Maddies Manga

Nanoka is a young girl who one day is suddenly teleported into a shopping district of 1920’s Japan!? To make matters even stranger, almost all of the people she sees in the street are transparent. And the one opaque stranger she meets in the district accuses her of being an ayakashi—just what is going on!?

You can check out volume one of this series for yourself below!

Author

This series was written by Rumiko Takahashi.

This is the author of Inuyasha, and Ranma 1/2!

Genre & Tropes

Fantasy, drama, adventure, time travel.

Info about this series (ongoing)

There are currently 28 volumes in Japanese, and 25 in English.

This series will soon be getting an anime! You can watch it on Disney plus here.

TL;DR rating

I really enjoyed this volume! The author throws you in in the middle of the chaos, and doesn’t give you much time to sit down and digest. The face paced action of the 1920’s, ayakashi-infested Japan, and the slow paced daily life of modern Japan give a good balance to this volume.

Official Synopsis

Nanoka passes through a portal into the Taisho era, where exorcist Mao reluctantly rescues her from the jaws of a grotesque yokai. When Nanoka gets back to the present, she discovers she has some new, incredible abilities. She returns to the past looking for answers, only to get caught up in Mao’s investigation of a series of gruesome murders. As her questions about herself multiply, Nanoka learns that Mao is cursed by a cat demon named Byoki—and so is his sword. If anyone but Mao attempts to wield it, they are doomed. But when Mao’s life is in jeopardy, Nanoka picks up his blade and swings!

My thoughts on this volume (Slight Spoilers!)

This volume felt eerily similar to Inuyasha. While the overall tone and characters of the two stories are quite different, the plots are just too similar to deny. Both stories feature a young high schooler protagonist who is suddenly teleported to an ancient Japan full of monsters. There, they make an ally out of a differently supernatural being, and begin an adventure together. Both protagonists can also choose when to move from the past to the present.

Thankfully, as a huge fan of Inuyasha, these similarities didn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, it almost felt like I was coming home to an old friend waiting for me. While there are indeed similarities between the two series, MAO is different enough that it doesn’t suffer from them. Just from my impressions of volume one, I assume that MAO will have absolutely no romance. It’s quite a bit darker and more series in tone than Inuyasha, and I have been enjoying it so far!

The protagonist of this story is a rather peculiar young woman. When she first meets the exorcist Mao back in 1920’s Japan, he assumes that she is just another ayakashi. Despite the fact that she is just a normal high school student, for some reason, she does indeed have some ayakashi characteristics. Because this is such a fast-paced story, we’re never actually given an explicit explanation as to exactly why Nanoka is so ayakashi-like. While Mao does theorize some potential reasons, nothing is ever for certain. I actually quite liked that we were kept in the dark, as I prefer the “show, don’t tell” method of storytelling. While as of the end of volume one we are left to assume that she and Mao were both cursed by the same creature, nothing is for certain.

Watching Nanoka slowly become more and more ayakashi-like with the sharp teeth and cat eyes after meeting Mao was a little concerning, but also made me really want to continue reading on! Exactly what did Mao do to her to make her like that? And why did he assume that she was an ayakashi at a glance when they first met? I just have so many questions!

While Nanoka spends this volume traveling back and forth between past Japan and present-day Japan, I much preferred the story when it was focusing on the past. During the present scenes, we follow Nanoka go to school, live with her relatives, and try to live an average school life. It was just a tad boring for me when compared with all of the excitement that past Japan has to offer. I would choose an action-packed, ayakashi-filled story over watching a high schooler being forced to drink questionable smoothies and go to school any day of the week.