A Strange and Mystifying Story, Vol. 3 (Yaoi Manga) Kindle & comiXology

This volume concentrates almost exclusively on minor characters- Minamiura, and Akio's other co-workers, as well as Minamiura's family. It gives some back story rather than advancing the central storyline, which while not a bad thing means I'm slightly disappointed that after waiting so long I now have to wait longer to find out how the story I was following in the first two volumes progresses. I do appreciate the fleshing out of secondary characters, and I hope this means that they will play a part in future volumes, but... While this volume is beautiful and fun and full of plot, and also better than 85% of most yaoi out there, it is lacking that special spark, that volume 1 had, which made me so eager to pursue this manga. I have patience to wait for volume 4, but I hope the author gets back to the main story, or at least breaks up the volume's rambling in order to give us some glimpse back at Aki and Setsu's relationship and how it grows. (I'd rate this volume 3.65 stars, but they only let me use whole numbers...)

A simple but smooth style of writing and art. You're able to stay with the story and get drawn into the characters as that is what the mangaka focuses on. The writer may tease about doing this as not to get bored, but they also ensure an enticing amount of story and believable romance to keep the reader locked it.

Admittedly, this has only a passing mention of the main couple from the first two volumes which left me a bit confused. However, it is still a nice volume and the stories are cute.The first two chapters focus on the side couple from the museum - the museum director and Tetsu. I do prefer the main couple, but those two are very cute with Tetsu's cluelessness and the director's bumbling. I think their story could have been one chapter to leave room for a chapter with the main couple and it still would have been just as good.The third chapter features the story of the museum director's sixteen-year-old stepson, Tsumugi, and his meeting with his family's fox deity, Master Kurayori, and the beginning of their relationship. I enjoyed this story significantly more than the other, and it was nice to see the setup for the couple's future relationship. Tsumugi is a bit of a crier, but he's adorable while he's doing it, and Kurayori is inadvertently gruff with him.As others mentioned, this has zero sex and no one is naked in the entire volume so if you're here to see Setsu and Aki in their usual activities you'll be sorely disappointed. This would probably be considered more romance and is completely SFW.The Kindle edition is easy to read with clean, crisp text and artwork and navigation is flawless.Overall, this is a cute addition to the series and, while I wish it had some of the main couple, the side stories and new characters were fun and I certainly recommend this.

I think this will have to be the last volume I read in this series. It feels all over the place - a collection of loosely connected stories that don't really tie into each other thematically or aesthetically. What started as a boy with a terminal disease getting a lust-driven guardian spirit then turned into a story about that boy's ancestors and they were found and saved by a spirit until a daughter of the house fell in love and brought a curse down on them. Now this volume involves the boy's coworkers, a museum director and a young recruit falling for each other, and then later the museum director's stepson obtaining a fox spirit similar to the original boy's dog spirit - and becoming its bride.The first volumes was heavy on the sex and there hasn't been any since, further creating an odd divide between the theme of the first volume and then the vanilla loose romances of the next two volumes. As well, the character types and the character drawings all look pretty similar and pretty much fall directly into so many of this genre's cliches. The boy who always cries, the super aggressive alpha male, the older but sweet/ditzy love interest, etc. etc. Admittedly, I got bored and there wasn't much interesting enough happening to keep me reading. Meanwhile, we sort of have a resolution on the original storyline but it was very different in tone to how that relationship started, so it felt like we were viewing a completely different set of people.The art was repetitive and there were some odd illustrations interspersed throughout. This title could have really used the beauty of e.g., The Demon Prince of Momochi House to lift the rather rambling story. Everything felt so recycled, so random, and without a clear purpose - as if the author was throwing things on the page just to continue a story but not really invested in it or even having any idea where to take it. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Volume three begins with the continuation of the love story between the museum director Keiichiro and Tetsu which moves with the speed of a glacier. Frustratingly sweet. The second part is a new story starring the director's step son becoming the "bride" of Master Kurayori a guardian fox spirit. Loved this story. I got weepy with Tsumugi when he was rejected as the "bride." One again, TS's art is on point. Love the eyes of her characters, and her writing is sweet and touching.

Suzuki Tsuta vereint ausdrucksstarke Zeichnungen mit liebevollen Stories. Mir persönlich gefällt besonders gut, dass Nebencharaktere aus den vorangegangenen Bänden hier auch mal intensiverer Betrachtung unterzogen werden (auch, weil mich die Hauptstory insgesamt nicht so anspricht, die Nebenhandlungen aber schon). Da ist für jeden etwas dabei!