Kekkaishi, Volume 11 Book

To view the full post and other reviews, click here Kekkaishi Volume 11 by Yellow Tanabe



Gore: No
Magic: Yes (they have barrier making powers, I think they call it manipulating space and dimensions, something like that, I don't remember, but I consider it to be magic)

Romance: (This one's kind of hard to say) So far, there isn't much romance, although it's obvious that Yoshimori likes Tokine, and I think she likes him that way too.
Action: 4 stars
Pacing: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Drawings/Art: 4 stars


Warning, Spoilers

This volume starts off with Masamori and the other Night Troop members having a funeral for Gen. Then Masamori and Yoshimori visit Gen's family at his funeral that they're having, and his big sister is furious, she hates Masamori and thinks that it's his fault that Gen died. Although Gen's parents don't blame him. She tells him:
"I'm still grateful to you for saving my life, but why couldn't you save Gen's life too?"
Before leaving, Yoshimori tells Gen's sister, Gen's last words, then she asks him he's Gens friend, and he says yes. I think these few words showed Gen's sister that spending life outside of his family was good for him and before dying, his life improved and that he now actually has a friend, something that he never had when he was a little kid. It makes me kind of emotional thinking about it.

Then on the next night of Yoshimori and Tokine's patrol at the Karasumori site, Tokine joins Yoshimori where he's sitting. He tries not to cry, but she knows that he wants to and she tells him it's ok, since she's seen him cry many times when they were little, but Yoshi decides to no longer cry and to get so strong that no one will get hurt again. He tries to act like how he thinks a man is supposed to act like. Although, Tokine just wanted to share the grief and cry together.

Then Byaku from the Kokuboro is trying figure out a way to make the demon fox princess to be the master of the Karasumori forest. Tokine's grandma comes home to pick up some tools and to check up on her family. That night, Tokine tells Yoshimori that her grandma came back, then left again, and that she's trying to make a passage to where the Kokuboro are. Yoshimori decides to follow her, but unfortunately for him, she knows right away that he's following her and tries to get him off her trail. Yoshi asks Tokiko if she could take him to the Kokuboro with her so that he can avenge Gen's death, but she denies and says that revenge isn't what he needs right now, what he needs is to become a better kekkaishi, so the next few days, Yoshimori trains a lot. Tokine sees that Yoshimori is practising and she decides to as well. Then one night at Karasumori, Tokine and Yoshimori are talking and he notices Tokine yawning, which is something that he does a lot, not her, she tells him that she's couldn't sleep because she's been worrying about when those ayakashi will show up again, whereas Yoshimori didn't have time for that because he's been so focused on training. They both say that they don't want anything like that to ever happen again, that's when Madarao smells intruders. Since there are so many of them, Yoshimori quickly makes kekkais, and Tokine notices that he's improved a lot, before he can explode the intruders, his brother Masamori stops him because those "intruders" are actually the Night Troop members. Then Masamori tells Yoshimori and Tokine why they're here.

So now the Night Troop members and Masamori are staying over at the Sumimura's and the Yukimura's houses for a few days. The next morning, Tokine asks one of the members if Atora came, she says that she's staying at the apartment that Gen stayed at. Yoshimori decides to train, but every spot that he usually trains at home is occupied and crowded by the Night Troop members, so he decides to go train somewhere else. He is then followed by three members that are around his age. They introduce themselves and say that they want to train with him, when in reality they were just testing him. Yoshi starts radiating a creepy aura and then he goes back to normal. He then says that he promises to avenge Gen's death.

The next night, the Night Troop is patrolling the Karasumori site with the two kekkaishi. This is when the Kokuboro decide to make their move at seizing Karasumori. Everyone fights with all they've got against the invading ayakashi, while Yoshimori is trying to find Kaguro so that he can obviously get revenge. Tokine tries to follow him, he tells her not to and then someone asks for her help, so she stops following him. That's when Sen (one of the boys who said that they wanted to train with Yoshimori that day) wonders where he's going and follows him. After a little while, Tokine tells Masamori that Yoshimori is missing and they also find out that Sen is missing too. I wish that it was like in the anime, that Tokine followed Yoshimori to the Kokuboro, it would have been more interesting. Anyways, in the next chapter, we found out that Yoshimori has been captured by the Kokuboro. Shion's trying to keep him tied up, but it's not working for more than a few seconds. Then there's a flashback of what really happened, that Yoshimori surrendered on purpose so that he can find Kaguro and kill him. Yoshimori keeps saying that he wants to see Kaguro, and the ayakashi wonder why. Then Byaku comes and tries to control Yoshimori with his bug things, but that's not working either. Then back at Yoshimori's house, Madarao tells everyone what happened and Masamori decides to go to Kokuboro castle. While Shion is still busy trying to keepp Yoshimori restrained, a surprise visitor shows up, that creepy old man that Yoshimori's grandpa and the Kokuboro thought died a few chapters ago, Heisuke. Shion tries to kill him, but the ayakashi that he calls Miss Kagami, starts fighting her and she runs away. Heisuke then intrroduces himself to Yoshimori. He tells Yoshimori that he well free him if he leaves, but Yoshimori says that he can't leave yet. He tells Heisuke that he wants to kill Kaguro, and then Heisuke frees him, if he promises not to get in his way, because hes after Byaku.


This volume ends with Heisuke sitting on Miss Kagami who transformed into a giant spider, and he tells her to destroy the castle as they're moving, while Yoshimori is searching for the dungeon so that he can rescue Sen, who also got captured because he was following Yoshimori and was nearby.


After I finish a few volumes, I watch some of those anime episodes (not all of them, just some of my faves) just to see how those scenes look and any manga is always more funnier when it's animated, especially Kodocha. I already finished watching this anime, too bad they stopped animating this manga, it was fun watching these scenes animated.

Overall, I like this manga more and more, as I've said in my previous Kekkaishi manga reviews. This arc is getting close to its conclusion, I can't wait to see what is next for the two young kekkaishi and their friends and families. I'm getting really curious about the area Karasumori (I know I say that sentence in every Kekkaishi review, but I'm even more curious now). Oh well, I'll just have to wait and see.