Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits by Waco Ioka, vols 1 & 2 | Blabber

Kakuriyo vols 1 and 2 by Waco Ioka
Manga – Fantasy
200 pages each
Read May 22, 2020
Spoiler-free blabber

Kakuriyo was a whimsical get-away. 

Honestly I picked this up knowing nothing about it. I saw it on sale on Rightstuf and decided to grab the first couple volumes. Turns out, it was exactly what I was in the mood for.

This manga follows a young Japanese woman named Aoi Tsubaki, who inherited her grandfather’s ability to see spirits – creatures from Japanese legend. Yokai, ogres, kappas, you name it. Whenever she sees them, she gives them food to ward them off, as spirits tend to eat humans once they realize they’ve been seen. So in addition to the Japanese folklore aspect, you get almost a food-romance theme as well. And by ‘food-romance’ I mean that food is glorified in this book. Even simple meals are made to seem like they’d be delicious.

The plot picks up when Aoi sees a masked yokai, lamenting his hunger. She gives him her lunch, but when she goes to walk away, the yokai grabs her and transports her to Kakuriyo: the spirit world, where it turns out he runs an inn for spirits and suddenly demands that she marry him to pay a debt incurred by her grandfather. Her reaction to that is basically ‘lol yeah right’. And the story goes from there.

Obviously I’m not too far into the series – there are five or six books out so far, and I’m only covering the first two here, but these two have definitely made me a fan. As I said before, this series is whimsical, and it really reminded me of Spirited Away, but in a darker, more gritty kind of way. I wouldn’t call this a horror, it’s nowhere near, but it definitely gives you glimpses and sharp reminders that Aoi is not among humans, and sometimes she forgets that. Every time she starts to get comfortable, she says or does something and a yokai’s face just changes, or she’s suddenly thrown into a dangerous situation. It’s unnerving, as the yokai are written in a highly human way. It kind of lulls you into a false sense of security, and then they distinctly act inhuman, and it throws you off. I loved it.

I have a feeling that this will eventually turn into a romance. It’s being published by Shojo Beat after all, but that’s not too present in the first two volumes, at least. As I mentioned above, the yokai wants her to be his bride but she’s not having it, and insists on working off her debt at the inn instead. But I can see the beginning inklings that this’ll turn into a romance, and I can totally see it.

Another thing that I wasn’t expecting was how funny this was. I laughed out loud multiple times throughout the two volumes. Aoi trying to center herself in this new world caused a few entertaining situations, and the Odanna, the spirit who brought her there, causes a few himself. He’s quiet and reserved and seems indifferent, but occasionally he’ll say something that just throws Aoi off-kilter in a hilarious way. I really enjoyed it.

So overall I really enjoyed this. I liked the characters, the plot was entertaining, and I really loved the world. Again, it just had this… unworldly feel to it, and I thought it was great. I’m definitely going to catch up on this one as soon as I’m able.

4 and 4.5 stars, respectively