BARAKAMON is taking longer, slower strides, which is fine, particularly when the narrative dotes so heavily on so many characters at once.
Notwithstanding a delightful middle chapter dedicated to Hiroshi, the whole volume focuses on sensei's high anxiety surrounding the impending visit of his father (Seimei) and mother (Emi). The antics sell themselves from there on out.
Seimei Handa, being quite famous and busy, quests to bond with his strange (but not estranged) son. Or at least, that's the cover. It turns out the visiting family is conducting a kind of underhanded calculus of the young sensei's viability as an emerging adult. Does the boy communicate adequately? Does he master inspiration for his calligraphy as consistently as he claims? And regarding his relationship with the villagers, does it fuel or hamper his creativity? The Handa family, though supportive, possesses an array of unasked questions for the young man.
BARAKAMON still manages to surprise in the oddest ways. Most notable here is the introduction of Kirie Kawafuji, Seimei's manager and the father of sensei's childhood friend. Kirie-san is a crossdresser (this totally fascinates Miwa and Tama, whose imaginations are forever unhinged). But more importantly, Kirie is the precision and deliberateness counterbalancing the fluid, if not random intellectual limberness often expressed through calligraphy. That is to say, where Seimei and Seishuu bundle and then unleash their creativity in manic bouts of contorted emotion, Kirie is quick to chide, and quick to pull both of them back down to Earth.
This means Kirie is correct more often than not. Kirie's rightness, however, is typically validated by way of the frustration, tears, and an uncomfortable silence of others. When Kirie accompanies the Handa family to the island, it sets everyone on edge. But that's a good thing. Like when Seimei and Seishuu teach the local elementary students' art class (which invariably turns into a calligraphy competition). Kirie warns that Seimei, a seasoned master, will crush his son. (Kirie isn't wrong.) And yet, Seishuu, shedding tears at his apparent inadequacy to measure up to his father, nevertheless reassures Seimei and everyone else that no matter the gap separating he and his father, this inexperienced "sensei" is going to fight tooth and nail to better himself every single day.
Also, that interstitial featuring Hiroshi? Hilarious. Apparently, the high-school senior has acquired an admirer. The young man's plain-spokenness and knack for understatement -- the mark of a simple man for so long -- has since turned one girl's awkward gaze into a fiery passion ("Ah've started watchin' you closely, and the more ah see, the more ah realize how good you are," says Rina Tajima. "Even when plainly statin' the obvious, yer just so cool!").
Rina is a bit of a ditz when it comes to actual romance (despite her popularity). And the consternation she feels while repeatedly trying (and failing) to rope Hiroshi into a situation in which she can ask him out on a date no doubt masks a slew of insecurities that only an "ordinary" guy like Hiroshi can solve.
This volume of BARAKAMON has a very nice rhythm to it.