Rin-ne 2
Posted: January 7, 2010 Filed under: Rin-ne 3 Comments »Rumiko Takahashi – Viz – 2010 – 2+ volumes
Cool! I forgot that volumes of this would be coming out every few months. I stopped reading the weekly chapters in favor of just buying the volumes, but I keep hoping the volumes will hook me to the point where I’ll desperately need the weekly chapters.
It’s still not nearly as good as my favorite works by her (Ranma 1/2, that great first VizBig volume of Inu-Yasha, and Mermaid Saga, which isn’t a fair comparison), but it is starting to grow on me. That carryover story from last volume with the ghost haunting Sakura’s classmate is only okay, but I had to laugh at the ending, where the characters use a mirror to peer into the unlikely past lives of strangers, and I laughed even harder when the ghost found what he was looking for. That was probably the highlight of the book for me.
The next story involves a difficult ghost that seems to want to move on, but Rinne can’t seem to figure out how to get her to do so. This one’s probably my favorite so far just because I like the ghost so much, and the outcome is suitably goofy and out of left field, but it didn’t top that past life business from the former ghost.
The last story seems to involve a Ryoga Hibiki-like rival for Rinne in the form of a weird devil. The devil does things that seem inordinately stupid, and that Rinne recognizes as traps… and in fact they are traps, and not particularly clever ones, but ones that Rinne has to spring nonetheless. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this character, because on one hand, it’s genius to have a character like this that continually sets himself up for failure and succeeds anyway. On the other hand, he’s continually setting himself up for failure. Actually, yes, he’s just a genius character, and although the gags surrounding him (and most of the series, for that matter) are kind of tired, I do hope he comes back eventually. Unusually, his story finishes with the end of the volume, so there’s no cliffhanger.
Sadly, the plot is not developing. Unfortunately, Rinne seems to be working himself even deeper into debt, which just feels bad. I mean, the guy does so much work for 300 yen, he doesn’t really deserve to be cheated, GetBackers-like, out of all the money he earns and more. I also keep hoping for more information about the afterlife. It’s true that we get to see a glimpse into Hell in this volume, and that’s interesting, but not much comes of it. I also keep hoping that somehow Sakura will be drawn into the shinigami role somehow too, even though… yeah, it’s kind of to be expected. Maybe it’s just because I feel like that it might bring Sakura and Rinne closer together, too, because they still just hang out together and have no chemistry or even interesting back-and-forth conversations. When those two start being even a little friendly (not necessarily romantic), that will likely be the point the series starts getting really good.
As of now, though, it’s still got fun stories, and is a decent read, but has yet to blow my socks off like a good Rumiko Takahashi series should. I liked this volume more than the last, so I’m going to keep reading and hope that it keeps improving. Again, you can check out the chapters weekly at the Viz Rin-ne website, so feel free to give it a test run to see how you like it. It’s episodic, so it’s easy to pick up wherever you’d like to start.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
I really liked the mirror story, or at least the level of cynicism therein. It was the exact opposite of pretty much all other stories that use reincarnation as a plot device.
I liked ending, but I didn’t really find it funny. The ghost found everything he said he was looking for, but not in the physical package he was expecting. The teacher seems like a really nice person.
I’m guessing you’re meant to find it funny and agree the new combination isn’t workable, though.
I thought it was funny because, just as you said, it’s the exact opposite of all other reincarnation stories where the person looks exactly like they did hundreds of years ago. The ghost’s increasing desperation as it cycles through reincarnation possibilities is also very humorous, and I also thought the contrast between his memory of the girl and the drawing was funny. There was a lot of unusual humor that kept building on the twist, but you’re right, he was a shallow character.
I never liked anything I’ve read from Takahashi (the first couple volumes of Ranma, first volume of Gospel, and just a little bit of Inuyasha) but have really enjoyed this.
I like that the two main characters are kind of matter of fact about things and aren’t a couple (doubt it will stay that way for long though). I even find a good bit of the humor and reoccurring jokes not so bad. I never would of figured that I like this series from my previous experiences with her series.