 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | SEVEN SEAS | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | MAMIZU ARISAWA / MARI MATSUZAWA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 192 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/29/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/05/2010 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Once upon a time, a family was cursed. On the day of their 20th birthday, the Grim Reaper would pay a visit and exact a toll. Such is life for Kei Shindo, an almost 20 year old with nothing to live for. Enter Keita Kawahira and Yoko. They are offered wealth without limit to save the life of Kei, a beautiful heiress. Kei offers to box to the death and save the life of Kei Shindo. What leads to this and what will happen makes this one of the better Manga coming out from Seven Seas this year! In volume four, Kawahira Keita and his plucky Inukami, Yoko, have settled into an uneasy partnership when they are approached by the butler for the fabulously wealthy Shindo family. He offers them anything they desire... if they will take on a simple job for the Shindo family. Keita’s head whirls, especially when he meets the beautiful heiress, Shindo Kei. Kei is about to celebrate her twentieth birthday, a day which should be joyful but which marks the end of her life! This is the Shindo family curse: to be visited by the Grim Reaper on her twentieth birthday. It’s also Keita’s job to face down Death himself! Even with the help of the irrepressible Yoko, can Keita defeat Death and save a young woman’s life? Action, adventure, and dressing up in an endless number of bunny girl costumes is all part of the job this time around in Inukami! Mari Matsuzawa and Mamizu Arisawa do a good job creating a humorous and dramatic story for Inukami. The art and the plot meld together to make a really entertaining book that isn’t too complicated in where it is going, but fills the pages with enough great characters and laughs to keep the reader entranced. The art is kind of on the “girls will like this” side of things, but actually stays close enough to the middle that even guys could possibly enjoy this. The humour is there, and that’s the main factor in appealing to both genders. The art is a lot of fun too – it’s really well drawn, and very cartoony and rounded. I’d go so far as to say it is “cute” – and I believe that’s exactly what they were going for. The visuals have a lot of inherent action to them – this is no “slow” book with nothing but speech and personal drama and dilemma. When you’re planning to fight off death itself, action tends to be on the menu! This is certainly a manga that would do well to be made into anime – it has a lot of potential for success in that format. Good manga usually become good anime – Inukami has a great chance of making that a reality for itself if it hasn’t already! As for the older teen rating, it’s mainly because of some erotic/sensual imagery smattered here and there – it’s certainly not a big deal, it’s just what most people come to expect in manga. Most of it has to do with silly jokes about fetish costumes like bunny girls and that sort of thing. All in all this is an entertaining book with a plot that is easy to get into quickly, and should prove especially popular with the girls.
IN SUMMARY:
Inukami has great design and a fun story – it’s not going to change the world, but it’s a fine piece of light entertainment, which certainly has a place in the world. The dynamic art and feeling of movement within the visuals makes this one a sweeping epic on a small scale. |
