Video Girl Ai, Vol. 10, 10

Ai's time in this world is down to about a month. In that time she must get a human to fall in love with her. If she can, she will become human. If she doesn't, her tape will be erased and her existence will cease. Of course, she's in love with Yota but in his conscious mind he's moved on and now he's getting in deeper with Moemi. Unfortunately, his unconscious mind still dwells on Ai, which makes Moemi jealous and causes her to start devising ways to take his mind off Ai. As Ai lives a life on the street, Moemi uses her body to try to win Yota's heart, even as Yota finds out he needs Ai to help him on his first big break in the children's book illustration world. I'm pretty much sick of Yota by this point in the series. He's become so callous to the girls around him, letting Ai and Natsumi live like vagrants in city parks and alleyways in the cold. Does he think homeless people have it so good as he lives alone in his sprawling palacial residence? Yeah, he tries looking for Ai a bit, but he doesn't try that hard, and this is the guy that went through all sorts of mental and spiritual torture to rescue Ai early in this series. He forced himself to forget about her after she lost her memories but it just seemed too easy back then and now it seems even more ludicrous. No matter how Video Girl Ai ends up, I feel I'm going to be dissatisfied. To me, the strongest part of this series was when it focused on the interactions between Ai and Yota, and that has been missing for many volumes. In Volume 9, the writer went back to this core, but in Volume 10 we go back to the whole Yota/Ai/Moemi conflict with all its resulting stagnation. What a shame. I would have given this 3 stars but Katsura's passionate eroticism and extraordinary art gave it a bit more power. Also, the characters of Ai and Moemi steal the show and give Volume 10 a much needed energy.