The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride Volume 2 Review
I can’t believe that a tainted person like me… could really become happy. (Nanao)
Nanao was once engaged to marry Reito of the prestigious Byakurenji clan – but after she was scarred and ‘tainted’ by an orangutan ayakashi, Reito rejected her and married her cousin Akemi. Forced to wear a monkey mask and demoted to a life of drudgery, Nanao is rescued by Yako, the young lord of the powerful Benitsubaki clan who promises to marry her and whisks her away to his manor in the imperial city. Yako is not at all bothered by Nanao’s scars and she is made to feel welcome at his estate where ayakashi and humans live and work peacefully together. However, Yako has been marked by a curse too, one that requires him to replenish his life force/powers by drinking human blood. Nanao is happy to offer her own blood to her fiancé and even though Yako is known as the terrifying ‘Tsubaki Demon’ she realises that he is a kind and understanding man at heart.
Supported by Yako’s kindness, Nanao begins to relax and enjoy her life in the imperial city. And Yako takes her to visit Doctor Suirengi who gives her new hope, telling her that there is a way to erase the spirit seal. “You have to exorcise the ayakashi that gave it to you,” Yako tells her, then promises to undertake that exorcism and set her free.
All is going well for Nanao until, when out in the capital, she encounters her cousin Akemi who insults her to her face and takes the parasol Yako has given her. Reito joins them and his attitude toward her is different to his wife’s. However, when Yako appears to defend Nanao, Reito makes a great play of noticing the hairpin Nanao is wearing, reminding everyone that he gave it to her when she was fourteen. “The fact that she was still carrying it with her,” he says to Yako gloatingly, “can only mean that she still has feelings for me.” Nanao realizes with horror that there’s no way she can explain to Yako the true reason she’s kept the hairpin with her and when she overhears talk in the household that their wedding has been cancelled, she’s plunged back into despair.
The romantic element is very definitely to the fore in the second volume of The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride but manages, thanks to the supernatural elements, to avoid deteriorating into melodrama. Comparisons are inevitable with My Happy Marriage, but Nanao is proving herself to be a more resourceful heroine (to my eyes, anyway) than Miho, and Yako comes across as a much more impulsive, unpredictable love interest than Kiyoka, due to his curse. The presence of the shikigami in Yako’s household is a nice touch too: ayakashi Goki and Zenki turn out to be a couple and squabble when they’re together, while taking great care of their mistress and master respectively. But the stakes are high and the ‘steamy’ aspect promised by the blurb so far relates to the blood-drinking episodes between Yako and Nanao (overtones of vampire romance here).
The print edition from Kodansha follows on from the digital edition so there are credits for translation to Jacqueline Fung (print) and Sarah Kellis (digital) and lettering Madeleine Jose (print) and digital Sonya Kravchenko (digital). I can only assume that this ‘digital’ credit refers to the K Manga version (which we can’t access in the UK) which also seems to be available to subscribers up to Chapter 30 on Manga Plaza. Everything reads very smoothly (as expected from such a team) – the icing on the cake would have been a colour page insert, as the mangaka’s colour cover art is so attractive.
This volume ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the readers to wonder what the outcome will be (not good, that’s for sure) but then there are plenty of extras at the end to enjoy: a bonus prose chapter by Midori Yuma with illustrations ‘Yako on What is Cute About Nanao?’ and Character Concept Art by Mamenosuke Fujimaru, ending up with a cute scene with Nanao, Yako and Goki about Nanao’s clothes after two very brief afterwords from the writer and mangaka. We won’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next, though, as Volume 3 is due out from Kodansha at the end of July, and Volume 4 in October (Japan is up to seven volumes). It’s early days yet in terms of plot development but Nanao makes a sympathetic heroine to root for and it’s to be hoped that the supernatural elements hovering in the shadows begin to play a much greater part as the story develops.
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
