burly Urara try to take the fight to mastermind Higaki himself only to be waylaid by his assistant Shizuka and her mysterious power.  Meanwhile, soft-spoken and crazy-eyed sniper Reika makes her return to help with the fight and quickly finds herself embroiled in combat against a burly and equally skilled sniper. The real mystery here is finding out what Reika’s hoodied partner’s history is and how Hinako, of all people, connects to it.

While I doubt that we’ve seen the last of “Murcielago’s” ability to shock, mangaka Yoshimurakana demonstrates some real skill with the action in this volume.  This skill is seen best in the running rooftop duel between Reika and the other sniper as they each try to out-strategize the other. It’s an impressively kinetic conflict that leads to a satisfyingly brutal finish.  As for Kuroko, she gets to set up the fight with Shizuka before handing it off to serial-killer-in-training Rinko who demonstrates some real cleverness in cornering her prey after the lights go out. I was hoping for more from Urara, however, as her politeness and eagerness to fight were refreshing in this series.  The problem is that outside of an over-too-soon battle against some nameless thugs she didn’t get much of a chance to show off what she’s capable of. At least Yoshimurakana shows that she’s got some real chops as an action storyteller here. Now we just need to see if she can make the overall story as interesting as the hints of it that we get here.