What carried me through this volume was my memories of liking the first few episodes of the anime. So far, the manga isn't very promising. The characters are composed of a single joke slapped onto pretty character designs: the ninja teacher who's deathly afraid of traveling in vehicles (he even hates using bicycles); Raimei, who keeps mistaking people for being someone else; Miharu and his devilishness and massive indifference. As far as I can remember, the anime characters weren't any different, but for some reason it was more fun to watch them than it was to read about them.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Sort of like a Bleach meets Naruto.... ( )

Miharu is an apathetic young man who is unwilling drawn to his destiny when his fate as the keeper of all knowledge is revealed to him. Hunted by the Grey Wolf Clan and protected by an odd group of shinobi lead by his sensei, a conversational English instructor at his school Miharu finds himself doing the impossible and a slave to a destiny more powerful than his disregard.

Typically I'm not the biggest fan of shonen manga, preferring the more romantic storyline, however, this was a very intriguing story that easily held my interest. I really like Miharu. I tend to think his apathy is more of a self-protective instinct and I really love the flashes of wicked humor and guile he uses at odd times. The story moves along very quickly and by the end of this volume we have traveled far from where we started. I find this unusual in that most manga move in very episodic ways without as much progress in the story in one volume as this showed. The artwork is all well done although some of the backgrounds lack detail it was overall enjoyable and easy to take in.

I also have to add in here that I found this manga much more understandable than the first episode of the anime. The progression of the story lends the quick flashback near the middle of the book more background then when you are first dumped into the same scene in the anime. It is much more understandable in this context.

This is an interesting supernatural tale that I'm looking forward to reading more of. ( )