Manga Review: Mao Volumes 8-10 by Rumiko Takahashi
Note: The following review has SPOILERS for previous volumes. Check out my earlier posts.
Quick recap: Nanoka Kiba’s parents were killed in a bizarre car crash when she was little. When she’s a teenager, Nanoka learns that a local shopping arcade functions as a portal between the 21st Century and Taisho Era Japan. There she meets a healer and onmyouji named Mao, who’s been alive since the Heian Era. They turn out to be connected by the cat ayakashi Byoki, which wants one of them to be its host. Mao’s fellow apprentices from the Goko Clan are also alive, and some of them want to kill him!
In the aftermath of the undersea battle, eyewitness testimony states that Mao did not, in fact, murder the love of his life Sana, contradicting what other apprentices had been told. Natsuno goes walkabout again. Nanoka and Mao have a bit of a confrontation; he’s concerned about her safety, but she isn’t convinced he actually notices her or cares about her feelings.
When next they meet, Mao goes out of his way to pay attention to Nanoka, and she realizes that she’s catching romantic feelings for him. (I am so disappointed.) He also starts training Nanoka a bit more in magic.
At this point, a new plot element is introduced, spells and cursed items that were looted from the Goko Clan storehouses after the disaster that ended the school. The first is a scroll that contains a slasher beast that possesses humans. The family with the scroll has used the beast’s powers to advance their interests for generations, but the current holder has a weak will and the beast is dominant.
That man’s younger brother Soma knows that he should end the legacy here, but the temptation to gain the beast’s power is strong. Stronger than his gratitude to Mao and Nanoka, and metal-user Hakubi is able to take advantage of this.
This leads to a battle which also introduces cursed needle user Kagari. The intervention of fire-user Hyakka and Nanoka taking a more active combat role manages to bring the fight to a draw.
The volume concludes with an eerie case of a blind patient escaping the hospital each night to eat graveyard dirt.
Volume 9 opens with Natsuno returning to assist with the graveyard dirt case. This leads into a mystery–it seems Natsuno isn’t one of the apprentices who was assigned to kill Mao in the Five-sided Temple. But if that’s the case, how is she still alive?
Natsuno then asks Mao and company, accompanied by plant-user Kamon, to help her investigate rumors of villages disappearing after being entertained by a traveling acting troupe. It’s not quite what was expected, but Natsuno drops some more lore.
In the “present day”, it’s now 2020, and Nanoka is in high school, but COVID-19 exists in this timeline.
When she returns to the Taisho Era, Nanoka is assigned to go undercover at a girls’ finishing school that’s been having problems with curses. This turns out to be the work of a familiar enemy. The enemy is forced to retreat, but leaves her mark on Nanoka.
The spell forces Nanoka into a meeting with Yurako, the mysterious woman with Sana’s face. Yurako begins telling part of her backstory and why she’s obsessed with Mao….
Volume 10 continues Yurako’s backstory. She’s obviously hiding certain parts of what’s up, but Nanoka feels intimidated by the other woman’s deep interest in Mao.
Next up is several wealthy men spontaneously combusting one by one. Hyakka, the expert on fire, is called in for this one. The assassin is a biwa player named Renji the Funeral Pyre. He makes the mistake of killing a pimp who was abusing a little girl in the street. Not that anyone’s going to mourn that asshole, but the break from his paid activities allows Hyakka and the gang to trace him.
Unfortunately, it turns out that what the rich victims had in common was that they wanted peace and stood in the way of the military. This lets our heroes realize that the obvious puppetmaster is Hakubi. Renji is no match for a more experienced fire master, backed up by the fearsome Mao. He escapes, but not without cost.
Behind the scenes, we meet Mei Mitazono, a healer who tends the Garden of Longevity for water mage Shiranui. She seems to be either very dedicated to healing, or amoral.
Hyakka and team confront Hakubi, who reveals that part of the plan is to revive the Goko clan’s assassination and cursing businesses in full in the modern (1920s) world. We also get more information on why Hakubi hates Hyakka in particular, and why the fire user joined the Goko clain in the first place.
Nanoka has realized that she is better suited for physical combat than spellwork, so she wants her own magical weapon rather than having to borrow Mao’s cursed blade. This leads into the tale of a sword that may or may not be drinking blood, but is definitely not normal. Is the widow a victim of a curse, or its originator?
These volumes introduce several new continuing characters that fill out the enemy ranks, and expand the possible combination of story and character pairings. The art and writing continue to be good, and there’s enough backstory being doled out to make it feel like the tale is progressing. (Plus Nanoka experiences a current event!)
I’m less happy that a romantic subplot between Nanoka and Mao has been made more obvious.
Still recommended to time travel fantasy fans.
