Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kazue Kato
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
Rin and his friends continue to investigate the Seven School Mysteries. Yukio watches as the Exwires take on the Academy’s ghosts, troubled by lingering doubts about his own feelings. Rin seems to be learning to control his power more, but is tapping his inner demonic fire going to be his salvation or his doom?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As Yukio struggles with his own personal demons, the attack on the Seven School Mysteries continues. After a moving statue and empty streetcar are taken care of during Yukio’s inner monologue, the group is forced to confront the final Mystery. This strange “family portrait” turns out to be a shapeshifter, which Rin whips into a frenzy by trying a straight forward assault. Fortunately, Konekomaru takes charge, and with some teamwork our heroes are able to take control of the situation and beat the tricky foe.
Next up is a creepy look at Mephisto’s ramblings, which occurs concurrently with Yukio’s continued struggles. With that, things take a turn to the normal, as the school winds up for the Academy Festival. The core event is a huge music festival featuring big name bands, but it’s for couples only. Shima and Rin start to desperately search for a date, but Izumo turns them down in favor of studying, and their luck doesn’t exactly pick up from there. Rin thinks he finally got a lucky break when it turns out Shiemi is now enrolled at the school, but it seems she’s been planning to ask Yukio in order to cheer him up.
When Izumo gets roped into the emotional cavalcade and the existence of an Illuminati spy comes to light, will our heroes be able to keep it together? Or will their big night end in tragedy?
In Summary
This volume is light on the action, but it does take a little time to flesh a variety of characters, which is nice to see. There’s of course plenty of emotional and romantic tension thrown around with the Academy Festival, and we also get a nice look at what’s going on with Yukio. Surprisingly, though, the standout moment of the volume is probably the teamwork displayed as the Seven School Mysteries plot winds down. It’s nice to see the book acknowledge and try to deal with the power disparity between Rin and the other characters. It’s a bit disappointing to see another low key volume so soon, but even so the book comes together well enough and makes for a solid read.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 4th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
