Both journalist Yuushi and detective Uozumi have ties to the Smiling Hearts Society deeper than they’d like to admit. As they both continue investigating the cult, they uncover secrets bigger than they could have ever expected.
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My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)
There is nothing better than a volume that heavily focuses on an interesting side character. As this is a crime drama, it only makes sense that it would eventually dedicate some time to following around the police that are investigating the cult, but I wasn’t expecting the route it ended up taking. Instead of following the police force as a whole, we follow a single detective as he gathers intel surrounding the cult.
I prefer this type of storytelling, as I’m a big fan of human dramas. By following a single character rather than a group, the investigation feels a lot more personal. We learn his motives for being so intent on exposing the cult, and we also get to follow his train of thought. As he is an incredible detective, I was kept on my toes the whole time I read his story. Every time he seemed to be caught in a web, it’s revealed that he was always one step ahead of his opponents. He’s not portrayed to be so incredibly genius that we know he will surely win in the end, but rather as a clever detective that understands the inner workings of the cult and uses that to his benefit.
As even the craziest of the characters are kept at least a little bit grounded, it’s hard to guess who is going to win in the end. On the “good guys” side, we have our detective and journalist. Both have their own unique reasons for wanting to bring the cult down, and both reasons are strong enough to entice them to do crazy things. Unfortunately, there are some incredibly powerful figures scheming against them on the cult’s side. And when I say powerful, I mean politically and physically. When there’s a cult going around hiding dead bodies in cars and smashing opponent’s faces in, you do have to be acutely aware of who you’re dealing with.
On the topic of “good guys” and “bad guys”, we have one outlier—the new editor in chief. We know the previous one was killed when he agreed to expose the cult, so the new one is staying out of it for the sake of his family. I believe his character is meant to be a morally ambiguous one, as I feel some would argue that as the editor in chief, he has a moral obligation of reporting on the cult, especially given the intel he has. Personally, I don’t blame him for trying to avoid the cult, especially after learning the identities of a few of the moles hidden in this volume. They really are everywhere…
While we did get to see some of our protagonist Yuushi in this volume, I actually enjoyed the detective’s story quite a bit more. As the storytelling seems to change from volume to volume, I find it difficult to even guess how volume four will flow. I just hope we get to see more of the detective from here on out.
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