In which nothing of interest occurs, yet again.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Rumiko Takahashi
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Fall turns to winter, and in the next world everyone is out looking for mushrooms. Gathering around the stew pot stirs the appetite and challenges Rinne to stay focused on his mission to exorcise ghosts! When Tamako’s Black Cat by Contract Kuroboshi and his grandson, Kuroboshi the 3rd, arrive it looks like Rinne’s winter vacation is going to be all business!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
For the first chapter here, we get yet another bland one-off, in which our heroes get caught up in trying to catch mischievous “eat-eat shrooms.” Next up comes one involving long stories and a desire for sleep that may at least elicit a slight chuckle. Following this is a somewhat poor chapter about a “pot magistrate” that has the extra kicker of being less accessible to people who aren’t especially knowledgeable about Japanese eating. We then get a story involving a coat and a mannequin that isn’t much of note.
We then finally at least get a two-parter, involving Rinne’s dad offering Renge a special bonus. Of course, it’s just the same old incredibly basic parade of simple character traits and doesn’t do much interesting whatsoever. After this we get the obligatory introduction of a new uninteresting Black Cat character, as Tamako discovers her old contract, Kuroboshi, in a closet. He then ends up having Rinne try to train his grandson, but it turns out he’s scared of ghosts and… that’s essentially his entire role in this volume.
Finally, we end with so-so one-offs involving a snowman and presents, as well as Masato playing a trick on Rinne.
In Summary
Though it shouldn’t come as a surprise to people keeping up with the series, with this volume we get yet another bundle of bland single chapter stories. There’s one two part story here, and even then it feels like it has even less going on than the rest of the book. There’s also a character introduction, but he’s just another flat Black Cat, and one who seems unlikely to even see much use in the future. Though this series has had some poor volumes in the past, this one is definitely pretty far down there, feeling like little but a big waste of time and money that’ll give you maybe a single small chuckle in exchange, at best.
Content Grade: C-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: July 14th, 2015
MSRP: $9.99
Takahashi-sensei is slipping.