Professor Mitani, a specialist in modern Japanese history, shows up at Takatsuki's office clutching a mysterious doll. After Mitani posted a photo of it to his blog, someone claiming to be the granddaughter of the doll's original owner reached out, describing how it used to grow hair and move around on its own. Takatsuki's ghost story sensors start tingling, and he drags a reluctant Naoya along with him to investigate… What is the secret of the cursed doll? Why is Naoya suddenly getting called “Dog Boy” by the graduate students? And how does Kenji end up helping Akira on his day off? Find out the answers to all these questions and more in this short story collection from the wonderful world of Akira Takatsuki!

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture EX has a story by Mikage Sawamura. English translation is done by Katelyn Smith. Published by YenOn (April 14, 2026).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

My relationship with the Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture series is that I really want to like it more than I do. The story in its main series focuses on the eponymous professor and his hapless student sidekick as they explore folklore and urban legends. Both men had supernatural experiences in their pasts – the professor was spirited away as a child and Naoya Fukamachi visited the afterlife when he was eight and became cursed with the ability to hear lies. It's a great set up, but the execution often, I feel, errs on the side of the pedantic.

That is somewhat less of an issue in this EX volume. Taking the form of short stories that are set in between the chapters of the first novel, the book offers further glimpses into the characters inhabiting its world. The second story, for example, looks at Fukamachi's life before and after his curse. While readers will already be familiar with how he acquired it, having a story focus on how he coped with it really helps to make him feel like a more rounded character. The chapter is framed with the fact that the mug he keeps in Professor Takatsuki's office has a golden retriever on it; the story proper highlights how Fukamachi's own childhood dog, Leo, helped him navigate his world. It's the saddest piece in the book and earns a place on the website Does the Dog Die?, but if you can handle it, it does a lot for Fukamachi's character.

The third story also focuses on Fukamachi, but through a third-party lens. Yoichi Nanba, one of Fukamachi's few friends, is the point of view character, and the piece explores how Fukamachi looks to those who aren't aware of his curse. In Nanba's eyes, he's a bit of an oddball, but one he genuinely likes and wants to be closer to. This perspective makes it clear how awkward Fukamachi is around others and how much he holds himself back from social interaction, creating the possibility that he's taking the curse's stated purpose – “you will be lonely” – and cursing himself.

The strongest piece in the book is the first story, which is also the most typical of the series as a whole. It explores a purportedly haunted Ichimatsu doll and the relationship humans have with dolls in general. The old woman the doll belongs to got it when her daughter died at age five, and the way she treats the doll makes others uncomfortable. But whether or not the doll is, in fact, haunted, as the woman's daughter-in-law believes, the more important issue is whether or not the doll brings the old woman comfort in a way that others simply do not understand. As the sister of a doll collector, I really appreciate this story's approach to the subject and the way it challenges the “dolls are creepy” mentality.

Although the fourth story, about the professor's relationship with his childhood friend, doesn't cover any new ground, this is a nice collection for series fans. I wouldn't start here, but if you like the main stories, it's worth picking up.