I think I've stumbled across something special with this series. At the outset, I think I was expecting straight-up horror, but while there are elements of that, Kemono Jihen isn't really what I'd bargained for. The story is both funnier, and more dramatic than I would have guessed, and it's told with an awful lot of heart. Every character here has something that makes them interesting--even the somewhat exaggerated villain of Inari has some depth and motive to her actions. But it's the connections between them that really make Kemono Jihen shine.
Just focusing on the detective agency, alone, you'll see that the members are less coworkers, and really more of a family...with the possible exception of Mihai, but we'll see how he develops as the story goes along. They've all got their faults, but their endearing qualities as well, and seeing how they all (or at least most of them) support one another lends a real feeling of authenticity to their relationships. Even when they have differences or arguments, at the end of the day, they've got each others' backs.
And don't even get me started on Kon. In this volume, she goes from an almost robotic, single-minded servant, oblivious to anything but her orders, and becomes surprisingly sympathetic. And despite how relatively quickly it happens, in a page-count sense, it didn't feel rushed to me. She's been cast adrift, she's vulnerable, and she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. And the person she runs into is perhaps the least-well equipped to help. But still, he's trying.
This is a very well-written series so far. It's not quite shonen, it's not quite horror, and it's not quite slice of life. But the weird amalgam of all these things comes together through some kind of alchemy, to produce a rather wonderful result. I'm very excited to see where this goes from here.