Ko and Nozuma are off for an adventure in Toyko, featuring a guest appearance by reality. Ko’s friend is possibly messing with the wrong vampire, leading to an awkward night of guy talk. And we get one of the most literal interpretations of your past coming back to haunt you.
This series didn’t actually need a driving plot. It was really, truly fine as a travelogue of nightly haunts between two very lost souls who found something in one another. But this isn’t a shojo, so plot there must be.
And the plot is fine - the somewhat slovenly Detective Anko turns out to be even deadlier than she let on, knowing the secret of how to kill vampires and having a rather over the top moment as she goes after another one (which does inadvertently lead to one hilarious jealous freak-out).
The end result of all this is that Nozuma is off on a quest to discover her past, which isn’t a bad plot thread to follow but isn’t really what made this series so great. Still, it’s not like this ruins anything, although the very last section does drag a couple times, though her response to potential ghosts is a visual gag that delightfully persists through almost the whole thing.
The subplot with Ko’s friend who wants the same thing as Ko, but seems to be going about it all wrong, is good too (there’s a really nifty swerve there). It’s an interesting contrast between the two boys. And, while she only makes one appearance this volume, Akari proves that she’s the smartest member of this entire cast.
No, Ko and Nozuma still remain the primary draw and their chemistry can punch through just about anything. The trip to Tokyo is great, as they banter back and forth about love and then sort of realize they’re doing fine as they are (Nozuma’s incurable shyness over romance is still great).
The other elephant in that room is that Ko’s only 14 still, so when he talks about not getting the idea of love it might very well have a biological reason. I doubt this is meant to ruminate on the blossoming of puberty, but it’d be nice if somebody thought it.
Speaking of elephants, the best moment in the book comes when Ko and Nozuma make an impromptu zoo stopover and while having fun and being quite sweet to one another, there’s an accidental yet poignant reminder of just what this life entails. It definitely gave me hints on what a potential end game for the series might be, but we shall see.
Amidst the plots and trips we have lots of the usual hi-jinx as Ko gets abducted for a round of girl talk, Ko and Nozuma frustrate everybody because of their lack of traditional love while getting on like a house on fire (Nozuma has a perfect and quotable declaration on this that I really loved), and many old characters check in.
It’s a good balance and the nature of the beast is such that as we go on there will be more plot added and extra complications to overcome. This is just the rare instance where it didn’t need it and I would’ve really been fine with these two playing video games for a while longer.
4 stars - still one of my current favourite shonen series and that’s hopefully not going to change. Even when the plot comes to the fore, the characters remain as good as they ever were and that gives me a lot of hope for it moving forward.