Rasetsu, Vol. 4

Okay this one is filled with ghosts who need help moving on. A bit like some of the tv series out there now, it is filled with yummy males and a teenaged heroine who eats too much sugar. The backstory is filling in nicely. The more we learn about the background of the suporting characters the more I am pullng for this series. Deciding which of the young men our heroine should end up with is a humdinger!

Rasetsu really comes to its potential in Volume 4, where relationships get more intense and the action more dramatic. Some of the spirits faced are far more personal than before, while others are just there to advance the plot.We learn a little bit about Kuryu's tragic past in this volume, leading to sympathy on the parts of both Rasetsu and Yako. The animosity between Kuryu and Yako is far greater, with Kuryu seeing Yako as a threat to his chances with Rasetsu. Kuryu is willing to play dirty to get what he wants, while Rasetsu is oblivious to their fighting, thinking they're great buddies. She has her own problems with Yako, whom she confesses to, but with less than satisfactory results. After traumatic events on her birthday, Kuryu reveals to her his feelings, leaving the volume with a bit of a cliffhanger.As for the actual events, everyone in the agency ends up trapped in an elevator, in part due to Kuryu's meddling. Yako falls sick and is too weak to keep his shields up, leaving Rasetsu and a reluctant Kuryu to help. An arsonist is haunted by a ghost of someone he accidentally killed, which leads to Rasetsu being out at midnight on her 19th birthday, where a very unwelcome visitor shows up.This is the best volume by far, with everything becoming more interesting and more intense. If you've been meaning to pick up Rasetsu, this should be the kick to get you involved.

Rasetsu is cursed. When she turns twenty, a demon will come and collect her unless she has found her true love before then. Now in her late teens, Rasetsu has had this curse since she was fifteen.While she is looking for her true love, much of her life is also taken up by her job. She's a psychic working as an exorcist with other psychics at the Hiichiro Amakawa Agency. Two of her coworkers, Yako and Kuryu, seem like likely candidates for the whole love thing.But it can't be that simple. On one hand, Rasetsu is set up with a series of stories dealing with various exorcisms. Alongside this is the thread that permeates throughout-- being able to defeat the demon. Rasetsu looks for her love at the same time she wonders if her powers will be enough to defeat the demon by the time she turns twenty.While initially the exorcism stories were of more importance, they now feel as if they've taken a back seat to the Kuryu-Yako-Rasetsu love triangle. The exorcisms are still there, of course, but the relationship stuff is increasing in importance. Rasetsu decides she loves Yako, but Kuryu declares he loves Rasetsu. Rasetsu turns Kuryu down, and when she confesses her feelings to Yako, he doesn't give her a direct answer. He's been in love with a dead girl and Rasetsu's convinced he'll never love anyone else. Originally I preferred Kuryu over Yako for her pick, but in these volumes a new, disturbing side of him is being shown. That changes things.Volume three started out not feeling up to par with earlier volumes, since the characters' biggest problem is getting out of a stuck elevator. By the end of the volume, though, things had really picked up. In the final pages, Rasetsu turns nineteen and is again confronted by the demon that wants her, and this seems to put it all back on track. Parts of these volumes go out of the way to be goofy (like Rasetsu's insatiable appetite for cakes and eating them like a sea otter), while other parts are deathly serious (like when Kuryu talks about the deaths of his family members). This gives the reader different feelings depending on what page they're on. I enjoy the supernatural stuff, and while the new side of Kuryu is disappointing for anyone rooting for him, it does make a good twist in the story.-- Danica Davidson