Togari, Vol. 1 (1) Paperback – July 10, 2007

Tobei has been tortured in Hell for 300 years now for committing horrible atrocities while he was alive, but he's never repented for the crimes against humanity that he committed. In fact, he's more defiant than ever. Lady Ema, kinda like the warden of Hell, offers him an out. She gives him 108 days to collect 108 sins, or "Toga". Toga are sins which have taken corporeal form in the shape of various monsters which are able to possess humans. Tobei is given "Togari", a wooden sword which can be used to defeat Toga. If he can complete this mission in the allotted time, Tobei will be pardoned and freed from Hell. One of the catches to the deal is that he cannot harm any humans, even if they are being controlled by Toga. He can only attack the Toga itself. If he goes against this edict, his head will fall off and he will die. Yes, even though he can take a lot of damage, he can still die, and if he does, he goes back to Hell for an even longer tenure.Togari reminded me of a cross between Inuyasha and Bleach. Inuyasha because Tobei, just like Inuyasha, wishes he was more evil than he really is. Even though both put up a gruff exterior, they really have a big soft spot in their hearts. This applies less to Tobei, but when he saves a young high school girl named Itsuki from a serial rapist killer, he might just have found his first friend in his entire life and death. Obviously, something horrible happened to the guy in the distant past to give him such an attitude. Just like with Bleach's Hollows, the designs of the Toga are pretty laughable, but are a TAD better than Bleach's downright goofy monster designs. In an afterword, the author even says he WANTED to make the Toga designs a little funny. To me, if you do a series like this, at least make the monsters scary-looking. I don't expect Togari to get much better or worse than this first volume and it seems to be squarely locked into the demon bashing of the week mentality with very little chance to deepen. Still, it's an ok read.