Set in modern-day Japan, an average teenage boy named Yuuto Amakawa, is taken care of by his childhood friend Rinko Kuzaki, ever since he lost his parents. Now where have I heard this set-up before? Well after turning 16 years old, a strange girl named Himari Noihara appears before him and she later claims to be a demon cat (fully equipped with nekomimi) who has to protect him from demons and such. The reason why it’s occurring now is because Yuuto happens to be a descendant of a line of demon slayers and more plot & stuff.
From that description alone it is easy to tell that this will be a rather straightforward story, dabbling both high school antics and demon slaying action. Though apart from some annoyances, like Yuuto constantly falling face first into misunderstandings and given the Keitaro treatment (Love Hina), there’s a good amount of story & character development that brings it a notch above your typical Harem. The story goes from Yuuto’s lofty goal, whereby he wishes to get Humans and Demons to somehow co-exist, to that of defeating the big bad. Neither plot-point being original on their own, but within a Harem manga it’s refreshing to see some actual plot from time to time and I’m not referring to that other kind of “plot”.
But what’s not as refreshing are the characters, with the females simply being a collection of “deres”. We have the classic Tsundere, the Kuudere, the Himedere, the Mayadere, the Deredere, and some Lolis thrown in there for good measure. Sure fans of the genre tend to enjoy these character traits, but when characters like Rinko become nothing more than their character trait, their very existence within the narrative begins to feel forced and pointless. At least strong female characters like Himari & Kuesu help pick up the slack, bringing with them some striking dialogue and seductive moments. Then there’s our protagonist, Yuuto who is the typical spineless young adolescent male you'd find with a harem. Well at least that’s how he is in the beginning. He actually does develop throughout the story’s progression, growing a backbone when needed, but at heart he's too generic to be appealing for me.
I guess that’s a problem of me having read too many manga, as I can have a gripe about anything; take the artwork for example. The artwork happens to be quite nice and clean, with a lot of effort put into every panel. And sure the character designs look rather generic, you can tell that without doubt the mangaka can draw his generically cute girls. The same cannot be said about the action sequences, as they simply pale in comparison to what you'd find in your typical shounen battle manga.
All in all Omamori Himari is an all round good read, even though it doesn’t really excel at anything. The harem is entertaining but rather cliché, with little to feel invested in until the very end. The supernatural side of things does add some depth and intrigue to the story but the stale action sequences do not do it any justice. It tries to force its Love Hina level of physical comedy, which becomes tiresome rather quickly. So you just have to think to yourself whether you would enjoy something with; multifaceted connections between demons & demon slayers and some tits?
