September 7th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy 境界のRINNE/Kyōkai no RINNE
RIN-NE Manga Volume 06 Review
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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Tsubasa receives a visit from the devil, Masato, who points out that Tsubasa’s necklace can now curse Rinne. To aide this, Masato gives Tsubasa the Book of Devils. Although Tsubasa dislikes Rinne, he doesn’t want Tsubasa cursed. However, every time Rinne frustrates Tsubasa, Tsubasa subconsciously curses Rinne by accident. Tsubasa repeatedly attempts to destroy the book, but it always returns to him and each time, Tsubasa ends up accidentally cursing Rinne more and making his pendant darker. Rinne figures out this is Masato’s doing and confronts him, but another accidental curse has Rinne down. Tsubasa realizes that if he curses himself, it will begin to purify the stone in his pendant. It works and Rinne assists so that Tsubasa is able to send Masato packing. However, the stone starts going black again when Rinne manages to come between Tsubasa and Sakura.
An older girl named Yuki is being accused of robbing other students. Sakura and Rinne discover that this is a ghost and that the ghost is actually Yuki’s mother’s twin. Further investigation reveals that the ghost, Ranko, had been in love with a guy named Yuki, who married Ranko’s sister. Rinne gets Yuki-senpai to pretend to be her mother so that Ranko can apologize. However, showing Ranko her sister and brother-in-law has no effect since she doesn’t recognize them due to them now being middle aged.
Ageha is out hunting damashigami and encounters one that turns out to be an undercover shinigami. The young shinigami verbally abuses Ageha for her sister’s turning to work for the damashigami. Crying, the invisible Ageha flees to Rinne (and thus Sakura and Tsubasa). They are discussing it when the shinigami, Kain, decides to attack Rinne since Rinne is the son of the Damashigami Company president. Kain seizes Rinne’s life flame (knocking him out) and Haori of the Underworld as payment for what Rinne’s father has done. He says he will return them if Rinne’s things if the others help him find the Damashigami Company. If not, Rinne will die and the items will be sold.
When Kain leaves, Rinne’s ghost emerges and the group goes off to get the seized items from Kain. Crossing to the other world, Rinne’s ghost is drawn to the reincarnation wheel. A woman stops him from touching it and arriving at her house, they explain the situation. While the woman lives in a mansion, the power has been cut off. However, Sakura, Ageha, and Tsubasa are stunned when she produces Rinne’s life flame for light. Kain arrives and it turns out the woman is his mother, who’d been duped by Rinne’s father, explaining Kain’s targeting Rinne.
Kain has put sleeping pills in the others’ drink and all but Sakura fall asleep. He locks them into a storage closet and goes after Rinne’s ghost. Sakura wakes up Ageha and the others and they discover a large package for Rinne, sealed with a barrier that only Rinne can get past. Breaking out, they carry the package to Rinne’s ghost. The package is a present that was never delivered to Rinne and contains a giant ring-bracelet, which Kain suspects is the Ring of Judgement. He again seizes Rinne’s Haori of the Underworld as Sakura gets the ring to Rinne. The two of them find themselves back at Kain’s house where Sabato is again working over Kain’s mother. When Kain, Tsubasa, and Ageha return as well, Sabato attempts to make a retreat with a bunch of loot, but Rinne uses his bracelet to capture his father. Sabato manages to escape but the loot remains. Now that Rinne wears the Ring of Judgement bracelet, Kain can no longer seize Rinne’s life flame but still holds Rinne responsible even though Kain’s mother being smitten with Sabato is at the root of Kain’s family problems.
This volume of the manga really didn’t do much for me. I was entertained, for what its worth, but there’s just nothing there. I am LONG past being tired of Rinne’s father, Sabato. It is always going to be the same thing EVERY TIME HE SHOWS UP! Rinne gets accused of something, Sabato is to blame, Sabato has conned folks, Sabato has forged Rinne’s signature to do more bad things financially, Rinne is stuck with the bill, Sabato gets away, lather, rinse, repeat endlessly. Sorry Takahashi-sensei, but seriously, don’t you get tired of doing these same old tired routines after all these years? All of your major manga series have a character like Sabato and you ALWAYS bring them back over and over and over to do the same things over and over and over again. *_*
The story with Tsubasa accidentally cursing Rinne was fine with me because there, even though Tsubasa finds Rinne to be his rival for Sakura’s affections, he at least wanted to do the right thing and in the end, he did the right thing. So, I had no problems there.
The middle story with the dead aunt was OK I guess. It didn’t do anything for me though.
As to Viz, they use honorifics still, which you know meets with my approval. No translator notes nor any other extras, which is a disappointment. I did like seeing an ad for Hayate the Combat Butler at the end since that’s a manga I love.
Part of me wants to give up on RIN-NE as a series, but I think I’ll keep blogging them and then give the manga volumes to some of my sister’s kids when they get a little older. I’m guessing they’ll find them to be fine, not being saddled with Takahashi-sensei’s manga history. ^_~
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“Sorry Takahashi-sensei, but seriously, don’t you get tired of doing these same old tired routines after all these years?”
I think I read somewhere that she is one of the wealtheist female manga-ka so I’m gonna say, no. She sticks to what she knows. Also keep in mind that from certain patterns with other manga I’ve seen I think the Japanese manga population like things that use the same devices over-and-over again.
My advice is that I don’t think Rin-ne is going to change anytime soon. Unlike Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, and Inuyasha that preceeded this they all had qualities about their manga that nulled the Takahashi-effect.
Urusei Yatsura had an evolving art style and was just random.
Ranma 1/2 also had a changing art style, an excellent beginning (mainly because the early chapters took after Maison Ikkoku’s character building style), really good humor, and the last dozen volumes Takahashi pulled out her A-game.
Inuyasha had a great lead-up to the Naraku plotline, the Band of Seven arc, and a decent finale. Unfortunately, it suffered from a plot that could have been wrapped up in 20-less volumes it took.
Now, we have Rin-ne…
…
…
It’s basically the Rumiko Takahashi version of Bleach and that is NOT a good thing. There is very little that is engaging about the characters or their situations as it’s just Takahashi on auto-pilot. I do buy the volumes because I support Viz releasing this simultaneously with the Japanese version but outside of that it’s really hard to find anything truly interesting about this series.
I wonder if Sabato is eventually going to end up in that “debtor hell” that was shown a long time ago. Otherwise, why bother introducing it?
I think I read somewhere that she is one of the wealtheist female manga-ka so I’m gonna say, no. She sticks to what she knows.
Yeah, you are right, of course.
Also keep in mind that from certain patterns with other manga I’ve seen I think the Japanese manga population like things that use the same devices over-and-over again.
I’ve seen that too, but I guess it just really sticks out with me and Takahashi-sensei.
Urusei Yatsura had an evolving art style and was just random.
I’ve never read this but I’ll assume it is random like the anime is.
Ranma 1/2 also had a changing art style, an excellent beginning (mainly because the early chapters took after Maison Ikkoku’s character building style), really good humor, and the last dozen volumes Takahashi pulled out her A-game.
I know I’ve read this, but I must not have done a good job because I’m not remembering much. Then again, I read it after watching the entire TV series and well…^_^;;;
I do remember that the manga had stuff that wasn’t in the TV series or OVA’s (I think the ending is part of that).
Inuyasha had a great lead-up to the Naraku plotline, the Band of Seven arc, and a decent finale. Unfortunately, it suffered from a plot that could have been wrapped up in 20-less volumes it took.
Well, once the Shikon no Tama was pretty much found and put together, it then became a “how can I further delay ending this manga” before she finally, and mercifully, put the manga to an end.
It’s basically the Rumiko Takahashi version of Bleach and that is NOT a good thing.
I’ve not read any Bleach and I only watched the first anime episode. Back then, I had decided when the anime came out that I’d just wait until it was done and then watch it, not realizing it would become something never ending like One Piece, Naruto, or the like. ^_^;;;
There is very little that is engaging about the characters or their situations as it’s just Takahashi on auto-pilot. I do buy the volumes because I support Viz releasing this simultaneously with the Japanese version but outside of that it’s really hard to find anything truly interesting about this series.
Yeah, I agree totally there. Reading the stories once is OK, but I noticed after volume 3 that I really had no interest in rereading the manga, unlike the other manga in my bookcase.
I wonder if Sabato is eventually going to end up in that “debtor hell” that was shown a long time ago. Otherwise, why bother introducing it?
Well, anything is possible, but I get no sense that Takahashi-sensei is introducing anything beyond doing so for the moment. The “debtor hell” you mentioned may show up again, but basically, I see it being done for similar reasons as it was done initially.
You mean it was a spur-of-the-moment thing by Takahashi? I can believe that too. The entire manga feels like she’s writing it week-to-week with little overall planning beforehand.
As for Ranma, it came out ages ago (I was three years old when the anime began). I wouldn’t blame you for not remembering it, not that there’s much to remember anyways. There are four “longer” arcs, but even they only last for a couple of chapters each. Almost the entire manga is nothing but one-shot chapters, like reading (or watching) an entire series of filler episodes.
You mean it was a spur-of-the-moment thing by Takahashi? I can believe that too. The entire manga feels like she’s writing it week-to-week with little overall planning beforehand.
I think she plans the different stories, but in essence, I agree with you. I don’t think she has her next story planned until she finishes the current one.
As for Ranma, it came out ages ago (I was three years old when the anime began). I wouldn’t blame you for not remembering it, not that there’s much to remember anyways. There are four “longer” arcs, but even they only last for a couple of chapters each. Almost the entire manga is nothing but one-shot chapters, like reading (or watching) an entire series of filler episodes.
Ah. Maybe that’s why I’m having difficulty. Then again, I’m having a hard time remembering anime episodes. ^_^;;;
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