Manga Review – Blue Exorcist Vol 6 by Kazue Kato (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Manga/Shounen/Fantasy
Length: 200 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Release Date: February 7, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1421541747
Stand Alone or Series: 6th 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.
The heads of the various Myodha temple families gather to discuss recent events surrounding the Eyes of the Impure King. Revelations at the meeting only deepen suspicion of Suguro’s father, Tatsuma, and angry accusations follow. Tatsuma’s silence on the matter isn’t helping either. Amid all the swirling distrust, Rin tries to make sense of things but struggles to keep his flame in check. Then Rin receives a letter that may shed more light on the current situation—and the secret past!”
Series Info/Source: This is the 6th 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 volume we find out who in Sguro’s family is the traitor and we learn about the past of the Koma Sword. Then Rin and Shiemi accompany Yukio on a mission to conquer a phantom train. After that we see some of Kuro’s day to day drama as a Rin’s familiar.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole story line involving Sguro’s extended family and the whole “who dun it” kind of feel to it. The rest was fine though and each of these volumes covers a lot of ground.
Characters (3/5): I absolutely adored the chapter of a day in the life of Kuro, it was soooo funny. The rest of the characters remain kind of so-so for me. We met a lot of new characters in the last couple volumes as we are introduced to Sguro’s family. And of course, in keeping with the series, the traitor was a woman…so the poor characterization of female characters continues (have I bitched about this enough yet??!!). I am starting to give up hope that there will ever be a decent female character added to the series.
Setting (4/5): It was good to switch scenes to Kyoto and see the differences in the True Cross there. The phantom train storyline was pretty fun and was a cool setting.
Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): This continues to be decently drawn and well written. It’s easy to follow and the story moves at a good clip.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I am still mostly enjoying this but continue to be absolutely exasperated by the exclusion of any decent female characters. I am on the fence about whether or not I will continue this. We’ve been getting these from the library in groups of three and this is the final one in the second set. My son is loving these (he is the target audience as a 14yr old boy), so I might keep picking them up for him.
