Story & Art By: Rumiko Takahashi
English Publisher: Viz Media
Japanese Publisher: Shogakukan
Original Magazine: Weekly Shonen Sunday
English Release Date: September 14, 2021
To say that Rumiko Takahashi is a legend in the manga industry would be an understatement. From early series like Urusei Yatsura and Ranma ½ to more modern successes in Inuyasha and Rin-Ne, she has been a trailblazer for female mangaka in the shonen space for quite some time. Following the end of Rin-Ne in 2017 in Japan, a lot of fans wondered what could be the next big work she would work on.
In 2019 we would get that answer in the form Mao, a story with a premise all too familiar to longtime fans. Starring an orphaned girl named Nanoka Kiba, the series follows her discovering a portal through the entrance of a local shopping district that leads to 1920’s Japan. Nanoko also meets the mysterious exorcist Dr. Mao and his assistant Otoya, enters a world of yokai, and joins the good doctor in trying the evil demon named Byoki due to the curse it has seemingly placed on both of them and the new powers that brings.
Now when I say that this concept feels familiar, I mean that this premise has been Takahashi’s wheelhouse since her time writing Inuyasha back in 1996. As a longtime fan of that series through its anime, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel like we were retreading familiar ground in this series premise.
That isn’t really a problem for me, however, as the demon hunting formula has worked wonders for her stories before. Takahashi even threw in the classic time travel of that legendary work here, and since the Taisho era has been a popular time period with series like Demon Slayer, I think it should be fun to see Takahashi explore the time period more through its fashion and architecture.
That isn’t to say there isn’t anything that helps set the series apart from her other work. The biggest key difference comes in the form of Mao himself. He is presented as a much more stoic, if albeit eccentric, foil for our protagonist Nanoka. He doesn’t go out of his way to protect her in these early chapters and will act almost indifferent to presence. It makes for a stark contrast to how her other male protagonists are written as protective or emotionally driven by their female counterparts. We are still early on enough where we could learn more about him, but it does make for a solid start.
As for Nanoka, while we’re still early on, I can actually say that she’s my favorite part of this series. The way she comes out screaming rushing off to school, only to cry about the terrible smoothie made by her family’s assistant got a big laugh out of me. She comes off as the much more excitable one, shown to be boisterous in many different panels and provide a decent amount of the comedy. She does show some early insecurities though, considering herself as weak and unable to protect herself. As she is discovering her new Ayakashi powers, however, it seems that Takahashi could be setting the groundwork for her gaining a greater sense of independence and leading to find Byoki to release her curse.
As for the chapters in this first volume, that is where we have a couple of minor hiccups. While I am enjoying Takahashi’s characters and the concept that she wants to present, I do think that the overall pacing is a little slow at the start. That isn’t to say there aren't some interesting fight scenes or some fun designs for the Yokai the pair face in these early chapters, but at times it feels like it can take a little while to get the action. That could be an issue with the overall length of chapters, as each of the chapters average to about twenty seven pages, and a good chunk of it is spent on establishing the characters and the setting. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is important to keep in mind if you were expecting the series to go all out right out the gate.
While I haven’t experienced all of Takahashi’s work, with most of my experience coming from anime adaptations, it has been pretty exciting to read one of her manga for the first time. She has a way of creating great dynamics between her leads, and once the supporting cast continues to develop we could be on the brink of another big hit.
Even with these pacing issues, it’s really just the same issues that most manga go through in their beginning chapters. Once the ball gets rolling and we see how these characters grow, the pacing should improve with time. Considering there are eleven volumes of the series currently released in Japan, it does give me hope the series will up its pace and become the exciting adventure that I know it can be.