Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Hamachi Uramaki is a young Japanese boy living with his grandmother in the woods. Like most Japanese boys, he likes yokai (Japanese spirits). Unlike most boys, his interest in yokai borders on the unhealthy side of obsessive. So when he meets a kappa trapped in the woods, it's like a dream come true. Hamachi frees the kappa, whom he dubs Madkap, from the trap. However, despite Hamachi's attempts at friendship, Madkap prefers life without human interference and parts ways with Hamachi.

An angry kappa like Madkap will, of course, seek revenge against the human that trapped him and cost him a leg. Unfortunately, the trap setter was Hamachi's grandmother and when Hamachi returns from the village on a errand to find her dead, there's only one thing to do: go to the spirit world and find Madkap. But humans aren't allowed access to the spirit world and, should they somehow gain it, they are definitely not welcome there. But what's a boy with nothing left to lose bound to do, except try to track down his grandmother's killer and, of course, catalog his journeys by making a illustrated field guide to yokai along the way.

Despite the seemingly dark plot, Yokaiden is actually a very light, cheery and humor-filled journey into a land of (for the most part) less-than-menacing monsters, as told through the eyes of a utterly innocent and naive boy. Despite the kiddie-book look to the manga, the story and narration do not condescend to the reader, be them the suggested 13+ or the more than twice that of your faithful reviewer. The violence is never graphic or drawn out (although there is blood) and the story never too complex to enjoy (although a prior knowledge of the yokai subject matter would be beneficial). The humor is pretty consistent throughout; it never targets the lowest common denominator audience (i.e. no poop and fart jokes throughout) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially with the 4-panel extras after the last chapter.

Nina Matsumoto's art is well done, a very sharp-edged style with a natural ability to draw the focus of the reader where it needs to be directed, as well as keep the action sequences clean, easy to follow and the dialog sequences interesting without lapsing over into boring or -- in the scenes of yokai description -- without reading like she's simply regurgitating facts. Characters are distinct and recognizable and yokai depictions are loyal to their tradition with enough originality to keep them fresh and interesting. The last page of each chapter generally serve as an entry into the field guide by Hamachi and are a lot of fun, as well.

On a side note, as this is an original production for Del Rey, I would hope that stateside manga companies take a note from Yokaiden, as this is how it should be done if you're not going to be translating and releasing an American version of a Japanese title; a small trade paperback format and/or a chibi/manga-style depiction of your favorite Marvel superstars does not qualify as manga.

I look forward to future volumes of Yokaiden, despite the consistent tendency towards the less serious side of things as compared to the manga I normally read (Battle Angel Alita, Uziga Waita, Shintaro Kago, et al); it's a welcome a refreshing change. My only major detraction -- and this goes for most manga -- would be the difficulty on gauging the entire body of the work based on 7 out of 100 chapters; rest assured, though, that I like what I see. Yokaiden may not shake up the industry like Metropolis and Akira did, but it is definitely a strong addition to your manga collection.

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Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (November 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345503279
ISBN-13: 978-0345503275