Hey all, Dani here.
Here we are at another Monday, which is a bummer. I don’t like it when the weekend ends, and this week is especially upsetting because they declared an extra work day again, so instead of a four day work week, I get to work Friday as well. The overtime money will be nice, but I don’t like having the shorter weekend. Oh well.
Anyway, it’s time for another Manga Monday review, so let’s just get started.
Book Details
Art by: Waco Ioka
Original Story by: Midori Yuma
Character Design by: Laruba
Published by: VIZ Media
Summary
Faced with the choice of being married to a strange spirit or being made into dinner, Aoi decides to create a third option for herself!
Aoi Tsubaki inherited her grandfather’s ability to see spirits-and his massive debt to them! Now she’s been kidnapped and taken to Kakuriyo, the spirit world, to make good on his bill. Her options: marry the head of the inn her grandfather trashed, or get eaten by ayakashi. But Aoi isn’t the type to let spirits push her around, and she’s determined to redeem her grandfather’s IOU on her own terms!
Aoi wants to work off her debt to the Tenjin-ya inn, but she only has one day to find a position and none of the managers are willing to hire a human! If she can just get someone to see past her family background, Aoi is certain she can prove her worth!
My Thoughts
Rating: 4.5 stars
I’m glad I decided to give this series a try. I picked it up during the VIZ Media Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale at B&N. And then I just decided on a whim to get all 4 volumes B&N had instead of just the one…which is great because I ended up binge reading them all shortly after I got them.
I love how food focused this story is, though it also does make me hungry to read it. Honestly all of the food preparation parts made me think of so many Studio Ghibli films, because they also have a nice focus on the care and presentation of food. It makes sense. Taking the time to prepare food for someone is a nice way to share yourself. But yeah, I would definitely recommend having a snack handy while you’re reading. Just the descriptions and the appearance of all of the yummy food made my mouth water.
The art style is nice, and I’m finding all of the spirits/yokai that we have met so far to be fascinating, though obviously Genji is my favorite so far. There are so many characters introduced so far in this first volume, and they all have such interesting designs. I’m looking forward to learning more about the characters in future volumes.
So I think the only reason I’m not giving this a full 5 star rating is that I’m still trying to sort out some of the details of world-building and backstory. Still, this was a fun read, and I am definitely excited to continue the series.
Where to Get a Copy
You can buy your own copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore.
You can also check with your local library.
Free State of Geek 