{"id":2677,"date":"2009-06-15T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/?p=2677"},"modified":"2012-07-13T22:58:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T05:58:21","slug":"rasetsu-volume-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/2009\/06\/15\/rasetsu-volume-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Rasetsu Volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yako Hoshino, a young man with spiritual powers of his own, comes to the agency seeking help with a possessed book.\u00a0 He’s seen a lot of strange phenomena in his day, but the last thing he expects to see is Rasetsu bearing a striking resemblance to his old love Yurara!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Chika Shiomi
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Viz Media
\nAge Rating:<\/strong> Teen+
\nGenre:<\/strong> Supernatural\/Romance
\nPrice:<\/strong> $8.99<\/p>\n

Another group of quirky characters come together for more ghost-busting action.\u00a0 Shiomi’s knack for combining comedy, romance and supernatural scares brings us another great title, with a few old faces thrown in with the new.<\/p>\n

Rasetsu<\/em> is about a girl by the same name, who is haunted by an evil spirit.\u00a0 Three years ago, she was attacked and marked by him, with the promise that when she turned 20, he would be back.\u00a0 Instead of giving in to the evil spirit, Rasetsu finds the strength to fight back and becomes an exorcist, working for a company in Tokyo.\u00a0 Enter Yako Hoshino, grown up now, and working in a library.\u00a0 His blunt personality gets him on Rasetsu’s bad side, but his power and her resemblance to Yurara’s guardian spirit brings them to work together, though not necessarily getting along.<\/p>\n

One of the things I love about Shiomi’s manga is that her female protagonists are strong and independent.\u00a0 They don’t look for guys to help them or come to their rescue, but usually end up with someone who wants to help them, whether she welcomes the help or not.\u00a0 Rasetsu is no different.\u00a0 She has found the strength to face her fears and does it everyday as work.\u00a0 Her interest in Yako is more about getting a break at work, than wanting to be around him.\u00a0 I like this pragmatic approach to bringing them together than having Rasetsu get all swoon-y around him.<\/p>\n

Yako on the other hand is the one mesmerized by Rasetsu.\u00a0 Her resemblance to Yurara’s guardian spirit makes him vulnerable to her.\u00a0 Even though he realizes it, he just can’t seem to fight it.\u00a0 The final chapter in this volume makes things worse for Yako as they return to his old High School, and Rasetsu wears the school uniform, making her transformation into Yurara almost complete.\u00a0 The end of the chapter also brings up some questions about whether Yako is as alone as he’s thought he was, and may lead to another unusual love triangle.<\/p>\n

The other characters that work at the agency have their own quirky traits.\u00a0 Kuryu uses Kotodama, using words to manifest his power, but he can only use it once a day.\u00a0 He seems to have another power that he uses on some crows to save Rasetsu.\u00a0 It isn’t explained, but it does make him more interesting that just a tagalong.\u00a0 Aoi works at the agency, doing paperwork and set up cases.\u00a0 He seems to have a thing for the boss, Amakawa.\u00a0 He is still a bit of a mystery, and dresses in traditional Japanese robes.\u00a0 He power involves holding people to understand their problems, something that throws Yako when they first meet.<\/p>\n

The charm of the chapters aren’t in the ghosts they are sent to exorcise, but in the character’s interactions as they are doing it.\u00a0 All of the cases seemed to feel second to Rasetsu and Yako getting a feel for each other and sorting out their feelings.\u00a0 Both have secrets that they keep from the other that might help each other to understand their motivations.\u00a0 This is a very character driven title.<\/p>\n

Shiomi’s art just keeps getting better.\u00a0 Her characters have the very tall, thin look to them.\u00a0 Especially Rasetsu, though at no point does she look too thin.\u00a0 They are dressed professionally, usually in suits and never the same thing.\u00a0 No school uniforms here.\u00a0 Rasetsu’s reaction to wearing one is quite amusing.\u00a0 I love the variety, as it feels more real.<\/p>\n

Rasetsu <\/em>might seem like just another supernatural romance, but it’s characters take it beyond that.\u00a0 They are funny and quirky, and can still be serious when the time calls for it, without it seeming out of character.\u00a0 If you haven’t read any of Shiomi’s titles before, now is a good time to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yako Hoshino, a young man with spiritual powers of his own, comes to the agency seeking help with a possessed book.\u00a0 He’s seen a lot of strange phenomena in his day, but the last thing he expects to see is Rasetsu bearing a striking resemblance to his old love Yurara! By Chika Shiomi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Supernatural\/Romance Price: $8.99 Another group of quirky characters come together for more ghost-busting action.\u00a0 Shiomi’s knack for combining comedy, romance and supernatural scares brings us another great title, with a few old faces thrown in with the new. Rasetsu is about a girl by the same name, who is haunted by an evil spirit.\u00a0 Three years ago, she was attacked and marked by him, with the promise that when she turned 20, he would be back.\u00a0 Instead of giving in to the evil spirit, Rasetsu finds the strength to fight back and becomes an exorcist, working for a company in Tokyo.\u00a0 Enter Yako Hoshino, grown up now, and working in a library.\u00a0 His blunt personality gets him on Rasetsu’s bad side, but his power and her resemblance to Yurara’s guardian spirit brings them to work together, though not necessarily getting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,19],"tags":[83,99,110,120,121],"class_list":["post-2677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-viz-media","tag-manga","tag-older-teen","tag-review","tag-shojo","tag-shojo-beat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/files\/2012\/06\/Rasetsu-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2umma-Hb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2677"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}