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By Yukiru Sugisaki (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59523-359-7
Good old fashioned supernatural action and hi-jinks is what this adventure for older kids promises and delivers in a lively manner. Yen and Jin Ragun are schoolboys with all the pressures that entails but they also have a family duty to perform. They are the latest generation tasked with the banishing evil spirits, ghosts and demons whenever and wherever they might rear their scary, disembodied heads.
As a premise for adventure it ranks between Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with plenty of sibling squabbling, homework and friend tensions, not to mention lots of action. But Yukiru Sugisaki is not afraid to blend a little pathos and sensitivity into the mix and the result makes for a much more complete read.
Although I found some of the attention to explaining the rules of magic under which the brothers must labour a little long, dry and extraneous, not to say a bit reminiscent of learning all the rules of Pokemon Duelling, I’m sure that’s not necessarily the case for the target audience, and even so the drama, pace and character interplay still made this a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.
© 2002, 2005 Yukiru Sugisaki. All Rights Reserved.