Kamunagara: Rebirth of the Demonslayer

(Anime Works, 2004-2005)
™ and © 2001 Hajime Yamamura

Modern Japanese teenagers Kugaya and Takemi are reincarnated lovers from feudal days that have been reborn to once more battle the demons from another dimension with a magic sword and mirror.

Takemi has wholeheartedly embraced her destiny and wouldn’t mind starting up where she left off with Kugaya, but he rejects her as he desperately clings to the last vestiges of his old life. What could have so easily been just another romantic fantasy or clean–cut action series is instead given a gritty Japanese nightmarish horror vibe that’s replete with doomed characters and plenty of exceedingly nasty monsters and bloody violence.

These demons have no physical presence and have to possess their victims, starting with animals, but soon they’ve worked up the food chain and since there’s no way to dispossess people, our heroes start leaving bodies in their wake. With sharp art and interesting situations, the only real downside (one that’s common to the whole “decompressed” school of storytelling) is after the status of the premise is established, nothing much happens here.

— S.A. Bennett

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#6

June, 2006
Cover Price: $9.99
1 copy available for $9.99

Hajime Yamamura