Vol. 18 of Kara Kano continues Tsuda's impressive streak, after the slow multi-volume bit with the singer and his step-sister. I'm starting to really groove on the multi-generational dysfunctionality of the Arima family, although surprisingly enough, I don't find myself looking *forward* to new volumes. It's a spiky, harsh sort of brilliant, which doesn't exactly invite repeated visits. Sort of like Bujold's Mirror Dance and Memory, which are probably the best things she's ever written, but are also too intense to revisit on a regular occasion.