Title: Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits Vol. 3
Author: Midori Yuma (Story), Waco Ioka (Art), Laruha (Character Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Supernatural
Publication Date: May 7, 2019
The Story
Volume three of Kakuriyo is a character-building volume that centers around Suzuran, Akatsuki, Aoi, and her grandfather Shiro. I will detail a lot of this in the Characters section since the bulk of the volume’s material pertains to that. As for the actual story, Suzuran wants to return to Utsushiyo despite the fact that Shiro has already passed away. She wants to be close to his grave. She never really stated if she wanted to return to Kakuriyo afterward though, leaving many to think that this move is going to be permanent.
Because of this, Suzuran has a fight with her brother Akatsuki. With Aoi trying to get the two of them to make amends with each other, we learn about Suzuran, Shiro, and Akatsuki’s past.
That’s the essential story for the third volume. It also moved the plot forward with Aoi opening her restaurant but the main focus was giving us some character backstory as well as painting Shiro’s legend in an even grander scale. I actually liked the flow of the story this time around as everything seemed to tie into each other nicely and nothing really detracted from the main flow of things. Most side stories or background arcs feel like a detour; however, since they were all related to Aoi’s main plot of turning the cottage into a restaurant, everything just meshed together rather well.
Still, this is the third volume in a row with a lack of suspenseful ending but despite that, unlike the first two volumes, at least this one ended on a better logical closure point rather than just ending abruptly! They’re learning!
Characters
Everyone seemed to get a bunch of development this time around so let’s just hop into it!
Akatsuki and Suzuran took center stage. Akatsuki disliked the fact that Suzuran wanted to move to Utsushiyo just for the sake of being near Shiro. Because of their past with him, Akatsuki always felt that Shiro favored her more than him. It was because of Shiro that Suzuran became a Geisha in the downtown district, just so she could get the chance to see him again whenever he popped into Kakuriyo. The two of them ended up in a physical fight and Akatsuki lost.
As Akatsuki was tending to his wounds, he was consoled by Aoi, even though she was met with great resistance. In the end, Akatsuki kind of lowered his guard around her when they ended making Shiro’s Chinese Dumplings together in order to give them to Suzuran. In the end, it caused the two of them to make up.
Suzuran was the one who laid it all out for them. She explained how she and Akatsuki were born in Utsushiro to demon spider parents. When they were found out, the place they were living in was burned to the ground, their whole family killed in the process. They were the only ones who survived and Shiro took them in. One day, Shiro abruptly told them to go back to Kakuriyo. That’s when Akatsuki became an employee at Tenjin-ya while Suzuran went to become a Geisha once she learned that Shiro would come and go from their world often.
Akatsuki grew annoyed with Shiro for kicking them out as well as his favoritism to Suzuran. This is the root of why he’s so annoyed with Aoi. It’s all because of her blood ties to Shiro.
Aoi’s development came from the fact that she had to do a bit of soul searching. Saying how or why would spoil one of the big moments (and possibly her biggest decision in the series thus far) but let’s just say that she was given an opportunity and we got to see her make the decision to either make the most of it or to reflect on truly what has become important to her. We also find out a bit about her past and how a spirit fed her and kept her from starving once and one of her goals is to find that spirit but Ginji and the Odanna seem to know a lot more than they’re leading on when it comes to that! Nice job planting the seeds for a future reveal!
Final Thoughts
This was an enjoyable volume of Kakuriyo. I can see things starting to flow a bit more easily and the stopping point wasn’t as abrupt. This series got off to a bit of a rocky start but it’s starting to find that nice smooth balance that makes it both interesting and enjoyable. Volume four should take the story further now that Suzuran is in Utsushiyo, wrapping up this little mini arc. Seeing the results of Aoi’s decision should prove to be interesting!
Now that we had some seeds planted to a future plot point, it makes me wonder if we’re going to see any more advancement in that direction or if they’re just going to focus on the results of Aoi’s decision. If I were me (and last time I checked, I think I am), I would put that tease on the back burner and just let it stew in everyone’s minds while focusing on Aoi’s decision. Flesh that out completely and then bring us back to that little tidbit as a nice reminder that we still had unfinished business.
Although, I have my theories that, based on their reactions, the spirit is one of three people: Ginji, The Odanna, or someone who is already dead that they don’t want Aoi finding out about. I’m leaning on choice #3.
We’ll see, though! Good read this time around! Has me hyped for Vol. 4!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
