Her Majesty's Dog Vol 9
So, I’m detecting a trend here. Namely, that the mangaka has a habit to kind of forget about characters for a while. Or am I the only one who noticed that Aoi just randomly disappeared after locking Ateko and Amane up in the storehouse and didn’t show up for the rest of that story (about ¾ of the volume.) Less of a complaint than Ateko disappearing, as he’s easily my least favorite of the fine main characters. But again, less annoying when off doing things with Ateko.
I’m glad-very glad- that we’re back to demons and life and mythology. What with that being a major early draw of the series and all. It was also nice to see some focus on Ateko and Amane’s friendship. Sometimes I forget that I can count on more than Skip-Beat and Wallflower (and Mars and W Juliet while they were still going) for actual female friendships getting attention in shoujo romance. (One of the many things that really, really makes me wish Nana had clicked with me.) Also fun was more background on Hayato.
Not as much fun was the Amane/Hyoue stuff. Which, considering how great they usually are, is a pity. I can’t help but think the manga has gone a lot longer than Takeuchi originally planned, so she fell back on “we can’t be together, I must sacrifice our love” romantic wangst. I…I really hope not. Once a shoujo starts annoying me in the romance department, there’s just no recovery for me (as they tend to be centered around it) no matter how much I like the series. Not even Ouran High School Host Club or Hana Kimi were safe from that. I do like, though, that even though she typically seems far less aware of such things than anyone else is, Amane still has the “no mixing between humans and koma-oni” awareness, even though she usually disregards it.