There’s more than one way to beat a demon.
Kekkaishi shows you one way of banishing demons and spirits by following the training of junior high student Yoshimori Sumimura. He is the middle son in a family of kekkaishi—barrier masters. His family, and his neighbors the Yukimuras, are charged with the task of protecting the Karasumori Forest site around their community. Sites are spiritually charged areas that draw all sorts of spirits called Akayashi, and it’s a kekkaishi’s job to eradicate them by creating magical barriers around their enemy.
In volume 14, Yoshimori has met Takeshi, a boy who calls himself a fumashi. Takeshi has tracked a powerful demon named Jaren to Karasumori. Takeshi plans to use his powerful spiritually charged steaks to reapply the broken seal that kept Jaren bound and avenge his dead master. Both boys find this as a chance for personal growth and a chance to learn more about their foes and their own abilities. After this, the story lightens as Yoshimori’s commissioned to help a crow tengu (goblin) try to restrain his king to their site. Unfortinately, Yoshimori may have bitten off more than he could chew with that task. Meanwhile, Yoshimori’s older brother and his night guard are in council to debate what should be done in regards to the site and one of the council members sends the Sumimuras a deadly surprise package…
A nostalgic art style and fun story.
For the life of me, I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure out where I’ve seen Yellow Tanabe’s art style before and just couldn’t. Then, I fondly realized that I hadn’t and that he had simply captured the nostalgic feel that older manga titles held for me. The cover alone looks like it should be a very colorful wallscroll rather than the cover for a volume of manga. The art on each page within is fairly unique in character design and each panel is fairly detailed. The book itself handily provides a synopsis of the last volume, and at the end Tanabe has included a short side story of Yoshimori and his big brother when he was younger, as well as a couple of omake comics. Other than that, the set-up for the book is fairly standard.
I want more.
That’s the feeling Kekkaishi volume 14 leaves me with. I’d never read or heard of this series till this volume, and I was happy to find just how easy it was to jump into. I found myself getting into the characters and story just as if I’d been following it all along. That’s the top sign of good story telling. I also liked that it deviated from the shounen norm and that it wasn’t about the flavor of the week battles, but rather the people in the story. That was a nice change of pace for me as I’m rather weary of such heavy action/fighting oriented series. I suggest anyone who can snag a copy of Kekkaishi, be it this volume or another, because there’s action, humor, and a good deal of character growth involved to hook you for a good while.
