This is a season full of big names. Watanabe, Ando, Arakawa, Nishi etc.. But they don’t get much bigger than Takahashi Rumiko. She may not be the commercial megalodon she was a couple of decades back but she’s one of the top-selling mangaka of all-time. And she’s still doing it weekly, too, even as other giants of her generation like her pal Adachi Mitsuru have transitioned to monthly serialization. Mao marks her first non-reboot anime adaptation since Kyoukai no Rinne (no, I’m not counting the hideous Inuyasha sequel she had nothing to do with). And that makes it a major anime event, even if Mao isn’t a huge commercial entity.
In the preview I said Mao is kind of Rumiko’s Mix, even if it isn’t a proper sequel as Mix is to Touch. It strongly echoes perhaps her biggest series, Inuyasha – though one can make a case for Ranma 1/2. It’s not revered critically or massive commercially, though still quite successful in its own right. An odd element with Mao is that this adaptation was first announced all the way back in 2020, and a six-year gap before airing certainly does count as odd. We’re getting two consecutive cours here, appropriately old school. After that we’ll see – the manga is at 27 volumes and counting.
If Yomi no Tsugai was “sasuga” in the sense of being outstanding, so was Mao – but more along the line of pretty good. I don’t know if anything could be more classic Rumiko than Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!, but you’d sure never mistake this for anyone else’s work. Rumiko has roughly two main modes, and this falls squarely under her serious-action umbrella. There isn’t much comedy here, even as compared to something like Inuyasha (which could be very funny even if not a comedy – that balance was a real strength). I’m hoping this one loosens up a bit as it progresses.
For story, we have a young girl named Koba Nanoka – first-year high school, maybe – whose parents died in an accident she miraculously survived when she was about five. The road in front of a shopping street collapsed, and Nanoka somehow found herself outside the car. She has vague memories of seeing some sort of bakemono but not much else. Her classmates gossip about strange sounds emanating from the now-derelict shoutengai (which some use as a shortcut). When Nanako checks it out herself, she winds up seemingly traveling back in time (well, well).
Nanako sees what seem to be ghosts and is attacked by some sort of mantis monster, which is scalded by her blood. She’s knocked out but treated by a young man in period dress named Mao, who calls her an ayakashi. He and his little assistant Otoya seem to be strangers to this place as much as she is, and Otoya later tells her that Mao is an onmyouji. She flees back home (returning to her time when she exits the shoutengai) but strange events the next day lead her back to Mao for answers. Turns out he’s cursed, by a cat youkai – the survivor of a kodoku. And so their fates are intertwined, in nothing remotely resembling Inuyasha fashion.
It’s all well and good – competently produced and interesting enough. I won’t deny it feels intensely familiar but there’s a certain comfort factor in that – if you grew up on Takahashi Rumiko Mao is very much like going home after being away for a long time. So far I’m not getting any spark that would stamp it as exceptional, but long series often take their time kicking into gear, all the more so with mangaka of Rumiko’s generation. In short, well within expectations so far, and on the whole this is not a series I’m expecting to deliver too many major surprises.
