In the third volume, matters get even more bizarre. Mitsuo and friends, including the enslaved ghost Kanau from volume 2, are all helping Mikuni prepare for the temple’s new year festivals and rituals. When another medium, the darkly handsome Itsuki, collapses outside Mikuni’s door, everyone agrees he needs help. Mitsuo is glad for the company of another medium while Mikuni hatches a plan to enhance his temple’s business for the new year using Itsuki’s talents. Cue the arrival of another stranger, an almost mute youth who has agreed to be this year’s shrine “maiden,” all seemingly for the love of the uninterested Itsuki. Will true love melt Itsuki’s cold heart? Mitsuo meanwhile hatches a plan to make money by using his skills as a psychic detective. His first case lands him in the company of the Sanjaya brothers, a duck-collecting airhead, a man obsessed with dolls and Mikuni, and the youngest brother continually embarrassed by his siblings. Add to this crowd the spirit of a goat creature mourning the loss of his beloved and looking for a conveniently pretty replacement — you can guess who he singles out for a test-run.
In this volume Mikuni gets some welcome comeuppance for his shenanigans. The wackiness is still mighty wacky, though once again there’s an attempted seduction scene that’s suitably creepy. Hasunuma remains the one character who’s humanity really keeps the stories in the realm of the believable — he’s an example of that rare thing in shonen-ai, an actual, Western-definition-of-gay boy. He’s not ashamed, nor in denial, nor effete — he’s just quietly pining for Mitsuo, as shown tenderly in the Valentine’s Day story. We can only hope that by the final volume Mitsuo finally gets Hasunuma’s intentions through his thick skull.
Eerie Queerie Volume 3
ISBN: 9781591827214
By Shuri Shiozu
Tokyopop, 2004
