Akuma no Riddle: Riddle Story of Devil, Vol. 4 | By Yun Kouga and Sunao Minakata | Seven Seas – The backstories are still here, but they continue to take a backseat to the actual attempted murders, though I was quite impressed with Shuuto being far older than she seemed. However, the big event this time around is that Azuma finally seems to have gotten past her killer’s block, with the help of her mother and the desire to protect Haru. As a result, and then there was one, Sumireko. It seems somewhat fitting that in a series with lots of yuri overtones, the ojousama would prove to be the second to last boss. (I assume Nio, who’s basically been the ‘secretary’ for all this, is the final boss.) It may be a long wait to see if this wraps up soon—we’ve caught up with Japan. – Sean Gaffney
Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 2 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – We’re at the point in the series where we have to introduce the cast, get a chapter or two to see what makes them tick, and then move on to the next regular. So in this second volume we see that Maasa is desperate for a boyfriend but not to the point where it overpowers her love of horror and film makeup; Izumi is beloved by all the girls, but can’t express his emotions in a healthy way at all, so just comes across as strange; and Ranmaru’s cousin Soh is breaking under the need to be a perfect ojou at her school when she’s actually bad at that sort of thing. Throughout all of this, Ranmaru freaks out amusingly but grows as a person, and we see the club fix situations with set design and makeup. Decent. – Sean Gaffney
Golden Time, Vol. 4 | By Yuyuko Takemiya and Umechazuke | Seven Seas – I said last time I was waiting for the emotional car crash, and we get it here, as this volume is pure melodrama. Banri realizes that he can’t continue to be Kouko’s minder while he’s still in love with her, and his still jumbled memories of Linda cause him to drunkenly lash out and hurt her horribly—something that, I note, is not resolved magically by the end of this volume. We do, however, resolve the main pairing—Kouko said no to Banri as she worried it was a rebound, but she seems to genuinely love him. Sadly, this means she’s starting to creepily stalk him a bit—I hope that gets dropped. I suspect this was the end of light novel one, but the manga continues, so we’ll see how things pan out. – Sean Gaffney
Honey So Sweet, Vol. 3 | By Amu Meguro | VIZ Media – Here we have another volume in which the adorable yet unconventional male lead worries he’s not good enough for the girl he loves and, with the help of a friendly sounding board, finds some self-confidence. I’ve read at least three variations on that story in recent weeks, but Honey So Sweet has a unique charm that keeps it from feeling stale. Futami proves that he is, indeed, trouble, announcing his intention to steal Kogure despite how much he likes Onise. Meanwhile, Kogure and Onise just keep falling deeper in love, so Futami makes sure she notices him. I admire Onise’s approach but I admit I kinda want to see this kid get pummeled. Also, must all shoujo manga include a scene wherein it is revealed that the two leads met each other once as kids? It happens so often! – Michelle Smith
Horimiya, Vol. 4 | By Hero and Daisuke Hagiwara | Yen Press – I’m beginning to worry about Horimiya a little bit. On the one hand, I got what I wanted, as Miyamura stops running from his feelings and confirms to Hori that he really meant what he said about liking her. They get together in a subtle way, and I especially love that Miyamura thoughtfully telephones Ishikawa (who has feelings for Hori, also) to let him know so he won’t be blindsided when he sees them together. What concerns me is this volume’s depiction of Hori. Has she always been such a tsundere? Her wayward father returns in this volume, and she kicks him quite a lot, and is also a bit violent with Miyamura at one point, too. Miyamura’s haircut at the end of the volume seems to signal the beginning of a new phase in the series, but I hope it doesn’t involve a personality shift for the characters. – Michelle Smith
My Love Story!!, Vol. 9 | By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko | Viz Media – I was right: the introduction of Ichinose is as subtle as a brick. Thankfully, the narrative is aware of this and makes it even more overt—once Ichinose finds out Takeo is Yamato’s boyfriend, he flat out demands that they break up as he’d be a better boyfriend. To Takeo, whose main concern before this had been attempting to get the guts to call Yamato by her first name, this is a major concern, and he has self-doubts about whether he really is good enough for his girl. Of course, this series has spent nine volumes showing us that Takeo is selfless literally to a fault, so we know the answer to that already. I’m hoping in the next volume Yamato figures out what’s going on and shuts Ichinose down. – Sean Gaffney
Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Vol. 3 | By Keiichi Awari | Vertical Comics – Probably it’s just me and my occasional propensity for taking comedy too seriously, but I didn’t enjoy this volume as much as I did the first two. I guess it just wasn’t quite surreal enough to suit me, and there was too much of the odious professor being cruel and selfish. Any time a person is horrible—like Mio’s sister casually attempting to abscond with Nano’s body parts or the professor caring more about snacks than a suffocating cat—I just cannot find it funny. I did kind of like the subplot about the male teacher who fancies Yukko’s homeroom teacher, though, and there were at least a couple of “solidarity dog” appearances to make me smile. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue with this series, but at least one more volume, I think. – Michelle Smith
UQ Holder, Vol. 8 | By Ken Akamatsu | Kodansha Comics – Now that UQ Holder has given up and become straight-up “Negima Part 2,” it’s finally content to give us a bit more backstory to one of the earlier manga’s main anti-heroines, Evangeline. She’s barely Yukihime here at all, really, and mostly we see a past young version of her still dealing with becoming immortal and grateful for Tota’s company. This being a typical shonen manga, we also get a new training arc with a new tough-but-fair sensei, Dana. (This also being a typical Magazine-type ecchi manga, there’s some horrible breast-expansion stuff here as well.) But Tota learns fast, as do not-Setsuna, not-Chisame and the rest of the cast. Will it be enough to get far in the tournament, though? – Sean Gaffney