Manga Mondays (76) Kekkaishi vol. 7 by Yellow Tanabe

Kekkaishi vol. 7 - Yellow Tanabe

Summary

A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, skilled in the art of the "kekkaishi," fight against their families' bitter rivalry and a gaggle of monsters and ghosts on the loose!

By day, 14-year-old Yoshimori Sumimura is just a regular kid going to junior high school, but by night he is a "kekkaishi," or demon-fighter who specializes in generating magical barriers around his prey before making them disappear. His neighbor is 16-year-old Tokine Yukimura, who is also a kekkaishi! Together they share the knowledge of their ancient art and their nights battling beings from the netherworld. Sounds fun, but their families don't get along, because each believes themselves to be the "true practitioners" of the art of the kekkaishi.

The Dark Watchtower, a mysterious group of powerful ayakashi demons, is launching a consolidated assault against Yoshimori's ancestral land. Will Yoshimori, Tokine, and their latest kekkaishi-in-arms, Gen, be able to fend off this all-out attack?!(courtesy of Goodreads)

Review

*Warning: Potential spoilers. My manga reviews tend to be more of a summary than a review. I find it hard to review manga in the same way I do regular books.

This is a transition volume. Much of it is full of cute, light, but unimportant scenes. Then you have build-up of enemies that we'll soon meet. And finally, a big battle scene ending on a cliff hanger.

I loved the light interludes. One of Yoshimori's teacher is haunted by a ghost cat. Yoshimori can see the cat pawing and batting at the teacher all day long. The teacher is clueless. Yoshimori has to figure out how to put the cat's spirit to rest without telling the teacher that he's haunted.

Another interlude is a scene with a demon who overtakes an incredibly handsome boy. He essentially takes Tokine hostage to appeal to her inner womanly desires and sweet spirit to learn more about the Karasumori's secrets. This sounds very serious but it ends up being funny (to me, at least). Tokine is a much different girl than the demon expects.

Finally, we meet a new cast of demons. They are coated with updated human skins that will shield them and allow them to mask their demonic natures. They have the potential to seriously threaten the Karasumori.

And threaten they do. They show up and outmatch Yoshimori, Tokine, and Gen. It's all the three of them can do to stay alive. Can they beat these new demons? We'll have to read volume 8 to find out!