Igyoujin Oniwakamaru

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What if an 1,200+ years old ancient demon lived in the body of an ordinary, kind-hearted japanese salaryman? This is the question Tetsuya Saruwatari tries to answer with his manga Igyoujin Oniwakamaru.

I'm gonna keep this one short and the most spoiler-free I can: The story has a very interesting start - the first chapters showing how our protagonist Hitori Tachibana finds out he shares his own body with Oniwakamaru, an extremelly powerfull demon that is also known as "The King of the Yokai".

Hitori or "Hito" is a ordinary everyday worker, a married man, and a very good person, so much so you could say his ... kindness is boderline naivety. Sudently, he finds out he can transform himself into Oniwakamaru body when faced with eminent danger, but eventually learns how to use his demonic powers for a good cause, while defending himself from other Yokai that attacks him in order to absorb Oniwakamaru soul and receive his immense power. As you can see, the main concepts are highly inspired by japanese folclore and Shinto-Buddhism.

What captivated me in the beginning was Hto's own relantionship with his literal "inner demon", as his philosophies often clashes with Oniwakamaru's, that constantly learns how to value life as a whole. Also, it has that "superhero" gimmic of an super-powered individual just trying to live his ordinary life the best way he can, while using his demon abilities to help other people in need.

However, by chapter 20 the story starts to lose it's footing, as the author abandons the espisodic "slice-of-life" pacing and tries to approach a more serious and linear narrative. Unfortunatelly, everthing from here to the end is so full of shounen-esque and generic cliches (except for the high level of violence) that it kinda ruined the whole experience for me.

The art is very good, SPECIALLY the demons, spirits and yokais. I fuc**** LOVE Oniwakamaru's character design!!

In summary, an interesting concept ruined by poor execution and lack of narrative creativity from the second half of the story until its conclusion. An overrall fun read nonetheless, so I can recomend it for people who likes a short action-packed and violent manga with some great character designs, but don't go into it expecting a great and deep reading experience.