Three Heads are Better than One!
Creative Staff
Story: Ato Sakurai
Art: Ato Sakurai
Translation: Bianca Pistillo
What they say
Thus far, Chiaki has been settling in to his new life with his new, semi-canine companion(s), but happiness still seems a hair out of reach. Of course, it doesn’t help that his partially soulless nature has left him a target for monsters.
And speaking of monsters, it seems one of Chiaki’s classmates has a companion of his own, only this one is of the feline variety. You know what they say about cats and dogs.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Today’s Cerberus volume 2 begins with a trip to the amusement park. In the last chapter, Komone discovered that Kuro is actually Cerberus—one of the three heads that make up Cerberus—and she has agreed to help Kuro in her quest to help Chiaki discover what fun is.
Let’s do a quick recap. In the first volume, we learn that Chiaki had a chunk of his soul bitten off by Cerberus when he was younger. More specifically, it was bitten off by Roze. Because he is missing his soul, Chiaki no longer understands how to have fun. Also, having part of his soul missing apparently attracts apparitions and stuff, so Kuro has to protect him alongside the other two Cerberus: Shirogane and Roze.
Following the suggestion of Komone, she, Kuro, and Chiaki head over to the amusement park. I’ve gotta be honest. Amusement parks have been done to death in manga, or any type of Japanese media, but especially anime and manga. Saying that, I really loved this chapter. The first chapter might not be original, but it was really cute and showed off all of the current characters’ strong points.
And once again, I have fallen in love with Kuro. Watching Kuro at the amusement park has reinforced her place as number one in this manga. She’s so upbeat! I just can’t help but love her. Kuro’s positive attitude, generally friendliness, and outgoing personality make her a winner in my book. Now if only Japan could hurry up and create a Kuro dakimakura…
After chapter 1, we’re introduced to two new characters. Hashiba Idora and Hakomaro. Idora is a large teen who’s always glaring at me and exudes a palpable bloodlust… well, that’s what everything thinks anyway. He’s actually a really nice guy who thinks so hard that it makes him glare at things. However, it’s really just caused by overthinking. Hakomaro is a nekomata—a cat yokai—and is Idora’s best friend. She was originally Idora’s cat, but she died and became a yokai because she didn’t want to leave Idora alone.
Like the other characters, both Idora and Hako, as she prefers to call herself, are extremely likeable people—even if Hako is a bit hard to get a handle on at first. Idora becomes Chiaki’s first male friend, signifying a chance in Chiaki’s lonely life.
Idora’s introduction into the series was pretty interesting. Because everyone thinks he’s a murderous punk, Chiaki is afraid of him at first. It probably doesn’t help that there are rumors about how Idora beat up over one-hundred students at his last school. Watching him and Komone run from Idora in fright was really funny, especially when we learn that Idora really just wanted to apologize for something Hako did in chapter 1.
Oh! Right. Some of you may remember this, but in chapter 1, Hako scratched Kuro’s hand when she, Chiaki, and Komone were traveling through the haunted house.
In Summary
On the whole, this volume was super cute. It revels in showing off all of the characters’ best traits, Kuro’s smile is wonderful, we’re introduced to new faces, Kuro’s smile is wonderful, there’s more heartfelt comedy, Kuro’s smile is wonderful, and we’re given a huge surprise at the end. What does this mean for you? It means you should probably stop watching this and grab a copy of Today’s Cerberus volume 2.
Did I mention that Kuro’s smile is wonderful?
Content Grade: A+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: August 20, 2016
MSRP: $12.99
