Manga Review: The Haunted Bookstore Vol. 1 story by Shinobumaru, art by Medamayaki
Kaori Muramoto has lived in the spirit realm since she was very young. She feels at home there, even though she is a human being. Kaori loves helping her adoptive father Shinonome run his bookshop, which rents and sells books to various spirit beings. Her days are largely peaceful, spent with friends and neighbors.
One day, there’s a new human in the spirit world. Shirai Suimei is an exorcist from a wealthy family. For reasons he’d rather not discuss, Suimei is unable to use his exorcist abilities right now, and has come to the spirit world to seek out an unnamed being for motives that are unclear. He’s rather spoiled, kind of rude, and not good with emotions. But he’s willing to pay for a place to stay, so for now he’s living at the Haunted Bookstore.
This manga series is based on a light novel by Shinobumaru, and we’re very much in the early chapters here with plenty of mysteries and backstory to uncover.
Kaori is a kindhearted girl with no immediately obvious special abilities, despite her residence in the spirit world. She is, however, well liked there, and familiar with its customs and hidden paths. Suimei has only been taught how to fight and banish spirits, not interact with them as people. With his powers in abeyance, he feels kind of useless, and is irritable to say the least. He begins to open up just a bit as Kaori guides him around the spirit world and introduces him to spirits that aren’t attacking humans.
Recurring characters are Kinme and Ginme, tengu (crow) brothers who are carefree and love pestering Suimei. (A text story at the end of the volume focuses on this love.) Also important are Noname the apothecary and Nyaa the multi-tailed cat.
Interestingly, most of the bookstore parts of the story involve reading aloud to someone else. This is part of the theme of kindness. The most strikingly alien part of this first volume is when Hatsu and Sasuke the cicada children come by. They’re friends with Kaori, but there’s a time limit.
Another text chapter at the end has Kaori and Noname discussing love, and Kaori discovering for the first time that she might be open to romance. But she’s pretty sure not with the obnoxious Suimei.
The art is decent, though I think the humanoid spirits tend to be too prettified. Also, the nose shadows look wonky from time to time. The writing is okay but it’s difficult to tell if the story will take off in future volumes or just wander aimlessly until time to wrap up.
Content note: Kinme and Ginme don’t understand human emotions, so their teasing can cross the line. We see in flashback the Suimei was encouraged to suppress his emotions by his family. Junior high readers on up should be okay.
This volume is pretty average; you may want to hear how the rest of the series goes before investing. Best so far for fans of relaxed fantasy.
