(Read and finished: 2024/02/21)

After a long arc last time, it's quite nice to go back to fun, standalone stories. It's still very much in line with the series, dialog-heavy, that sometimes I wonder how it can work as a manga. But as always, Chashiba Katase managed to not make the conversations look dull with the imagery (not that I'd mind even if it looks dull, anyway). I especially love the cute cats in place of humans in the first chapter, despite the grim story.

I found it a bit funny that "humans fear what they don't know" is mentioned, when the same topic is a core in "Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture" light novel/manga, with volume 3 of its light novel releasing on the same day. Perhaps it's fate - both series have similarities in which they tell mysteries relating to youkai/ghosts and I love them both.

I'm always amazed by how Kyo Shirodaira pursues unorthodox mysteries, twisting the usual tropes into something else. This can be seen in many of their works - "Spiral: Bonds of Reason", "Blast of Tempest", "She is More Ordinary Than I Thought" (lighter than the everything else in this list), and of course, this one. I think "In/Spectre" is the very definition of an unorthodox mystery story, probably the most mystery-oriented yet also unorthodox of the bunch. I must say, chapter 62 reminds me of "Kindaichi" for some reason. Despite how the grim this volume started and the subject matter, it doesn't feel too cold or heavy, and even got lighter halfway through, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I enjoyed these lighter pieces. My favorite might be the rakugo chapter, simply because I love rakugo. Of course it ended with the first chapter of a new arc that continued in the next volume...I can't wait to see what happens!

P.S. In the previous volumes, we finally started to see how Kuro actually feels about Kotoko. He returned to be pretty cold here, which is a bit too bad, but they still have their moments (I swear, Kuro and knowing Kotoko's little details and quirks...he might not want to admit it, but he's attentive). I love their banter and relationship so much! It's been going on for so long at this point, but I don't ever get tired of it...maybe partly because the volume releases are spaced out and I forgot many details by then lol, who knows. I should binge re-read this series from volume 1 someday since it's been so long, but I doubt my feelings would change. On another note, it's also fun to see Rikka and Kotoko having a banter again.