This series always makes me hungry.

Volume 4 of Kakuriyo continues the adventures Aoi has been having, per usual. She finally manages to get her restaurant open, but more and more Ayakashi are trying to stop her. Some are simply sticking to snarky, rude comments, but others (like the main house chefs) are more physical, trying to scare her and cause property damage to her storefront. Luckily she has friends, like Sasuke the whirlwind, and Ginji, who are willing to step up and protect her. Sasuke manages to scare off some vandals and steps up her security out of respect for her grandfather, and Ginji puts everything on the line to take responsibility for the mistakes the restaurant is making. Clearly there’s more going on here with Ginji and his history with the inn, but I’m suspecting we will get more of that in later volumes. The restaurant is failing in every way, but at least they have found friends in one another! Aoi’s relationship with the Odanna moves forward in this volume as well, as he takes her into town to check out food from people he knows in the hopes it will help inspire her to create new dishes. This volume was a little slower and shorter than the others, so I hope it’s just setting more up for the future plot!

Volume 5 of Kakuriyo is maybe my favorite volume so far?! Stuff actually happened in this one which I really enjoyed. It started with a conversation between Aoi and the Odanna which was cool; he’s still mysterious and interesting enough that I want more revealed about him. Then we finally get an appearance of Hakkabo, the badger demon and author who has been taking up residence at the inn. Aoi has provided him with many lunches and he comes to her restaurant to pay his respects to her. In the process of having a meal she provides, he is struck with inspiration based on her story, and rushes off to write again! Then a fortune sprite visits Aoi, though Aoi, being so kind and humble, doesn’t realize she’s a giver of good fortune. She merely thinks she’s another visitor and works hard to make her a delicious meal. In return the sprite blesses Aoi with good fortune which soon comes to her restaurant in the form of Hakkabo writing about how great it is. This kick-starts insane growth for the restaurant as Ayakashi from all over begin to visit it to eat. They even receive a request from the royal family to book the entire place for the royal anniversary dinner! The Odanna gives Aoi the freedom to travel to pick up special ingredients and gives her a necklace of protection. Also we learn that the front desk man isn’t as big of a jerk as he seems. This was a super fun volume! Probably the best one so far in terms of plot and moving things along, while also giving a bit of focus on many of the cool secondary characters that pop up from time to time. I love this series a lot.

Title: Kakuriyo (Volume 4 & 5)
Author: Wako Ioka
Format: Paperback
Pages: 152 // 152
ISBN: 9781974704996 // 9781974707706

Three Descriptors: Supernatural, Folklore based, Budding romance,