Rin-ne 4

Rumiko Takahashi – Viz – 2010 – 4+ volumes

Ah, this is starting to grow on me a little. It’s still not nearly as good as what I’ve read so far of Inu-Yasha, possibly because there’s not much of a driving force behind the plot aside from Rin-ne being poor and earning money. Rin-ne and Sakura are still rather flavorless as far as characters go, but their relationship does develop a little in this volume. I don’t know if you could call it a romance just yet, but all the same, it’s in here.

The stories are pretty fun this time around, though, and reveal a lot about Rin-ne. We learn about Damashigami, shinigami that kidnap souls not scheduled to die in order to collect extra money, and they play a rather large role in this volume. We also meet Rin-ne’s deadbeat and carefree father, who loves women and spending money. There is a Ranma 1/2-style shinigami fight between Rin-ne and his father later in the volume, and everyone gets involved, including Sakura, Rokumon, and Tsubasa, along with a bunch of other afterlife residents and some cuts of beef. It’s fairly entertaining, though I prefer the fights in Ranma. Rin-ne’s father is really funny though, mostly because he does everything with a straight face and is incredibly persistent and devious. He’s my favorite character so far.

Another new story arc starts towards the end of the volume, introducing another new character named Ageha, a shinigami with a grudge against someone who looks like Rin-ne. I’m… not very excited by this. While it proves that Rin-ne’s father will be back, I’m not all that interested in new side characters since Tsubasa, the one most recently introduced, has been tagging along with no purpose whatsoever through this entire volume. I have no idea why he’s still around, except to remind us that Rin-ne’s non-existent romantic angle with Sakura can be challenged at any time.

There were some cute romantic beginnings here, though. I like that Rin-ne is at least thinking about whether he likes Sakura “in that way.” I don’t think Sakura is, but that’s all right. I’m patient. I’m going to keep reading this series, even if it’s just to act as filler between the Inu-Yasha Big volumes. This is definitely not her best work, but it’s still pretty comfortable and familiar, and it is free and current over at the Shounen Sunday website.