Manga Review – Blue Exorcist Vol 3 by Kazue Kato (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Manga/Shounen/Fantasy
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Release Date: August 2, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1421540344
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd volume in the Blue Exorcist series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Raised by Father Fujimoto, a famous exorcist, Rin Okumura never knew his real father. One day a fateful argument with Father Fujimoto forces Rin to face a terrible truth—the blood of the demon lord Satan runs in Rin’s veins! Rin swears to defeat Satan, but doing that means entering the mysterious True Cross Academy and becoming an exorcist himself.
As a new Exorcist Exwire at True Cross Academy, Rin Okumura has a long way to go before he reaches the top rank of Paladin. When Rin and his classmates are sent to search for a ghost, Amaimon, King of Earth, takes Rin by surprise and steals the Koma Sword. Higher powers have been observing events at the academy and make their presence known. New players enter the game, and Rin doesn’t even know he’s playing!”
Series Info/Source: This is the 3rd volume in the Blue Exorcist shounen manga series. There are 24 volumes published in this series right now in the US with the 25th due out Feb 2021. There are 26 volumes in this series right now with the 27th to be published in 2021 in Japan.
Story (4/5): In this installment Father Fujimoto’s familiar (a cat demon named Kuro) goes haywire and Rin ends up talking him down. Then Rin and his class have to search for a ghost in an amusement park where Amaimon, King of Earth surprises Rin by stealing the Koma sword. One of Rin’s classmates helps him but then reveals herself to be the rather busty Senior Exorcist First Class, Shura. Back at school Shura stays on to teach some of the Exwire classes. Finally as summer break approaches Rin and his class are tasked with doing Forest Camp, if they succeed at the tasks they are given for Forest Camp they will be able to start going on real exorcism jobs. This remains a fast-moving and entertaining story that I enjoyed a lot.
Characters (4/5): I absolutely loved the addition of Kuro, he is so much fun…your typical cat but with some demonic tendencies. I groaned at the addition of Shura, yet another scantily clad, constantly drunk female character. I actually stopped reading Black Clover because I was sick of the weak female characters in there and am starting to feel the same way about this series. Yeah, Shura can kick butt but she also doesn’t wear clothes most of the time and is constantly sloshed. Right now the two female characters I have to read about in this series are Shura (yuck) and Shiemi who constantly has to be rescued by people (double yuck).
Setting (4/5): The setting was well portrayed and fine. We travel from True Cross Academy to an amusement park and end the story is outside of a generic forest.
Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This volume is well drawn and easy to follow. It’s not the best drawn manga out there, but it’s well done.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I am still enjoying this series. I was disappointed by the addition of yet another weak and annoying female character to the series. However, this is offset by the highly entertaining Kuro. I continue to enjoy the fast-pace to these but still don’t engage with any of the characters very well.
