I know the year isn’t over yet so I’m kind of jumping the gun here, but The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions is the best manga series I’ve read this year.

After a fairly disappointing volume 3 this volume brings back everything I loved about this series. There’s a crime that needs to be solved, more moments between Akira and Al, and Al struggling with the effects of his vampirism. The one slight downside is that there weren’t as many bat-Al moments, but the ones we did get were appropriately adorable.

In this volume the plot revolves around Al helping figure out who killed his fellow co-star of the show he was dragged into doing. Like last time due to his strong sense of smell he has a good idea of who did it but needs a way to prove it. Luckily he has Nukariya and another co-star who are ready to assist him, and of course Akira is there to offer support.

I need every volume of this manga to be about Al solving a case because it makes the plot much more focused. It’s also just more interesting. I was so hooked on the story that I devoured this volume quicker than I would’ve liked. It seems like it’ll be the last one for a while because I don’t think volume five has even been published in Japan yet. I should’ve savored this volume and not read it all in one go, but the fact that I did is testament to how much I enjoyed it.

Al and Akira continue to be great characters to follow. I was hoping this volume would build upon the small bits of Akira’s background we got in the last one, but it didn’t so I’m still left with various questions that I really hope get answered. I would say that Al is the bigger focus in this volume. He’s happy that he gets to follow his dream of being an actor, but he also becomes more aware of the drawbacks of being a vampire. If it wasn’t obvious already from the last volumes it becomes abundantly clear in this one how much of a kind-hearted individual Al is. He cares about people so much, even people he’s only known for a while. We also get a lot more Nukariya in this volume! His annoying partner Yanagawa also makes an appearance. I wonder if those two will get a spinoff manga together? I’d read it.

What I’m happiest about though is that after this volume I’m no longer worrying about being queerbaited. There definitely seems to be a romance plotline building between Al and Akira. This volume contains a lot of my favorite moments between them. I find myself going back to reread those moments over and over again because I just can’t get over them. Some of my favorite scenes are when Akira is being a huge tsundere, and there are even more moments like that in this volume. I love characters who say they don’t care about someone but then their actions don’t match their words.

The art, like everything else, was more solid this time around too. Akira was definitely at his most gorgeous. He was rocking a lot of fancy hairstyles that had him looking fine. I wish there had been more cute bat-Al scenes, but I honestly barely noticed due to how much I was enjoying everything else. Since we’re back to solving crimes there are once again graphic scenes featuring body mutilation. Nothing as bad as volume 2, but still pretty graphic.

Everywhere the third volume failed this one made up for. It has a solid plot, all three characters are back together and amazing, and the romance feels like it is finally blooming. It’s probably my favorite volume in the series now, though it’s a close tie to the second one. I don’t know how I’ll be able to stand the wait for the next volume. I hope it won’t take too long to come out, but either way I’ll be picking it up as soon as it becomes available!