Manga Review: Bokkesan

“Hinomiya is a quiet student who never says anything, but has a supernatural power. He saved Shijiro Sayu a number of years ago when she was falling, and since then she has considered him a friend. One day, an unnatural murder occurs, and a little girl escaping the killers runs into Hinomiya and Shijiro, with the supernatural villains not far behind!

-Nins Leprechaun” - Mangafox.com

—-

Personally, I love folklore. I simply adore everything from Greek and Norse gods* to Japanese mythology. This is why I originally started reading Bokkesan. This manga takes an interesting take on yōkai**. It goes so far as calling them Bokke, a term I have never heard before or ever again, instead of kami*** or yōkai. I am no expert so I cannot tell you if Bokke is an actual term nor can I say if all the characters are actual representations of their “real” counterparts. I also cannot tell you if the characters are based on anything and are simply original creations. But I can say that even if these characters are not accurate or are based off anything in Japanese folklore, they are extremely interesting never-the-less.

This is a good manga. Everything is done well but nothing is done amazingly well. But I am recommending this manga because of this mangaka’s next work, Muhyo to Rouji, which is amazing. What makes this manga interesting is seeing the evolution of the mangaka who wrote it. By looking at Bokkesan and then Muhyo to Rouji you can see what the mangaka liked and didn’t like and how he improved over time. What makes this mangaka such a good example is that Bokkesan is a relatively short series and Muhyo to Rouji is very simular to it’s predecessor. This makes noticing the similarities easy and since both are good mangas and the enjoyment level increases dramatically.

*I don’t know if they actually fall under the category of folklore.

**Japanese for Demon/Spirit/Monster.

***Also Japanese for spirits but think of these as gods rather than demons.

Available here