What is love, baby, don’t hurt me-
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Aya Shouoto
Translation/Adaptation: JN Productions
What They Say
Himari Momochi inherits Momochi House, an estate which exists on the barrier between the human and spiritual realms. Himari is still coming to terms with Aoi’s rejection of her love confession when Takamura Nachi, the classical literature teacher, shows her a mirror that is said to reflect the true feelings of its beholder…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Oh, what is a young girl in love to do? Himari is so blindsided by Aoi’s simple rejection of her love confession that she can only walk away in confusion. Confusion seems to be the theme of this volume, as Himari’s original goal of freeing Aoi from Momochi house seems to be momentarily on hold. In fact, Himari’s progress in attempting to free Aoi of his fate as the Nue has been practically a non-starter. She realizes she doesn’t know a thing about Aoi’s past. When Himari attempts to discover his family in town she doesn’t find anyone who recognizes his family name. At least she’s finally making an effort.
Aoi is not forthcoming with his past or his own emotions. As the volume stretches on Himari starts to realize that Aoi may not be mostly human anymore. His own identity seems to be morphing into that of the Nue. Time is clearly running out and the longer it takes the less of Aoi there may be to save.
Complicating matters is the arrival at school of a strange classical studies teacher. He is an enigma, handsome but eccentric, and fascinated by Himari. (He also happens to look like what a grown up Aoi might. Then again, it might just be a case of manga same-face.) That fascination should be a giant red flag for her, and she is momentarily drawn into a magical mirror which is supposed to show what is in a person’s heart. The mirror works in a way that I wasn’t expecting, it’s far more mysterious and devious as Himari learns.
Amusingly, Himari’s classmates are still mildly obsessed with hunting down ghosts and other paranormal stuff. The urban legends and ghosts stories they start digging up begin to point toward the next challenges that Himari will likely have to face. Before she can face those dangers a house guest comes calling, Nekobaba. Like her names suggests she’s a nekomata granny and has been like a grandmother to Aoi. Like any grandmother, she seems obsessed with getting Aoi married off and is highly critical of Himari. Himari does manage to win the ayakashi over, which may give her a key to finally learning about Aoi.
The volume closes out with one short story about Aoi as a child in Momochi house, and Viz continues to include some color pages at the front of the book.
In Summary
When the big momma cat shows up you’d better be on your best behavior. Himari learns the hard way what rejection feels like, but something still isn’t quite right. Just who was Aoi before he was trapped in Momochi house? Himari’s slow progress on digging into Aoi’s past the truth about him and Momochi house is frustrating, even if the simple tension of this series stems from that. The new teacher is a hard one to pin down, and now the question remains… who is he?
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 4th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
