Another collection of bland, tiny tales.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Rumiko Takahashi
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Sakura gets a postcard from the ghost of a boy who died years ago! Rinne and Rokumon head off to the beach to investigate… and find Ageha already there! The summer fun continues at camp, where Masato is up to his usual shenanigans. Will Rinne ever be able to enjoy his vacation?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the book opens, we find Rokumon with a toothache, though of course going to a dentist obviously is out of their budget (though surprisingly Rinne still offers!) It’s then that Right and Left show up with a new product, a “recovery cream” that instantly repairs the defects in a scythe. Shockingly enough, it actually seems to work as advertised! However, while trying to perform some DIY dental work, Rokumon dislodges his tooth, and of course it lands in the sample cream. Rather than simply repair the tooth, though, it actually creates a vicious clone of the tiny cat. Will our heroes be able to deal with this unusual foe?
Next up, Rinne and Sakura have a run in with a ghostly umbrella, Rinne’s dad has to deal with a union forming in his company, Rinne is accused of cheating on tests using ghostly hands, some tiny yet annoying ghosts wreak havoc, and a gold bar ends up causing quite a rift between our heroes. Finally, we reach the single two-parter of the volume. Sakura gets a postcard from a ghost boy named Satoru who promised her a necklace three years ago when they met at the beach. However, when our heroes arrive, Satoru seems to have misplaced it. Furthermore, the innkeeper tells them that Satoru drags girls into the water when they put on his necklaces. Upon digging a little deeper, it becomes clear that his current actions are a result of what happened to him when he was alive. Will Sakura and company be able to finally bring the disturbed boy to a peaceful rest?
Finally, Rinne attempts to perform an investigation at a festival without using the “opulent” 500 yen provided to him, and the brother of one of Sakura’s classmates is tempted by a familiar devil.
In Summary
Unfortunately, this volume casts aside the good will the last book fostered with its moderately more involved stories, reverting back to almost entirely one-shots. In fact, there’s literally only a single story that takes two chapters in the book, and it’s not particularly memorable. The other lone chapters are unfortunately none to interesting either. A few may be at least worth a chuckle or two, but there are certainly plenty of “ghost of the week” type stories in here as well. It’s also worth noting that the mosquito chapter really could’ve used some notes to help readers, as it’s likely to be more than a little confusing to people who aren’t especially into Japanese culture. All in all, this book just makes for another bland and uninteresting entry in the series to add onto the pile.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 11th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
