Ikebukuro West Gate Park 2

Just a couple quick posts tonight before I go to bed. I should actually change the time on my blog. I’m really more of a night owl anyway, so the date is usually right, but it bothers me a bit that it looks like I’m posting at, like, five in the morning.

This series wound up surprising me a bit. The storyline from last volume is resolved in kind of a disturbing and unexpected way. The bad guy turns out not to be so bad, and the girl turns out to be a little worse that you expect, but… well, for good reason. I felt a little bad that the main character got caught up in that truly messed up situation that had very little to do with him save a promise he made a dead girl.

After this, the story leaves Hikari and her tormentor behind completely and moves on to a different set of characters that Makoto is vaguely acquainted with, this time a girl he went to school with who apparently sells herself out as an… illusion girl? Some sort of sex worker. She gets hooked on drugs against her will, her boyfriend gets mixed up with the people who got her hooked to try and stop them, and Makoto has to try and clear the boyfriend from some sort of Yakuza hit.

This story is enjoyable if only because I like the girl and her boyfriend so much. Actually, the drug dealer is kind of cool too, except for the parts where he gets sex workers hooked on… speed, or cocaine, or something. At one point, they use the term “tenhachi,” which I was a little disturbed I picked up on before it was explained (thankfully, I was wrong about the measurement, I just vaguely recognized a term).

Also, throughout this case, Makoto and his friends use code names, Perm, Cherry, and Megane. I could see where this was going even before the target gave himself the nickname Lum. Hilariously (or not), the drug dealer was actually… er, in the middle of something with a girl dressed in a tiger-striped bikini when he gets the call. Later, some dialogue in video and their call to the police is heavily censored, heavy on the darlings and datchas. I like when I’m rewarded for being a geek, I can’t help it. And just in case, because I hate when I can’t get stuff like this, all this is a reference to “Urusei Yatsura” by Rumiko Takahashi.

I’m still not entirely sure how much I actually like this series. It’s fairly enjoyable on a superficial level. The characters are likable enough and the cases draw you in, but there’s nothing yet that goes beyond “fun read” status. That’s just fine though. Sometimes you’re in the mood for a fun read.