境界のRINNE/Kyōkai no RINNE
RIN-NE Manga Volume 05 Review

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ageha discovers her older sister is dating the head of the Damashigami company and that he is also Rinne’s father. She’s angry and feels betrayed and attacks Rinne while his father and her sister sneak off.  Going in pursuit, Ageha falls for every damashigami trick but doesn’t want Rinne’s help. Rinne is about to give up on her when she’s attacked by a giant damashigami that she can’t handle. Rinne saves her and she’s grateful, gripping him from behind. Sakura sees this and naturally assumes there’s something romantic going on between them.

Ageha makes a giant bento for Rinne, further causing Sakura to believe that Rinne and Ageha are a couple now despite Rinne’s protests. However, the lunch is possessed with a spirit that looks like an octopus-shaped mini sausage. Rinne is thinking of how he’d really like to be alone with Sakura and the thing grants his wish. After Rinne gives his third wish, it will take his soul. Rinne wants it to shut up (wish 2) and talks to Sakura to explain things but she appears not to care. Outside, Ageha and Tsubasa are frantic to get back into the classroom and eventually she makes it and attacks the spirit.

Sakura and Tsubasa hear talk of tracked library shelves that will no longer move. They find the spirit of a grand champion tosa dog there. Further investigation leads to the ghost of a dead female student, whom Ageha finds. It turns out she had placed a love note for a boy who was in love with another girl into a book but then was killed in an accident and never retrieved the note. The dog, who’s still alive, had been sent to find the book but not being able to find it, its spirit guarded the place instead. With the note found and destroyed, the girl passes on.

Injured track star Shu has a request for Rinne to help his kohai Riku, who has taken over for Shu on the track but now suddenly is tripping all the time. Riku is frustrated, more so because he blames himself for Shu’s injury, having tossed a banana peel aside which Shu tripped on. Rinne discovers that Riku’s tripping is due to Shu’s spirit gripping Riku’s ankle and lamenting having slipped. Shu is unaware of his spirit doing this so Rinne and Sakura come up with a plan to have Shu’s spirit race Riku. They do and Riku wins but Shu’s spirit doesn’t return.  Further investigation reveals that Riku’s spirit has been haunting Shu, filled with regret over the accident, which Rinne gets them to resolve.

In the final story, Tsubasa finds his spirit stone, buried under the Haunted Tree to gain power, has become corrupted. The ghost of a boy named Yota, with a giant yo-yo, is there. Sakura remembers him and at the mention of her name, Yota turns angry and attacks, forcing Rinne to get involved. Turns out that when Yota was alive, he used a yo-yo to do tricks and try to lift girl’s skirts. However, Sakura was better than him at the yo-yo and could thwart him at every turn. Rinne expels the evil spirit affecting Yota’s ghost and purges it. Sakura sees Yota still at the tree and discovers her old yo-yo buried there. When she tells the regretful Yota that she’ll give it to Sakura, he departs for the other side.

Thoughts/Review:

While I’ve liked Sakura for mostly being a steady character not given to emotional outbursts, I seriously dislike Takahashi-sensei’s having Sakura’s character purposefully assume things and hear what she wants to hear when it comes to Rinne and other girls, especially Ageha.  Naturally, explanations don’t work because Sakura only sees and hears what she wants to in order to fit into her assumptions, in this case that Rinne and Ageha are a couple. I don’t like that at all, no sir.  However, I guess this was the only way Takahashi-sensei could get her much beloved, multi-layered love triangles into the story.  *_*

As to the stories themselves, they are fine and entertaining for what they are worth.  However, I wouldn’t want to live in whatever town/city Rinne and Sakura live in, or at least have children there.  Seriously, how many dead students have Rinne and company run into since this series started?  All of the accidents and whatever else that’s slaughtering all these kids must mean this area that they live in is a death trap.  I guess Takahashi-sensei must have sensed that all of the student ghosts were a bit much so she had the two male students have their spirits leave their bodies without their bodies knowing it for a change of pace.  ^_^;;;

While this manga series isn’t anything to write home about, I plan to continue reading it and supporting Viz here, especially since they are adapting it the way I like — full Japanese honorific usage (well, save for the brother/sister honorifics but I guess we can’t have everything).