Mad Love Chase 3

Kazusa Takashima – Tokyopop – 2010 – 5 volumes

It’s almost scary how much I like this series.  The overarching plot is nothing to speak of (“let’s find the demon prince!  Who is he?  We need to see the tattoo on his back”), and the episodic stories aren’t all that great either (“I hope they don’t see the tattoo on my back!  Taiki, help me!”).  The good vibes are almost all Yamato’s fault, his dopeyness is somehow acceptable within the context of the series, and I think that’s largely because he is genuinely fascinated by everything in the average high school life.  His joie de vivre is infectious, and even things like school trips and summer festivals are a little better because it’s Yamato that’s going to them.

It also helps that his reactions to being hunted down aren’t as helpless as most characters in his situation.  Taiki does help him out almost every time, so much that Yamato often isn’t aware there’s a problem, but Yamato is also fairly competent about cleaning up his own messes.

Sometimes the stories are bad about… well, explaining things.  On a school camping trip, rather than going through the usual “plot to expose the tattoo” as planned by the two stooges of hell, Reibun inexplicably winds up in a lake, for some reason prompting Yamato to turn into the prince of hell to save her.  I don’t know how any of that works, but I still liked that story quite a bit.

Also in this volume, the… uh, friendship between Yamato and Taiki is fujoshi-ed up quite a bit.  In previous volumes, it was a nice friendship, and I could see how the female readers might want to read things into it, but it was certainly nothing more than that.  But the BL trap was baited in this volume thanks to several “special” conversations.  I’m not 100% sure this isn’t going to turn into a romance, now, which is a little strange and… I think I like it.

Also in this volume, we get a chapter explaining how Taiki and the two stooges worked together previously in hell, and how their team and friendship works.  It’s a big sacrifice not only for Taiki, but for the others too, when he makes it clear that he’s going to go against them to protect Yamato.

It’s a fun read, but it’s a lot more fun that the shallow premise and what the first volume might lead you to believe.  There’s not a lot to sink your teeth into, but the characters are a whole lot more likable than these stories typically are.