Rin-ne Volume 12 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

After a mysterious encounter with the afterlife when she was a child, Sakura Mamiya gained the ability to see ghosts.  Now that she is a teenager in high school, however, Sakura wishes the ghosts would leave her alone.  Then, she meets Rinne Rokudo, a sort of shinigami (god of death), and her life is drawn deeper into the amazing and sometimes perilous boundary between the living and the dead.

In Rin-ne, Vol. 12 (Chapter 109 to 118), Sakura and Rinne deal with a spirit that is haunting the diving board of a local swimming pool.  Then, it’s the five-chapter tale of “The Black Cat Ranking Exam.”  Each shinigami has a “Black Cat by Contract,” that helps him with his work.  Rokumon is Rinne’s Black Cat, and he is ready to move up in ranking.  Now, Rinne finds himself in a battle royale of conniving cats.

There is no rest for the weary as Sakura and Rinne deal with a cursed straw doll and a wandering power stone.  Then, friends battle over mushrooms.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Rin-ne manga still fascinates me.  I start reading each volume that I receive and I’m initially bored.  Then, the stories cast a spell over me.  Why do I like this?  Yet I have to recommend it.  Rin-ne is like an Archie Comics title drenched in Japanese folklore.  That doesn’t make sense, does it?  Well, that’s the magic of Rumiko Takahashi and her amazing world of manga.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers who love to travel to the worlds of Rumiko Takahashi’s manga will want try the Shonen Sunday title, Rin-ne.