C.M.B. volume 42 review

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Image from Amazon used here for review purposes only.)

C.M.B., vol. 42, by Katou Motohiro. Grade: B
Three stories this time.

Gekka Bijin (Queen of the Night, Monthly Shonen Magajin, 2019)
Kanta Yamazaki, 34, is a part-time worker trying to become an actor. The problem is, he's bad at it. The company he's with gives him some posters and tickets for their upcoming show, and orders to sell all the tickets (whatever he doesn't sell comes out of his pocket). He gets a notice in the mail that there's a class reunion coming up, and he recalls his former flame, Haruka Fuji. Hoping that he can meet her again, and sell tickets to everyone else, he goes to the reunion. That night, he's having trouble placing the names to the faces of his former friends, but Haruka is completely unchanged. At the end of the evening, she gives him a card, which just turns out to be a business card for a bakery. However, she owns the place, and he'd never bothered to ask her about that. But, she sends him an email, and they meet for a date at an aquarium. Kanta has a wonderful time, and goes back to the bakery the next day to talk to her again, but the shutters are down and there's a piece of paper reading, "closed for the duration."

Frantic, Kanta tracks Haruka down at her parent's house to find out what's going on. They sit on a pier and talk. She says that both of her parents died recently, and she's not certain how much longer she can keep the bakery going. Kanta gives her advice to cheer her up, and she tells him about the flowers her father used to grow, including one called Gekka Bijin. At the end of the conversation, they split up at an intersection, and she says, "look for the Gekka Bijin." She walks away, and Kanta takes a minute to react and run after her. He turns a corner, and she's gone. There's a little tunnel nearby, but the street on the other side is clearly visible. Confused at this show of magic, Kanta returns to Tokyo. That evening, he goes to Tatsuki's family's sento (public bath) and asks the men there for help. The men just offer idle speculation, while the women listening in call them all idiots.

Questions: How did Haruka vanish? What's the meaning behind "Gekka Bijin"? What do the women know that the men don't?
Natural history: Just a mention of Gekka Bijin.
Payment: Nothing specified, but Tatsuki does all the brain work this time.

***** Spoilers ******

Gekka Bijin, or "The Beauty under the Moonlight" is a nocturnal plant that opens its flowers at night. This is a hint. The women berate Kanta for only thinking about himself and not trying to learn more about what Haruka is going through (i.e. - giving unwanted advice when she just needed someone to listen). Kanta returns to the village and tries to talk to her again, apologizing and saying that he really wants her to show him this plant. She walks off, replying, "I'll think about it." Kanta runs after her, and on turning the corner finds that she's disappeared again. Just as he's about to give up, he realizes that the hint is to look into the shadows. He goes into the tunnel and finds Haruka waiting there in a cranny. They fall into each other's arms, crying.


Jaga- no Mori (Forest of Jaguar, Monthly Shonen Magajin, 2019)
Ana Santos is the daughter of a plantation owner in the Pantanal region of Brazil. She and her uncle, Alex, are out in the west side of the plantation jungles looking for jaguars (Ana hopes to go to university and study animals of some kind, but her father, Mateus, refuses to let her go). She and Alex spy a jaguar tugging on something, but it spooks and runs. The two go over to investigate and discover the body of a dead man who turns out to be a drug smuggler named Ricardo, who'd been shot to death. Alex is a former member of B.O.P.E. (anti-drug task force), and he's heard there's a drug lord named Onsa running drugs through the area. Some of Mateus' workers claim that a local shaman, Lula, had said that Ricardo was going to die soon, and Alex wants to question her. Shinra and Tatsuki are at the plantation to look for jaguars, and Ana has volunteered to guide them. She and the two kids go out on horses, and Shinra identifies all the animals they see, making Ana jealous - that's what she wants to do. Alex and two cops visit the Catholic shrine-filled home of Lula, who claims that she can't explain what God chose to reveal to her. When Alex presses her, she says that Mateus will be the next to die.

That night at dinner, Mateus shrugs off the threat, then the conversation turns to Ana wanting to go to the big city to study. Her father is dead-set against it. Ana storms off, and the others go to bed. In the middle of the night, Mateus feels the jaws of the jaguar closing down on him, and he bolts upright in bed. The next morning, the rest of the family has noticed that he's missing, along with his horse. The kids go to talk to Lula, but she's still not helpful. Shinra asks her where Mateus is, and she quietly replies "in the forbidden zone." Mateus had forbidden travel in the west jungle, and that's where Shinra runs to. He sees buzzards circling overhead, and races to the jungle below them, where he finds Mateus' dead body. They're ambushed by drug gang members who chase the kids. They escape by jumping into a raging river.

Below the falls, the kids recover, and Ana mourns the death of her father (and she blames herself for it). They return to the plantation, where the workers race out to recover their boss' body. Alex leaves to strong-arm the local dealers into revealing the whereabouts of Onsa. It's looking more like Onsa has been recently bumped off and a new lord has taken his place. At the plantation, Mateus' horse returns, and the kids follow its tracks back to the jungle, where there are pools of blood, mixed with animal fur, near where the man was killed. Going farther into the jungle, they find a small shrine house that apparently also belongs to Lula. In trying to explain how Lula knows so much about the drug trade, the speculation is that the gang members meet in her house and plot with each other in front of her. Shinra wants more answers, so they return to Lula's main house, where they find her lying on the ground, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. She says that Mateus' killer is beyond punishment, then dies. The kids return to the jungle and Alex finds them, and threatens to shoot. Tatsuki pulls Ana and Shinra down, and Alex hits a drug gang member hiding behind them. There's some gun play, and two members get the drop on the kids. Suddenly, a jaguar shows up and kills both of the men. When it is all done, Ana is convinced that the soul of her father shapeshifted to save her (one of the beliefs in the story is that jaguars can turn into people, and people can turn into jaguars).

Questions: How did Lula know that Ricardo and Mateus would die? What was the second shrine for?
Natural history: A bit of information on the animals in the Pantanal, and the history of Lula's brand of shamanism.
Payment: None.

***** Spoilers *****

One thing Alex discovered was that no one had ever seen Onsa. He issued his orders anonymously. Ricardo had stolen some of the drugs from the gang and Onsa had put out orders to kill anyone in the western part of the jungle next to the ranch. Surprise, surprise, Onsa was Mateus, who had been out putting animal blood on the trails to attract predators to eat any bodies that cropped up. Since none of his minions knew who he was, one of his patrols ran across him and killed him by accident. Lula was part of the plot, and a walkie-talkie was hidden in her second shrine shed, which is what Mateu used for issuing his commands. Shinra explains all this to Alex, with the promise to not tell Ana. Ana then leaves for university, in the belief that her father's jaguar spirit is watching over her. (Left unexplained is why Lula was shot. Maybe she was trying to take the gang over and they protested.)


Shindai ga nai! (There are no Corpse, Monthly Shonen Magajin, 2019)
The neighbors of Taizou Umenaka, a powerful businessman, are shocked when a blood-covered guy holding a knife walks out of Umenaka's mansion right in front of them. The police are called, and the guy is put into a squad car, but he won't talk. Det. Kujirazaki decides to investigate, and brings his men into Umenaka's house. Umenaka is outraged at the invasion, and calls Kujirazaki's superior to complain. The superior calls Kuji, and demands that his minion call off this harassment. The knife guy is identified as Dato, a Vietnamese brought in to Japan to work part-time under Japan's current employment visa laws. This is the kind of work where people are treated as slaves, packed into small rooms at night, and their passports confiscated so they can't run away. The police get a warrant and search the mansion, finding a broken window and some blood on the floor. Umenaka claims it was caused by a stray cat that smashed into the window by accident. The police don't find anything else, and Dato just says "I want to see Shinra Sasaki."

Kuji visits his friend, who tells him that Dato and his girlfriend had visited the museum a few weeks ago, and the girl, Licchi, had enjoyed looking at the lotus flower he has. Three days ago, Dato had returned to the museum, badly beaten up. He'd found out that some yakuza had kidnapped Licchi and some of the other foreign women for the sex trade. When he tried to stop them, they smashed him up and let him leave. Forensics contacts Kuji, saying that the blood on the knife is human, and there was a rayon thread wrapped around the handle that probably came from a Hawaiian shirt with a dark background color. That matches the description of the shirts that one of Umenaka's henchmen is known to wear. Kuji is now convinced that Dato stabbed the henchman, and that Umenaka is hiding the
body in the mansion somewhere. But where?

Questions: Where is the henchman? Do the police find the women before it's too late? Is this all a bit too pat?
Natural history: Nothing.
Payment: None.

***** Spoilers *****

The mansion has a large wine cellar, with two sets of light switches. The second set is at the bottom of the stairs, but if the door is closed, the cellar goes pitch black. Why have the second set of switches where no one would use them? Answer, when the door is open, it hides a second door behind it that leads to a second storeroom. The police never thought to close the door while they were searching the cellar. Now knowing about it, they open the second door and discover the henchman standing over a number of bound women. Later, Kujirazaki confronts Shinra, saying that this all stunk of one of his plots to get the police to investigate a crime that they wouldn't have otherwise. The boy refuses to deny or confirm. They are all just happy that Dato and Licchi are flying back home to start up a new life together.    

Summary: Nice artwork, and some of the animal designs were good. The jaguars were drawn funny, though. All of the stories had plot holes that gave away the culprits and/or tricks, so that could have been better. Recommended if you like the series.