Ghost Slayers Ayashi, Volume One

Living through tough times isn’t easy. Today’s failing economy, the high cost of food and energy, the mortgage crisis, all impact our daily lives. But what if it could get worse? What if, to top off all our current woes, supernatural fiends disrupted our daily lives in ways we could never imagine?

The Tenpo Era was a time in Japan when misfortune upon misfortune was heaped on the land. In Ghost Slayers Ayashi, which takes place in the volatile Tenpo Era, life might not be getting better, but some spirit-busting secret agents are making sure it doesn’t get any worse.

Ghost Slayers Ayashi Manga Cover

Plot Summary

It is a tumultuous, dangerous time for Japan in the era of Tenpo. Famine and desperate living conditions have fanned the fires of insurrection, making all of Edo a powder keg ready to explode. To make matters worse, youi, harmful and evil supernatural creatures, have invaded the city and the surrounding areas, threatening the locals.

But a secret organization, The Office of Barbarian Knowledge, stands against these malevolent spirits. The agents of the Office are men and women skilled in magic and combat and are ever vigilante. They are responsible for protecting mankind from youi. They are Ayashi.

Review

Ayashi has a lot of cultural history bound up in its pages. It’s much like taking a superficial peek back into an era of Japan that doesn’t get much face time in anime and manga. It’s part of the appeal of the manga that the backdrop feels authentic. And then the manga brings to life traditional Japanese myths and supernatural creatures, just as they’ve been portrayed in stories for centuries, and invents a society to fight them.

The society itself has agents who also employ a few abilities which hark from the native mythos in their combat techniques. The Office and the spirits are tied together to make a story in a time that never was but could have been, with a little magic.

Manga Panel 01

The manga is a fun read that’s not too deep, not too dark, nor too sedate. There’s action to go around in the pages, and just enough mystery to have a “Gotcha!” moment or two in the stories. Some things blindside readers with twists and turns that come out of nowhere. The groundwork for some of these moments are laid so deftly, there’s a moment of “Oh, yeah, shoulda seen that one coming.” Especially in the last story of the manga.

Story

Ghost Slayers’ premiere volume is laid out in two stories. The first introduces readers to the Office’s members, and their top agent, Yukiatsu Ryuodo, aka, Yuki- a seemingly indolent, lazy man in his late thirties. Yuki and the other agents of the office track down all rumors concerning supernatural occurrences and search for the truth in them.

If the rumors prove to be youi, the agents must find the best way to defeat the creature. The bulk of the story however, is dedicated to discovering who or what is the cause of the problem. After the culprit is found, it’s go time, and the agents then show they have what it takes to go head to head with noxious fiends. Ayashi is both detective story and action/ adventure, and invites readers in to share in the investigation by offering up sympathetic, believable characters.

Character Development

It’s easy to connect with the characters in the stories in the way they’re portrayed. Their background and motives are clearly defined in their words, facial expressions and actions. Motives are key to solving any mystery and the characters in Ghost Slayers all have plenty and are explained well. The only folks without a motive for their actions are the Ayashi.

Why they do what they do is unclear, but who they are is given little by little in small interactions and conversations here and there. Yuki seems very much to be the layabout he appears to be, but there’s more to him and the rest of the Office that hasn’t been inked yet.

Character Design

Manga Panel 02

The manga has taken the Tenpo Period and created it as faithfully as can be hoped for in a manga, with creative license taken with a few of the youi. Men wear kimono, women are styled with traditional fashions and tatami abounds.

Most of the people are drawn more realistically than not, and are heavy with expressive details. Characters, have, well, character in Ghost Slayers. People have wrinkles, smile lines and scars. The expressions are easy to read and are abundant. Tiny little touches like these make the characters more human, more able to connect with, not to mention it makes good art.

Art

Yaeko Ninagawa inked Ghost Slayers and did a very fine and clean job of it. The art is as expressive as the characters themselves. Ninagawa has a good eye for lighting and perspective. The pages don’t feel flat or dull, they feel dynamic from the readers point of view.

The line weights are delicate, which give the pages a light feel. Darkness is not pervasive in the manga, but the panels which are dark are unique in the way they’re varied. Some panels are defined with different types of block shading, others with cross hatching and others a combination of the two. It’s a style that is consistent in its high quality and clean detailing which doesn’t feel heavy or smudged.

Production

Ghost Slayers has two pages of translation notes in the back of the manga along with a few excerpts of the manga in the original Japanese. Free kanji practice!

Conclusion

Ghost Slayers Ayashi is a manga that’s easy to get into and fast to finish. The stories read like mini supernatural mysteries from feudal Japan and are intriguing culture lessons to boot. I like the way minor characters feel “real”. And I like that even though I’m not Japanese and living in the Tenpo Era, I’ve got a front row seat to some mythical Tenpo action.