Demon Sacred: Volume 3

by Natsumi Itsuki, 189 pages

K2's little jaunt in the outside world has consequences for more than just his roomies. The young man whose face he shares comes to the apartment for answers, but Keito--having his own history with demons--doesn't find those revelations very comforting. Meanwhile, the gang also have to deal with another local demon and his chain and all the unwelcome attention they're getting from unchained demons looking for either a snack (they're cannibals by nature) or to score a connection. Mona will do whatever she has to in order to protect her "family," but she'd rather avoid further violence if at all possible. And as if all that weren't enough, Shinobu's scary adopted brother is back in town and asking him to join his research organization. But Helmut doesn't want to better understand "intelligence" (the research community's term for demons)--he wants to exterminate them.

The story behind the new chain and his demon is sweet and sad. K2 and Mika had better follow orders and leave them be. I hope Keito can get past his own bitter memories and get more involved with Mona and the others. It would be fun to watch him and K2 fight (or really, to watch Keito put up with K2's persistent, obnoxious-child nature). Is that mean of me? :P

Plots and lies and bonds look to be soon exposed, and after a bumpy first volume I am now thoroughly enjoying the ride. Once I get my hands on the fourth one, I'll have to start holding my breath for somebody to pick up the English license and publish the rest.

Demon Sacred: Volume 2

by Natsumi Itsuki, 184 pages

After the return of Mika, the mysterious "man" who helped their mother raise them before her death, Mona and Rina cooperate with him to draw in and tame K2, another supernatural being like Mika, to help them in their efforts to save Rina before the Return Syndrome kills her. Unfortunately for K2, he shares a face with a wildly popular celebrity idol--whom Mona happened to be thinking of when she tamed him--so he can't go about in public without being "recognized" and causing a commotion. When the girls go out to meet the real Keito as an unrelated favor to a friend, they give K2 strict instructions to stay home. Unfortunately for them, K2 isn't very good at following orders. Complications, unsurprisingly, ensue. Meanwhile, Shinobu's got his own secrets, both from the girls and from his corporate research lab employers.

This second volume flows much better than the first, having gotten all that awkward exposition out of the way earlier. Mika's a little scary and K2's kind of adorable. Mona and Rina are still clearly teenagers, but have to play mom to immature K2 (despite his millennia of existence). And poor Shinobu's trying to help, but things are only getting more complicated as his charges multiply and his control of the situation weakens.

I've gotten sucked into this now, so I'm hoping someone picks up defunct Tokyopop's relinquished English language license soon!

Demon Sacred: Volume 1

by Natsumi Itsuki, 192 pages

For the last fifteen years, the world has been combating Return Syndrome, a rare (though less so all the time), mysterious, frightening illness that causes its victims to physically regress toward childhood until they die. Normally, the disease progresses so quickly that victims don't even know they're sick, leaving behind nothing but a pile of clothing where they once stood. But fourteen-year-old Mona's twin sister Rina is one of the lucky ones. She has been slowly getting younger for years and now has the body of a nine-year-old. Mona can only hope that the slower progression gives their guardian, Shinobu, a scientist at a corporate research lab, enough time to find a cure before it's too late.

Although this first volume is very exposition heavy with characters spouting lots of artificially informative dialogue (why didn't she just make it part of the narration?), the story itself is engaging and different. As the girls' history is revealed and a face from the past resurfaces, the characters and the supernatural aspects of the story prove intriguing enough that the reader starts to think she might be able to overlook the clunky moments. The attractive art is a little old-school in style, with lots of whipping lines and strand-by-strand hair details.

I've read an impressive (and oh so sad) short space drama by the same author, so I'm willing to stick around a little longer and see what she does with this somewhat less-dark supernatural one.