Rumiko Takahashi

Some random person: Why are you starting another Rumiko Takahashi series? Don’t you have two others you are also reading?
Me: Begone, you fiend.

How about a quirky fluffy slice-of-life romcom? Yes, please.

Godai needs to retake his university entrance exams, but his study environment is really bad. His building has way too many noisy tenants. Actually, scratch that – his building has too many crazy neighbours who have not heard of either tact of privacy. Godai is moving out, I tell you. show more ”That’s the third time this month.”
”I shall salve dear Godai’s psychic wounds. With song!” (I think dear Godai needs you to shut up, but what do I know?)

Oh, but here is the gorgeous new resident manager, Kyoko. Ooops.

Here we go then, with unrelenting shenanigans, stupid misunderstandings and a facepalm-worthy love triangle all over the place. Will Godai ever have a chance to say to Kyoko that he has a crush on her? Will he ever pass his university exams? Read to find out the answers to these very important questions.
Give me the next volume, please. show less

Cool and fun! I am very fond of Rumiko Takahashi’s stories, oh yes.

Here there are ghosts, wheel of reincarnation, and other weirdness – it’s just another day at your local high school, right? I smiled and chuckled a lot all the way through. Every chapter is both silly and touching. This manga is a cozy place to be.

I especially liked the running commentary Sakura does in her head from time to time, hilarious.

This first installment in the series ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am show more grabbing volume 2 right now. Aaand there are 40 volumes, and I happen to have the first six… That means I will not be finishing Rin-ne any time soon ;) But I am anticipating a nice journey. show less

Clueless people are so clueless

I had a good time with this installment. Yet there were sad undercurrents and one scene that I wish I did not see.

Godai’s awesome grandma (who made the previous volume so much fun) went home. That chapter was hilarious!

What I found sad was seeing more of the Ichinose family: Mrs Ichinose is cool as an obnoxious neighbour; she is also a functioning alcoholic. Mr Ichinose is working so much that no one at Maison Ikkoku knows what he looks like. Their son show more saying that he cannot depend on his parents for anything broke my heart a bit.

How is it going for Kyoko and Godai, you ask? They are still unable to have an honest conversation with each other. Going around being clueless is a much more adult thing to do, right? I guess you can tell that I got very annoyed with both of them this time. Also, there was that one scene that aged extremely badly. Or rather, what Godai did isn’t ok in any century, but no one would put it into a manga today. I hope. However, in this volume Godai also broke a leg (twice, under ridiculous circumstances) and almost drowned (once). I’ll think of it as comeuppance.

Naturally, I want to know what happens next.

Quotes:

The neighbours are discussing whether asking Godai for a favour is a good idea:
”You sure he’s the best choice?”
”It’s fine. I knew he was a fool when I asked him.” show less

When your sister-in-law cleans out her bookshelves, you get free books! Here is #3.

Dear Rumiko Takahashi, it’s nice to meet your stories again. I like them so much :)

The premise here is very similar to Rin-Ne : a girl who takes no nonsense from anyone meets a boy who needs to work on his social skills a bit. The boy has special powers and fights ghosts and demons.

The story here is more mysterious and creepy (if you think the idea of cat demon sounds cute, think again). There is no show more silliness or banter (yet?).

Mao is a cursed exorcist, and when he is not busy exorcising he is a yokai doctor (awww!). Nanoka is tougher than she realizes. She has a horrific backstory – was the accident that killed her parents truly an accident? And what kind of connection do Nanoka and Mao have? Is it possible they share the same curse?

I liked how Nanoka travelled back in time to a parallel universe, and almost without batting an eye, started helping Mao defeat demons. Because why wouldn’t you?

Here is Mao, confronting a demon:

“Shall we join him, Miss Nanoka?”
“Sure.”

That spider lady was *very* scary, I hope I won’t dream of her tonight. *Shudder.* Nanoka saved the day, though. I wonder how on earth Mao had managed without her before? ;)

This first volume is very promising, shaping up to be a cool and scary series with adorable characters. It’s a pity I don’t have more volumes right now…

P.S. For the curious, here are other books from my sister-in-law’s bookshelf:

#1 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

#2 Palimpsest show less