Manga Monday: Kekkaishi by Tanabe Yellow [Quick Review]

This week I’m doing another Quick Review for a series that’s fully completed at 345 chapters. It’s Kekkaishi by Tanabe Yellow!

Plot Synopsis: By night, junior high student Yoshimori Sumimura is a “kekkaishi”–a demon-hunter who specializes in creating magical barriers around his prey. By day, Yoshimori’s got some other demons to battle, most of all a seriously crotchety grandfather! Yoshimori’s pretty 16-year-old neighbor and childhood friend, Tokine Yukimura, is also a kekkaishi, but their families are feuding over who is the true practitioner of the art.

Plot: The plot from this first chapter looks pretty good, and I’d totally be down to binge reading the entire thing, it’s a huge series at 345 chapters. Thankfully it’s done, so I can finish it at my leisure. Unfortunately for you my faithful readers that might take a while as I’ve got a huge backlog of things I’ve got for review purposes. However I’ll try to finish it within the month. As for the story it’s pretty interesting considering the magic involved is what would be called a support class in an MMO. However they manage to make an interesting enough system that it should be great. We’ll see if it lasts throughout the series, but I’m thinking it probably should.

Characters: Yoshimori is a pretty standard fare male lead, whereas Tokine seems to be a very interesting female lead. She’s much more competent and much more responsible person than Yoshimori, and it’s fairly obvious that she can handle herself pretty well. Honestly I think she makes for a better lead character at the moment, but I’m going to guess that throughout the story Yoshimori grows up a bit.

Art: The art is beautiful and incredibly well drawn. It’s the thing that drew me into the series in the first place as apparently the series is an award winning one. Wether it’s based on plot or art I’m not sure, but it’s a good sign.

Overall: Giving the tentative yes, based on this being award winning and my own impressions after the first chapter.

For those who like: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Japanese Magic Systems, Fantastic Artwork, Great Female Leads, Good Plot.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.