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Reviewed by Park Cooper Yoshimori is a teenage demon-hunter. His main trick is that he’s been taught to make a sort of force-field (often a cube) around evil spirits so that they can be dealt with. His attractive neighbor-girl is also one of these, from a different branch of the demon-hunter... community, I guess you’d call it. Okay, that’s the basics. This has been going on for 13 volumes already, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it. So what’s happening today? Well in volume 13, a mega-powerful monster has shown up, and a young man from a very different and obscure branch of demon-fightin’ has shown up, saying he’s here to seal off its powers—and it killed his mentor, so this time it’s personal. But he’s on our territory, so we’re gonna help him. It’s a very tough fight—not only do usually-unbreakable force-fields barely slow it down, but it’s one of those types of evil spirits that when you go head-to-head with it, it eats away at your self-esteem and emotions, whispering nasty things to you about how you ain’t nothin’. Will we be able to help him prevail? In the second story, some tengu (like bird-goblins. Look it up.[They don’t call them that, but I know tengu when I see ‘em]) come and ask Yoshimori for his help... they sort of demand it in fact. Their old, giant leader is due to reincarnate himself, sort of phoenix-like, any day now, becoming a stronger and more powerful leader than ever... but he doesn’t want to. No, instead, the old man has become infatuated with spying from afar on a local human girl, a pretty blonde American student who’s visiting Japan. We want to keep the old man at home long enough for his transformation to take place. Can we break off this one-sided relationship? In the last, back-up story, it’s the story of how Little Yoshimori was able to defeat his first evil spirit... with just a little help from behind the scenes from his big brother. In general, I like it. I didn’t expect to do so—based on the cover, I expected to say “great, another ninja manga.” But it’s really done pretty well, even by average Viz standards. If you like this sort of thing at all, Kekkaishi may be another addition to the titles you look forward to reading. I give it a MangaLife grade of A-. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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