The wheel keeps turning, never changing.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Rumiko Takahashi
Translation: Christine Dashiell

What They Say:
Rinne finds himself acting as a mentor for the shinigami Shoma, an elementary school student from the afterlife. Although Shoma is supposed to be learning how to help spirits pass on, he only wants to go after the biggest evil spirits he can find – despite the fact that he’s never done it before! The devil Masato offers Shoma an easy road to success, but can Rinne show the young shinigami the right path?

Content:
While walking to school one day, Sakura spots a number of shinigami children wandering around town. Rokumon explains that this is homestay training for shinigami elementary school children, just in time for Rinne to come flying in with a bratty little shinigami. This young boy’s name is Shoma, and he is staying with Rinne for training. As it turns out, he has decided to end the homestay in one swoop by purifying an evil spirit, instead of going after multiple spirits that are easier to deal with. Of course, this proves impossible for the young shinigami, but even so he decides to continue on the more difficult path.

Meanwhile, Sakura hears rumors of a mysterious “alligator woman.” Of course, this spirit soon shows up and reveals itself to be the ghost of an alligator that was owned by a beautiful woman. Using her face, it has been trying to ask strangers to help it find its owner. This plan obviously proves futile, and Shoma decides that the alligator will be a perfect evil spirit to nab, despite not even being an evil spirit. Rinne is able to bring the incident to a peaceful close, but Shoma ends up no closer to his goal than when he started.

When Shoma’s classmates begin heading home after having done things the sensible way, Shoma becomes worried and ends up running into Masato. The devil then tricks him into attacking a normal spirit, only for Rinne to swoop in and stop him, warning him not to associate with devils. However, Shoma is drawn in by Masato’s sweet-talking anyway, and is given what he thinks is an evil spirit sensor. In reality it is actually an evil spirit production device, and with it Shoma ends up turning a large number of ghosts into evil spirits, a serious offense. Once Shoma has caused a sufficient panic, Masato grabs him up along with the tainted spirits, intent on dragging them to hell. Shoma makes an attempt to save the souls he’s unfairly doomed along the way, but it fails and Rinne is forced to appear and save the day. Once the incident is over, Rinne decides to give Shoma a hand in finally finishing up his assignment.

The rest of the chapters in this volume are spent on a variety of short stories such as Ageha buying a kotatsu, Rinne and Sakura dealing with a cursed kitchen counter, and a scarf plaguing lovers around the school.

In Summary:
Once again, we’re given a volume that does little to break the status quo, instead settling further into mediocrity. Though the book tries to do a little something with Shoma, he honestly feels no more interesting than the insignificant characters-of-the-week that we’ve been treated to thus far. And of course once he’s dealt with, the book goes back to its tiny little one-off chapters, with nothing of interest in them. Worst of all, the humor of the series seems to be moving even more towards purely using on the same repeated gags (mostly Rinne’s extreme poverty.) Hopefully the series manages to break free of this rut soon, as the path it’s on certainly isn’t a good one.

Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B
Package Rating: B
Text/Translation Rating: B+

Age Rating: 16+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: March 6th, 2012
MSRP: $9.99