Jo Chen

The art for this volume was beautiful as always, but I particularly loved a lot of the panels here: the detailwork on the hospital, and when Katsuya and Shinohara are together is just wonderful. I also just really loved the shot of Katsuya crying, and whenever they hugged.

Overall the story's a bit awkwardly paced, but this is the last bit of catch-up before the present. I'm not that into the idea of another subplot being introduced where Katsuya sells himself in exchange for information, and it seems a bit weird for dealing with the problem they have as it's questionably able to stand up in any court unless Katsuya intends to like... shoot the Man himself, and it is frustrating that Katsuya doesn't have his memories back. I think part of the issue is that the series is relatively short but has been going on for many years at this point, and knowing it probably has at least another multi-year volume in the works isn't that encouraging. The awkward pacing isn't unusual for this studio, so it's not surprising, and I was originally drawn in by the pretty artwork more, moreso than the story. It's just that back when I first got into this it was the prettiest m/m series I knew of, so the story being meh was fine. Now I have a lot more options, so this is just a well-drawn series with a meh story that doesn't really appeal. I also felt like Katsuya was acting a bit odd after he got out of the hospital? But not everyone is going to get angry all the time after that kind of experience, and he did get angry in his own ways. Perhaps the one thing this volume did communicate well was how much Shinohara and Katsuya care for each other, though it feels a bit weird after all the stuff that came from the previous volumes. I trust that things will resolve at some point. I just hope it's within the next five years at this rate. For all my criticisms, I still want to see this story to the end, and the good parts of it (principally the art) still hold true.

At this point I can't say I suggest starting the series because of that weird pacing, though you'll have four volumes of story to work through (plus single issues I think?) and a bunch of side stories, so it's not like there's not enough to read and look at if you're curious. Just take to heart that the series still has some ways to go yet. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this for. Back when I first started reading it, there weren't as many freely and/or cheaply accessible m/m series with high quality art, and I wasn't reading as many m/m novels, short stories, or serials. There is certainly way more of all that now, and I've kind of moved past this series, particularly since I don't care for cop-centric stories as much. Ada Maria Soto does law enforcement-related m/m much better, though it's solely US law rather than Japanese with a bit of US law, and Sydney Bell also does an amazing job with similar tension and story parallels that are law enforcement/security adjacent, particularly with people in power. But if you're into either of those and looking for a pretty m/m comic to read, this one might be for you.… (meer)