Finally an issue with less tedious squabbling, but it's still pretty hard for me to really get into this. I think part of it is that there are so many characters, piled on top of each other, that there's never really a lot of space for characterisation. It's all a bit frenetic, and I wish it would slow down some and focus more. That said, there's one excellent part here, which dragged the rating up one star by main force, and that's the backstory with Momiji's mum. The inability of an outsider parent (by which I mean not one within the Sohma family) to bond with a shape-changing child is both sad and horrifying, and it was the one moment of real emotional connection to the story that I felt here.

There also seems, in this volume, to be a lot of people calling Tohru stupid. I'd take very mild offence on her behalf, but... it's the truth. Girl's dumb as a rock. Perhaps that's why I can't seem to warm to her... that and her absolutely demented optimism. With that delighted look on her face when talking about the anniversary of her mum's death, she looked positively deranged.