Manga Review: Sengoku Youko

Title: Sengoku Youko
Author: Satoshi Mizukami
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: A

Impression: This is about a pair of travelling demon slayers who punish the evil to mete out justice and to spread kindness throughout the world by helping others. One of them is a human who has the ability to turn into a demon by drinking some of his demon stepsister’s blood. The brother hates humans for hurting his demon friends while the other thinks just the opposite. The moment I saw the cover I immediately wondered to myself if this was going to turn out like Inuyasha. For some aspects of the story, I’d have to say yes but the plot in focused more on the hypocrisy of the ruling religion rather than any romance. In fact, I can’t find any trace of a romance in this story at all. I do like how they show that the religious group is made of individuals with their own goals rather than a group of zealots who discriminate demons just because of what they are. Unfortunately I find this to be the weakest of the author’s works that I’ve read so far since it’s working with a concept that’s been done to death. Characters are still interesting but I wish there was more to it than that.