Title: Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits Vol. 5
Author: Midori Yuma (Story), Waco Ioka (Art), Laruha (Character Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 152
Genre: Supernatural
Publication Date: September 3, 2019
The Story
Volume five of Kakuriyo sees the struggling of Yugao as a restaurant. Customers are almost non-existent except for a few regulars. That all changes when Aoi served Hakkago a boxed lunch in Vol. 4. He was so grateful, he came to Yugao to thank Aoi for the meal. While he was there, he gained inspiration for a new novel and ran off without properly saying goodbye. Hakkabo makes up for it by running an article in a popular newspaper about Yugao which attracts a lot of business.
This happens after a fortune spirit visits and is impressed with Aoi’s red bean milk jelly… so much so that she gives Aoi her ball, which is a sign of prosperity. Whether or not the two of the events went hand-in-hand is remains to be seen. It could have just been coincidental as with most superstitions. Regardless, the article did more than attract customers. A lord known as Nuino-in heard about the restaurant and wants to reserve it for his wedding anniversary. This causes Aoi to prepare a special menu but what she wants to cook will require a trip to the Eastern Lands. The volume ends with her preparing to embark on this trip with Ginji.
Nice to see Yugao taking off but the story didn’t really advance anywhere. Instead, it seemed like the story stopped progressing in order to create events once the restaurant was established. I would consider this akin to a side quest in an RPG but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Of course, the main story is Aoi and the Odanna’s wedding and/or paying back Shiro’s debt. Opening the restaurant was a step in repaying that debt but now we are seeing the trials of the restaurant which seem like sub-steps on the way to the main goal. That’s why I say it feels more like side quests than main story advancement.
That doesn’t mean the story wasn’t interesting, though. I enjoyed seeing the luck of the restaurant turn around… I just feel that it turned around a little too quickly. I would have liked to see the plights continue on for a while, coming up with different ideas only to see them fail. All so we get that build-up and a bigger reward for working hard.
Characters
Even though we were introduced to him the last volume, yes, we are now properly introduced to Hakkabo, yes. He’s an author and was served boxed lunches by Aoi which allowed him to write without being interrupted, yes. He seems very friendly, yes, but a tad eccentric as most authors tend to be, yes. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, he likes to say yes at the end of almost every sentence………. Yes. For a small side character, I actually enjoyed his personality. He seems like a very kind and respectable person even though he gets a little too fired up over his writing. He certainly doesn’t lack any passion whatsoever which is a nice quirk for a character of his archetype. I hope we get to see more of him in the future, yes.
The only other new character was the Fortune Spirit who doesn’t have a name. They say fortune spirits like red beans and rice which is why she found Aoi’s red bean milk jelly to be delicious. She was the silent type who didn’t really convey a lot of emotions (aside from eating the food). Still hard to tell if her giving Aoi the ball was coincidental with Hakkabo’s article or not. Maybe we’ll see more of her in later volumes. I would assume so since she’s on the cover of this one.
Lastly, we got to see a side of Byakuya that was purrfectly fanyantastic. I’ll just leave it at that!
Final Thoughts
Pretty short volume once again but a lot of interesting things were happening to keep the pages turning. I like the diversity of some of the supporting characters but I’m starting to worry if this is starting to become more like Food Wars: Shokuegeki no Soma, or Restaurant to the Another World. I’m getting a lot of similarities between the two series (minus the exploding clothes) and I worry that this will become the focus of the manga rather than the overarching story. While it’s still really interesting, I just don’t want this to turn into another cooking series that adds its name to an already growing pile.
Despite that, I’m looking forward to Aoi’s trip to the Eastern Lands. I hope there’s some drama mixed in as it would be rather boring for her to go there, get what she needs and head back without any issues whatsoever. I’m hoping for at least a little mayhem and tidal waves… perhaps a little atomic pageantry. Whatever the case, I’m sure it will be quite interesting!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
