Itsuwaribito Volume 3 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

When he was a small child, Utsuho Azako told the truth, which resulted in the destruction of his home.  Now an irascible teen, Utsuho is an unrepentant troublemaker, a self-professed “Itsuwaribito,” a crook of all illicit trades, but Utsuho also wants to help people.  Traveling with his talking tanuki, Pochi and a young physician who hates liars, Dr. Koshiro Yakuma, Utsuho helps others by telling lies.

As Itsuwaribito, Vol. 3 opens, Utsuho and Yakuma are still trapped on an island populated by exiled itsuwaribito.  Now, Pochi is missing, and the kidnapper is someone who seems to know Pochi quite well.  Meanwhile, one of the island’s inhabitants, a young woman named Neya Multo, must make a momentous decision.

THE LOWDOWN:  I’m starting to believe that Itsuwaribito is something like a samurai comedy.  It has the martial arts, but there is also lots of comedy: relationship, situation, slapstick, etc.  In this volume, the emphasis is on helping people, so that brings out lots of character interplay, which allows readers to learn more about the characters.  Suddenly Utsuho seems more complex than I would have ever imagined because it is willing to engage as well as to thrill.  With that smooth and flowing art, creator Yuuki Iinuma composes a manga that just sails along into a comic adventure with heart and meaning.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of Shonen Jump fight comic books will like the Shonen Sunday title, Itsuwaribito.

B+