Kagome, Kagome by Drake
| Genre: Action/Drama | ||
| Length: 3 Volumes | ||
| Allegiance: Shueisha | ||
| Mangaka: Toshiki Yui | ||
| Vintage: 1999-2001 | ||
| Intelligence Agency Report by: Phate | ||
| Takeuchi Masami’s father has recently passed away, and as a result, his grandfather is forcing him to move out of his house. With only 80,000 yen a month given to him as living expenses by his grandfather, he needs to find a relatively cheap place to live. Enter his friend Nishino Kagome, who promises to help Masami find a place, under one condition: he needs to allow Kagome’s “Extremely Normal Phenomena Observation Society” to use it as a meeting hall until they get their own. While not a believer in things of that nature, Masami nonetheless agrees. Strange things are now happening in his new place, and he just may soon change his skeptical view on the supernatural…<hr> |
| Research Agent Report by: Drake | ||
| Plot Characters Impact Visual |
5.75 6.25 8.00 8.75 |
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| Overall | 6.50 | |
| (not an average) | ||
| If a head pops out the closet, who ya gonna call? If a headless body haunts you, who ya gonna call? Ghostbust- er, not quite. You call on the Extremely Normal Phenomena Observation Society (or as I’ve coined, ENPO). What is the ENPO you ask? It’s a society from Toshiki Yui’s manga Kagome Kagome, which is basically Love Hina and Yu Yu Hakusho put together. Yep, you got it, a helpless guy swimming in a world of problems with the opposite sex as he tackles supernatural entities.Sadly, while the plot sounds phenomenal, it isn’t. While Kagome Kagome has great plot ideas within in the manga, but the execution is poorly done. This is mainly due to everyone’s pet peeve: a lack of time and space, not surprising considering the manga spanned a whole three volumes. The characters were poorly strewn about the manga without any development. You meet new characters who just seem to be there, yet suddenly two chapters before the end, you’re bombarded with complex information and startling revelations and as a result, are barely able to grasp anything before the manga is over. However, my biggest problem with the manga is the sheer volume of pointless innuendo and/or blatant sexual references. Really, the pages devoted to that kind of fanservice could definitely have been better used in spreading out the information given at end of the manga.
Thankfully, buried underneath this mountain of rushed work and lack of planning with regard to plot, there is a great hidden gem: the art. Though character designs are nothing spectacular, the art is clear, beautiful and eye-catching. Whether the actual designs were scary or not is up to you, the viewer. Personally, I didn’t find it creepy, although I did see the art as a good method of depicting the scenes as the mangaka desired. However, it wasn’t something that could convey more than what was actually on the page. Though the manga is severely lacking in a lot of key areas, it’s still a decent read, and shouldn’t be tossed aside lightly. While the sexual references are ultimately pointless, they do provide a few chuckles. Bottom line is, if you want a quick read featuring great artwork and don’t mind untapped potential, then go check out Kagome Kagome.
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