Kazusa Takashima

I think several of the characters in this series have forgotten the plot. And also possibly that Kujou is the main character. Still, I give this volume extra points for cuteness.

Mikage continues to be wildly jealous of Kujou because she likes Taiki and is under the mistaken impression that he's in love with Kujou. In her efforts to push the two of them apart, she gives Kujou alcohol while telling him it's juice and later takes a picture of Kujou and Touma engaged in something she thinks is sex (it's not).

Meanwhile, Taiki is pretty sure that Kujou is Kaito, but he doesn't want to see absolute proof and doesn't want other demons to see any either – he believes in taking care of his friends. Souya seems mostly uninterested in proving that Kujou is Kaito, but, unfortunately, Touma is very dedicated to their task. On the plus side, all three of them would prefer that no other demons find Kaito first, so they team up to protect Kujou when a new threat closes in.

I didn't so much like the beginning of this volume. Personally, I thought Mikage was horrible. When she took pictures of Touma and Kujou together, she kept saying that she thought they were having sex, but what actually seemed to be going on was that Touma was raping Kujou (he wasn't – he was just trying to forcibly remove his shirt). And all she wanted to do was take pictures of it all. I would be happy if she disappeared from all future volumes.

Touma got a somewhat larger part in this volume, and yet I still felt he was kind of boring. He was pretty much just a giant ball of werewolfy rage, but at least he remembered what he, Taiki, and Souya had been sent to do. Without him, I might have forgotten what the point of the series was until Sendou, the new teacher, showed up.

The overarching story was even more incoherent in this volume than it was in the first, and yet somehow I liked this volume more. Takashima found new sources of humor – I particularly enjoyed Yaezaki, the girly-girl transfer student whose dialogue included little stars. However, even more than that, I enjoyed this volume's increased level of cuteness. It not only had more Rebun in cat form, it also had the most OMG adorable mouse ever, Taiki in sweetie pie mode (he cares more about his friendship with Kujou than he does about the demon king's orders!), and even a bit of Taiki/Rebun semi romance. It feels weird saying this, since Rebun is basically a cat, but I totally ship her and Taiki.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is a great series, but I'm enjoying it so far. Here's hoping for more adorable animals and sweet Taiki moments.

Extras:

The beginning of the volume has a character list and a "story thus far" section. At the end, there is a one-page postscript manga created by the author.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (más)