Natsume's Book of Friends: Volume 13

by Yuki Midorikawa, 184 pages

Deliciously creepy Matoba, a mysterious, unscrupulous exorcist with his eye on Natsume (and his enigmatic tubby yokai kitty), writes the boy and then shows up in front of his house to ask for help rooting out a yokai that's been preying on powerful exorcists.  Natsume's not too keen on doing anything for Matoba, but his concern for what might happen if he doesn't outweighs his revulsion at cooperating.

Ooh, that Matoba is so bad!  What was in that letter?!  We don't even know what he's really up to, but it doesn't matter.  Whatever it is, it isn't good.  I love how Midorikawa just lets him think his sneaky, self-serving thoughts and scheme to his cold heart's content without letting us know much more than Natsume--which isn't much, as Matoba keeps pretty mum about such things and just smiles and watches and waits.  It's when he acts that we get nervous--and excited!  The joy of seeing him look angry or surprised by Natsume's (or his allies') disruption of his carefully laid plans is worth the wait, even if we just get one little panel of him taken aback and glaring before he gets himself under control.  Sweet.  He'll be back, the clever villain.  And so will this reader!

This volume also has two shorter chapters relating how quiet Natsume came to be friends with schoolmates Nishimura and Kitamoto.  Yay for warm, fuzzy backstory!

Sailor Twain: or The Mermaid in the Hudson

by Mark Siegel, 400 pages

Over a year ago, the steamboat Lorelei's well-liked owner disappeared without a trace, leaving his careless, erratic brother Dieudonné in charge, much to the worry and frustration of her conscientious captain, Twain, whose humble, capable hands seem to be the only thing keeping the company above the waterline.  But when he finds a beautiful injured mermaid clinging to the empty, fog-enshrouded deck, Captain Twain's orderly, familiar world begins to slip deeper and deeper into the murky depths of the Hudson River.

This is a lovely, creepy, haunting mystery that wraps the reader in its hazy, otherworldly atmosphere from first page to last and beyond.  The characters are exaggerated and cartoonish figures visually, but their intense, complicated personalities and motives bring a sense of realism that pairs unsettlingly well with what would normally be goofy features to further blur the line between fantasy and reality for the reader as much as the inexplicable events of the story do for the characters.

Blue Exorcist: Volume 8

by Kazue Kato, 183 pages

As Yukio faces off against a silver-tongued demon, his brother Rin battles to find the heart of an amorphous plague while simultaneously protecting his friend Suguro, who's desperately trying to keep the poisonous clouds from spreading.

Yukio!  So much for being the "normal" twin.  I'm happy to see him finally show a little of his birthright, but I hope he's self-aware enough to avoid the emotional pitfalls that threaten to carry him over to the dark side.  He'd better start by having a real heart-to-heart talk with his brother so neither of them loses his footing.  Once the whole deathly plague thing is taken care of, of course.  And Kuro had better be ok, too.  Kitty!

Kekkaishi: Volume 27

by Yellow Tanabe, 185 pages

Karasumori is under attack, but by whom, exactly?  Masamori has an intense conversation with a prominent council member as Yoshimori fights for his home town, his friends, and his life and tries to focus on what's most important in the chaos erupting around him.

With enemies on two fronts and innocents caught in the middle, Yoshimori's going to have a lot on his plate for the foreseeable future.  I like that others on his team are chiming in to keep him grounded, with even struggling yet resolute Soji unconsciously earning confused support from a previously vocal detractor.

Kekkaishi: Volume 26

by Yellow Tanabe, 187 pages

Tensions are running high in the Shadow Council following the assassinations of a couple of members, and the resulting finger-pointing puts the pressure on Masamori to track down the truth and prevent disaster before the blame falls at his and his family's feet.  Back at Karasumori, Tokine has an uncomfortable cup of tea with an unpredictable and deadly enemy while Yoshimori must decide what to do with the assassin living under his roof.

Tanabe keeps adding substance and personality to her characters, with Yoshimori making a decision the reader doesn't see coming but that fits him so perfectly she can't imagine him doing anything else.

Kekkaishi: Volume 25

by Yellow Tanabe, 187 pages

As Yoshimori attempts to master the art of clearing his mind at will, he also tries to introduce enigmatic Shoji to things that might nurture emotion and human bonds not based on a master-and-tool relationship.  Meanwhile, Masamori prepares to finish the job he started against a powerful foe while other mysterious conspirators make their own preparations.

Oh, Shoji, the poor thing.  I love how Yoshimori's little influences register in the other boy's emotionless but observant eyes.  He may not know what to do with all this new information, but he's holding onto it and trying his best.  We just hope Yoshimori's example ultimately turns out to be more powerful than Shoji's master's cold conditioning.  Tanabe's inching toward making both Yoshimori and the reader care as much about Shoji's welfare as that of the lost friend he resembles.

Natsume's Book of Friends: Volume 12

by Yuki Midorikawa, 187 pages

Natsume runs into a bearded yokai who wants help with an old letter, a legged-teacup that's taken up residence under his house, an aging kami who wants to return a borrowed mirror, and a pair of yokai who trap him in a jar as a treat for their hungry master whose seal has recently been broken.

The other stories are sweet and sad in the gently hopeful way of the rest of the series, but Natsume stuck in a jar, helpless as Nyanko-sensei somewhat successfully pretends to be his charge so friends and family don't get worried, is a hoot!  Also, I love how Tanuma takes the opportunity to help his friend, despite the flak he knows he'll catch from Natsume after-the-fact for putting himself in danger.  And with another familiar face joining the fight, Natsume finds himself on the receiving end of a little lecturing, too.  Lovely, as always.

What a Wonderful World!: Volume 2

by Inio Asano, 214 pages

More individuals--and some of the same ones--make more choices at more crossroads in this concluding volume.

For more details about this oddly lovely philosophical look at the meaning not so much of life as of how to truly live it, please see my full review of the two-volume series at NoFlyingNoTights.com!

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 11

by Julietta Suzuki, 193 pages

It's almost the New Year and everyone's doing their best to prepare.  For the shrine, that means going to pick up their ofuda (a talisman that works as a kind of fortune / good luck charm) from the deity in charge of the coming year.  Nanami decides to tag along with Tomoe and Mizuki (partly to keep them from fighting) and finds that to get Mikage shrine's ofuda they each first have to walk through a gate that shows the deity what they've been doing the last twelve years.  This is nothing new for her shinshi, but Nanami has a harder time getting out and the other two have to enter her gate in order to retrieve her and finish their errand.  There, Tomoe gets to see a side of his headstrong tochigami he hasn't seen before and realizes she's not as tough, or as weak, as he thought.

Aw, little Nanami is cute.  She's had a rough life, but her mom taught her well.  This story reveals a lot about Nanami and Tomoe, both, including some plot-relevant hints that they don't pick up on but the reader does.  The other New Year's stories and snippets in this volume are good, too, and show us what various characters are up to and how they've grown, including a peek at conflicted Kirihito's continuing efforts to get his body back and Yatori's still-hazy involvement in everybody else's business.  Suzuki does a nice job presenting little seasonal side stories that still advance the larger plot and add to her characters' development.

Locke & Key: Volume 5: Clockworks

by Joe Hill (story) and Gabriel Rodriguez (art), 159 pages

Discovery of yet another key lets Tyler and Kinsey (and the reader) at last see the origins of the keys and some of the history of the house and the family, but will it be enough to help them--especially when the enemy is so much closer than they realize?

Ah ha!  So that's how the jar got in the wall and the soul got in the well house.  Also, ack!  The Omega key isn't as safe as it once was and now I think things are going to get very hairy very quickly.  This supernatural horror series succeeds at sucking the reader in and holding her anxious attention.  I want the next (last?!) book!

Pandora Hearts: Volume 11

by Jun Mochizuki, 1779 pages

The gang have little time to recuperate from their experiences in the ruins of Sablier before diving back into trying to get all the facts and wrest control of the situation from the Baskervilles and their agents.  But despite their apparent progress, they may still be losing ground to the forces of the enemy, as another terror from the past once again raises its head...and relieves others of theirs....

Ooh, scary!  As funny as the story and characters can be (and they do make me laugh), they can also be incredibly dark.  The Headhunter is just one example of that, and Vincent--with his attractive, smiling exterior contrasting so sharply with his violent internal observations--is another.  I like.

Courtney Crumrin: Volume 1: The Night Things

by Ted Naifeh, 125 pages

Young Courtney Crumrin is none too thrilled when her parents eagerly agree to become "caretakers" of her wealthy, eccentric great (?) uncle Aloysius and move the family to his creepy old house beside some spooky woods in a class-conscious town where things go bump in the night (and not everybody comes out of the woods who goes in).

Naifeh takes the old fairy tale tack of keeping the darker bits in order not to shield children from the more unpleasant aspects of reality and, so, doesn't pretend bad things don't happen or that protagonists don't have personality flaws like everybody else.  His heroine makes as many selfish, ill-advised decisions as the rest of us, but she has the pluck to sometimes succeed in getting herself out of fixes, too.  No little angel role model, is Courtney, but she's got what it takes (including luck) to face both the school cliques and the things lurking in the shadows.  If she gets a little in over her head now and then, well, that's when kids need to rely on grown-ups, right?  Or at least on the reliable ones who understand her.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 10

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Jiro the tengu is forced to reconsider his rigid survival-of-the-fittest philosophy when it comes to leading his clan as interloper Yatori's schemes come to light and Nanami decides to put things right.  Happily, her plan to do that includes lending her tochigami powers to Kurama and letting him boss proud Tomoe around.

This is a fun, hopeful little series of supernatural shenanigans and stubborn romantics served up with just a touch of depth, a nice tonic to the stresses and angst of a long day in the real world.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 9

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Nanami and Tomoe stumble upon a young tengu in search of a long-lost kinsman.  The aging leader of his clan has fallen ill and the resulting power vacuum threatens to destroy their mountain home.  The little one is sure that if he can find his missing idol,  conflict and tragedy can be avoided.  Finding the human-world-acclimated heir is the easy part.  His beautiful face is plastered on billboards all over the city, after all.  But convincing him to take up the responsibility-laden life he left behind proves more complicated.

Kurama reluctantly takes center stage for something unrelated to his stardom.  The source of his troubles is a most unpleasant tengu name Jiro, whose cold, cruel nature and history of pragmatic violence has earned him the fear, but not the love, of his fellows.  It's good to see Kurama address his earlier-hinted-at origins here and I look forward to seeing him outshine his rival--with, of course, help from a few friends.  I'm also curious as to how Jiro's scheming hanger-on, Yatori, connects with the confused Kirihito.  There are so many shades of "badness" to the villains of this series.  I have a feeling there's going to a lot of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophizing before these messes get cleared up.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 8

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

Nanami is trapped in the land of the dead with the mysterious "human" Kirihito.  Tomoe's not with her, so she'll have to rely on her own skills to protect the weakening Kirihito and escape.  By the time Tomoe does figure out what's going on and tries to help, he may no longer be a match for the entryway's new locksmith...at least not in his present form as a shinshi....

Lots of introspection for Tomoe, Kirihito, and Nanami this volume as they each have to analyze their pasts and presents and interpret what it all might mean.  Kirihito in particular earns some sympathy points.  Considering how unpleasant he was in the past, his punishment and recent connections with humans have forced him to experience the world through a different set of (more empathetic) senses.  It will be interesting to see what he, Tomoe, and Nanami do with their newly altered circumstances (though they do not all realize just how much things have changed).

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 7

by Julietta Suzuki, 189 pages

Nanami gets to the Kamuhakari conference but feels less than welcomed by many of those attending.  When Ôkuninushi-sama, the hosting kami, asks her to do him a favor and deal with a problem at one of the nearby gates of the land of the dead--a seal traditionally weakened for the week-long conference, as its usual guards are attendees--she can't say no.  But what exactly has she gotten herself into?

Goodness, Tomoe used to associate with a very bad element.  The little flashback to his days of hanging out with Akura-Oh (an even wilder fox yokai than Tomoe) is the darkest scene of the series to-date.  The prospect of him getting his original body back and once more wreaking havoc in the world is a scary one.  How did he wind up temporarily occupying his present vessel?  And how's Tomoe going to react when he finds out what he's up to?  And how much of his own past does Tomoe really remember?  I like how the series has been patiently adding snippets of depth and character development as it goes along.  It makes me want to read more every time.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 6

by Julietta Suzuki, 192 pages

Nanami finds her kami skills put to the test again by Otohiko-sama, the wind kami who put her through her paces before the festival.  This time, there's an annual conference of regional kami coming up, but there's only one free seat.  If Nanami wants to go and prove herself before her (non-human) peers, she'll first have to beat another human kami named Kayako who's already considered a "living kami" with worshippers galore.  Does Nanami stand a chance?

Ah, Kayako's got a familiar stranger in her camp...for the moment.  Nanami decides to compete for the seat a.) because Kayako's an arrogant, smack-talking young lady and Nanami's pride won't let her back down and b.) she hopes to find news of Mikage, the shrine's former tochigami, for Tomoe's sake.  She can tell that, despite his grouchy protestations, he misses his former master and wants to see him and ask him why he left.  And c.) now she wants to go for wronged Kayako's sake, too.  This is one of those series where the heroine unintentionally expands her fan club everywhere she goes--even if some of her new "friends" still act antagonistically toward her.  Normally, I find that a cheezy plot gimmick, but Nanami's not some saccharine, boringly perfect princess do-gooder charming her way through life.  She's temperamental, barely getting by in school, and plenty stubborn and sarcastic.  But she tries her best, means well (most of the time), and genuinely wants other people to be happy (unless they tick her off, in which case she wants them to learn their lesson first).  I like her.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 5

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

As she struggles to get her shinshi, Tomoe and Mizuki, to stop fighting with each other and get along, Nanami decides the shrine itself could use some love and attention, too.  A shrine's not much of a shrine if it has no worshipers, and Mikage's have been absent for years, so she comes up with a plan to hold a shrine festival to encourage the locals to visit.  But the townspeople think the shrine is a haunted ruin, and Nanami doesn't know the first thing about organizing a festival or performing her role as the current (human) kami, so she and the gang have their work cut out for them.

Aw, Tomoe and Mizuki don't exactly like each other, but they make up enough to understand one another a little better.  This volume nicely follows the festival plot while slipping in little moments that hint at backstory and future story arcs concerning Mikage, Kurama, Nanami's mysterious and colorful kami-tester, and a strange young festival attendee clad in black.

Kamisama Kiss: Volume 4

by Julietta Suzuki, 191 pages

Tomoe's been coming to school with Nanami to watch over her since her run-in with Mizuki, but he's not very good at "laying low" and draws a lot of admiring attention from the other girls in class.  Worldly-wise Kurama takes him aside and tells him to watch out or Nanami will fall for him, too.  Incredulous, Tomoe laughs such silliness off, but the tengu's warning proves well-founded.  Later, a trip to the beach leads to Nanami once more travelling back to the past, this time to save the object of her unrequited love.  But what she sees there only confuses her even more.

Poor Nanami, in love with a guy who says he refuses to get romantically involved with a human.  The reasons for his intransigence on the matter are a mystery, but she's a proud young woman and does her best to move forward and deal.  I love how Mizuki, who formerly tried to force her to marry him, gives himself renewed purpose in life by sneakily making himself her second shinshi and so becoming a part of the Mikage shrine family.  He was lonely and masterless before, so it makes me happy that he's neither anymore.

Vampire Knight: Volume 14

by Matsuri Hino, 188 pages

Yuki faces the memories Kaname has shared with her and asks him if they can start over from scratch.  But Sara Shirabuki, another pureblood who's been stirring up troubles and tensions lately within the vampire community as well as between them and the hunters, makes a move that may force his hand and ultimately change Yuki's life forever.

Oh my!  I don't want to spoil anyone, so I'll leave out the details.  Things have taken a dramatic turn that have the potential to change the story and relationship dynamics significantly.  Now we'll just have to watch and see what the characters do with this new situation.  Will they stubbornly keep to their professed paths?  Or will they adjust to deal with the realities before them?  I want to know!