Rin-ne (2011)

[境界のRINNE]

Volume 7

Author/Artist: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Shounen Sunday Comics

Synopsis:
Rinne declines an invitation to go to the summer festival, only to show up later on an apparent date.

Story/Characters:
Poor broke Rinne can't afford to have fun like the regular kids... until the latest client contracts his services. The client's had a string of bad luck with summer festivals, with this one stuffed animal at the shooting gallery. It turns out that the spirit of her late grandfather has been testing her boyfriends in the past. With a little effort, the conditions are met to put Gramps to rest, with the the usual inversion at the end, but we do close on a nice moment with Rinne and Sakura.

Next is a haunted beach where Sakura has to date the ghost of a karateka amid a whirl of jealousy in our resident love quadrangle. Honestly, the way Tsubasa and Ageha are so in synch with their jealousy is really building a "pair the spares" vibe with me even though they, as of yet, have no chemistry together whatsoever. Once summer vacation is over, the school is thick with ghosts. The culprit is a spirit stone that's supposed to guide ghosts on their way but instead wants to enjoy big city living. Rinne arranges for a ghost host club to entertain her and once she gets the bill for the evening's entertainment, she's ready to go back to the mountains.

The next case involves kids trapped in a little shrine that was sealing a pair of bakeneko. Rinne taking the cheap option to repair his scythe ends up working both against him and for him in the end. Next up we have Sakura bothered by more than usual ghost traffic in her house, so she invites Rinne over to help. This is, of course, a bit moment for him, so of course the two resident rivals have to catch on and crash the party. We then get to see a lot of sample shinigami tools get used in Rinne's efforts to both solve the problem and get rid of the pair of fifth wheels. Lastly we have the case of cursed sweet potatoes and a girl with a sweet potato shadow. Turns out to be a case of gardening club romance gone awry.

Art:
As always, characters in yukata are always nice, though I have to say that in a Yukata, Tsubasa is almost indistinguishable from Inuyasha's Miroku. I'm liking the ponytail look Sakura has for the beach episode. I rather prefer it to her usual pigtails. There's amusing derpiness to the spirit stone and the bakeneko and a fair bit of visual humor with all the different tools employed during the home exorcism.

Conclusion:
We get a decent collection of little stories this time around. The stakes are considerably reduced from before and more of the old episodic formula. It's decent enough for light reading and there are just enough hints of development that the dedicated fans should be able to latch into. Give it a read.

Rating:
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