What’s old is new again!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Cocoa Fujiwara
Translation: Melissa Tanaka
What They Say
In search of independence and solitude, the sharp-tongued Ririchiyo Shirakiin moves to the Maison de Ayakashi, an apartment building with its own Secret Service. Ririchiyo is eager to be alone, but upon her arrival, she is greeted by Soushi, an SS agent who seems… familiar somehow. Familiar and yet… not quite the same. Troubled by recurring dreams of a different Soushi – a man who loved her… and suffered for her – Ririchiyo chooses to accept her new circumstances and embrace the Soushi who now stands at her side…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We seem to have practically warped back to the first volume this time around, as we find Ririchiyo once more trying to deal with her nasty habit while settling into her new life at Ayakashi Hall. The freshly bespectacled Soushi also acts as an overbearing SS agent that she doesn’t want yet can’t get rid of, and Zange is still there as a vaguely creepy presence. There is a new girl named Chino in the group this time around, though that still doesn’t make for much difference overall. However, when an older Renshou stops in our heroine suddenly gets a flashback to what happened last volume and realizes something is terribly wrong.
Though she realizes the Soushi before her is not the one from her memories, he asks to take the place of the one that has died. Ririchiyo sort of breaks down in the aftermath and it’s hard to tell just how much she is able to actively remember, but this allows her to continue on with her life. Even so, the relationship is definitely twisted and Ririchiyo is still more than a little broken. Kagerou also appears back on the scene much unchanged, though this time he’s in Ririchiyo’s class along with Chino. After a silly board game brought on by this S&M freak, Soushi tries to help Ririchiyo fit in at school. Of course he takes on the form of a schoolgirl while doing so, but even so it allows for some bonding.
Finally, as part of the group meets up, scrambled though their ages may now be, we learn that we are now 23 years in the future, with Ririchiyo and Watanuki seemingly the only ones who didn’t retain their memories after being reborn. Just what effect will this circle of reincarnation have on our characters? And has the threat from before truly gone away?
In Summary
Thanks to its inability to truly capitalize on the big twist from last volume, this book is a bit of a mixed bag. A big bulk of the book is spent retracing steps from previous volumes with some minor changes, which isn’t terribly exciting. In fact, we don’t even get much of a primer till the end of the volume, though at least that makes for a fun and intriguing chapter. The chapter involving the board game also makes for a good, silly read, and there are a handful of other nice moments sprinkled throughout. All in all this isn’t a terrible volume, but it’s definitely a shame that it couldn’t capitalize on its setup from the last book a little better.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 28th, 2014
MSRP: $11.99
