Introduction to Volume 1: To ask for advice on behalf of a friend who's been entangled in a paranormal incident on campus, Haruka visits the "Film Appreciation Society," where it's said a man with mysterious powers resides. However, the person she meets there is a pretentious young man with tousled hair and drowsy eyes. Haruka boldly asks him for advice, but what happens next? A college girl's isolation and murder, a murder disguised as a suicide... the mysterious incidents are tackled one-by-on...
Return to the usual
I enjoyed this book after the much darker previous volume. I liked that Haruka was much more prominent and important to the plot, and I thought the author did a better job with pacing the POV changes so the characters were evenly represented.
The author made an effort to flesh out Haruka and Ishii's characters in this volume, especially on Haruka's end, as we finally learn what she's studying in college (education) and most of the action is set at a school where she's an assistant teacher.
The mystery was fine if a bit convoluted at times. The characters tend to be thinly drawn, which extended to the villain character in this volume; the motivation for all his deeds seemed a little vague. The author is clearly one of those who pictures a movie/anime when he writes the climaxes of his novels, so they tend to be a little over the top, complete with long monologues from Yakumo while the villain conveniently stands there and waits for him to be done talking.
Overall I find these very bingeable and was able to read this volume very quickly!