Say hello to Kain, a shinigami clerk who records human life spans! Rinne’s father, Sabato, owes Kain’s mother a ton of money. As collateral, Kain takes something precious from Rinne. But when Sabato returns home to the scene, Rinne’s in a whole bunch of trouble!

By Rumiko Takashashi
Publisher: Viz Media – Shonen Sunday
Age Rating: 13+
Genre: Supernatural/Comedy
Price: $9.99
Rating:

This volume starts out with some short chapter stories. Tsubasa still has the power stone he found at the end of last volume, but it’s been tainted with darkness, which gives the demon Masato an opportunity to use Tsubasa to curse Rinne with it. Then, Rinne and Sakura help the Studen Council President who is being troubled by a ghost who looks a lot like her. The remainder of the volume is a multi-chapter arc involving Rinne’s father Sabato, the debt he’s roped Rinne into, and the harm Sabato continues to cause.

This time, it’s a Shinigami Clerk, Kain, who is seeking retribution. His mother was charmed out of all of her money by Sabato. And because he forged Rinne’s name as the guarantor, Kain goes after Rinne. He seizes Rinne’s life flame, giving Ageha, Sakura and & Tsubasa a deadline to find the Damashinigami headquarters before he pawns it off. They go after Kain instead. Rinne loses his scythe, but gains the Ring of Justice, which was supposed to be a gift to Rinne for entering elementary school from his grandmother. Everything ends well, and Sabato is stopped, but he still escapes.

I enjoyed the first half of this volume much more than the second. The story with Tsubasa accidentally cursing Rinne has a lot of good slapstick comedy, something that Takahashi excels at. It would be great to get more of this. The story with the twin sister ghost was fairly standard fair for a ghost-busting title, but it was still entertaining. The ending was funny.

After reading this sixth volume, I think I have finally figured out what I dislike about this series so much. The humor is too mean-spirited. Sabato, Rinne’s father, does a lot of despicable things, usually leaving Rinne holding the rope while he gets away scott free. Rinne takes the brunt of the abuse for things he didn’t do and doesn’t really deserve. Rinne is a good guy. He’s a little obsessed with money, but considering his situation, that’s understandable. He doesn’t have a lot of the annoyances or vices other Takahashi characters like Ataru and Ranma had. It doesn’t feel right that he gets so much dumped on him.

I’ve also never liked the “being poor is funny” theme that this book is built on. This last arc with Kain intent on robbing Rinne of his life for this father’s wrongs just really rubbed me the wrong way. It was too extreme. The fact that Kain didn’t see it that way just made him no better than Sabato, and a character I care as much about. I said in a previous review that Sabato was a character to despise, but he’s getting to be too much for me.

If there was more slapstick comedy and the odd love polygons and less” poor is funny” chapters, I’d look forward to reading Rin-Ne more. As it is, I’m just reading it to see where the Rinne/Sakura relationship will go.