It's a lot like Inuyasha. On first seeing the book, I wondered if this was more Inuyasha. A lot of that is Rumiko Takahashi's art style, but even so these two volumes often struck me as Takahashi going "what should I change here to avoid ripping myself off?"

A modern schoolgirl (Nanoka) gets sucked through time into the past and gets involved with a pretty boy (Mao), who's hundreds of years old, carries a sword and has a supernatural nemesis. His enemies are scary horror yokai. (Okay, yes, this series usually says "ayakashi" rather than "yokai", but we're talking about the difference between alligators and crocodiles.)

1. It's less comedic. (The odd moment made me laugh, though.) No one's got an explosive temper and Mao is calm, collected and rational.

2. Mao's historical era isn't the Middle Ages, but instead 1923. It's the Taishou period. This still allows lots of superstition, period flavour and old-fashioned costumes, but makes it a bit more unexpected and interesting when monsters show up.

3. Nanoka's supernatural side is very different from Kagome's, although they're both backstory-heavy. As a child, Nanoka was found covered in blood as the only survivor of an accident that killed her parents. Today, she thinks she's a normal schoolgirl and hasn't realised that sometimes she has red cat eyes, fangs and the ability to jump from ground level on to buildings' roofs. Also, she lives with her uncle and a Deep One called Uozumi who keeps forcing her to drink the world's most disgusting smoothies "for the good of your body".

It's still early days. I've only read the first two volumes and, so far, it's reasonably good. I wasn't gripped and I'm not planning to run out and buy the whole series, but that's partly because it's currently on 30 volumes and still counting. I'd read volume 3 if it appeared in front of me and I'm quite looking to the anime adapation that started in April 2026. I also like Rumiko Takahashi, who's been one of the biggest names in manga for almost half a century. Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku made her a superstar.

I quite like Nanoka, Mao and the latter's beautifully polite, child-sized supernatural helper, Otoya. I'd have definitely kept reading if the series weren't such a long-term commitment (and my pile of unread manga is already too high).