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

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

“Dark Hunters” are people who hunt and slay the demons that lurk in the shadows.  Takamichi Hachioji is a teen girl born into a family of hunters, The Hachioji Clan, the largest clan of Dark Hunters.  Her family gave her a pair of half-animal/half-human wolf-pups, named Snow and Night, which she must train to be her “Jiu Jiu,” a Dark Hunter’s familiar and hunting partner.  Can she keep them on the leash?

Jiu Jiu, Vol. 3 opens on the day of the “Family Head Meeting.”  This is a meeting and social gathering of the heads of the Hunter clans and branch families.  Now, Night and Snow will meet Mika Nekozane, head of the Nekozane Clan and Takamichi’s ex-fiancé.  When Seijuro Shiratori, Takamichi’s supposed current fiancé and his partner, Ripple, a Crow Tengu, arrive old jealousies and feuds return with a fury.  As various factions question the choice of Takamichi as heir of the Hachioji Clan, ugly secrets spill out.

THE LOWDOWN:  The third volume of the Jiu Jiu manga is a return of the first volume’s edginess.  Creator Touya Tobina offers conflict and rivalries filled with bitterness and jealousy.  The “Family Head Meeting” is a gathering of back-stabbing and some face-front stabbing, as violence erupts, which makes for several juicy scenes.  Jiu Jiu is a Shojo Beat title like few others.  It is dark and a bit nasty (in terms of the innuendo and violence).  This dark treat has bite.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for the offbeat in Shojo Beat will find a beastly treat in Jiu Jiu.