あやかしこ - Ayakashiko
Summary
Nestled within Tokyo’s Asakusa district lies a quiet mansion known as Ayakashi-sou. Despite its size, the mansion is home to just a single sixteen year old girl, However, Ayakashi-sou takes its name from the ayakashi— Japanese spirits and ghosts who inhabit it. Kuuko and Yukine, a prank-loving fox girl and gentle snow-woman, call this place home, while the childlike Zashikiwarashi Kii watches over the building. They are soon joined by the newly created cat yokai named Nene, who has nowhere else to go.
Living with the ayakashi is the building’s owner, Mahoro Miyatsuka, who inherited it from her late grandmother due to her ability to see and interact with the spirits. While her ability allows her to connect with the ayakashi, Mahoro’s habit of talking to invisible people has led to her peers avoiding her. Despite this, Mahoro is content with tending to her ghostly friends as they spend their days watching fireworks, playing games, and otherwise living life one day at a time.
Availability
Physical:
Amazonjp
CDJapan
Digital:
Bookwalker
Rakuten
Natively Level: 22
Personal Opinion
The average sentence length is about the same as the end of Genki 1, maybe a little bit longer, and there was hardly any difficult grammar, so I think it would serve as a good first step into native material.
I read this during a slightly stressful time, with lots of doctors appointments and school paperwork stuff, and this manga always managed to distract me from my stress and calm me down a bit. It’s one of the few series that made me forget that I was reading in Japanese.
Their newest member is an ex-cat, so she still sometimes moves and acts like a cat, which is funny to watch.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Cool character designs
- You get to learn a little bit about different yokai, like 雪女
- The plot isn’t very deep, I think it would be okay to skip a panel here and there if you don’t understand, it won’t hurt your overall comprehension.
- Funny cat-girl character
- Easy grammar
- The hard part is the vocab, and that’s what we have vocab sheets for
Cons
- Some pages have a high text density and might seem intimidating
- Cat-girl is a turn off for some people
- Higher end of the difficulty range, but given the grammar used I still think it’s doable, and absolutely worth it
