Nothing like seeing a series hitting its stride. The Yagyū Ninja Scrolls had a slow first volume, but picked up swiftly the second time out, and now its third installment follows nicely in the same vein. Come to think of it, even if this series hadn’t ratcheted up the way it has, I would’ve had a hard time saying no to it: me, turn down an adventure culled straight from the pen of the man who essentially created the pop-culture ninja mythos as we know it? Not happening. Seeing Scrolls work out as well as it does only enhances the pleasure of reading it.

The story so far: Yagyū Jubei has pledged to help the surviving women of the Hori clan enact vengeance upon the Seven Spears of Aizu, the villains who slaughtered their husbands. Under Jubei’s stern but wise instruction, the seven Hori women begin to do the seemingly impossible: shape themselves into a fighting force that will use misdirection, tactics and cunning as much as old-school swordsmanship and blunt-nosed violence. Individually, they’re no match for any one of the Seven Spears, and they all know it—but they’ve already killed one of them (the sickle-and-chain-wielding Daidoji) by working together, and that alone is a major boost to their collective spirits.