Omamori Himari: Vol 1 [Paperback]

On first impressions, this looks like another comedy harem manga. And you'd be right, however unlike any other harem manga I can think of, this one actually has a good story to it. I watched the anime before reading the manga so I knew what to expect, even so the manga managed to make the story feel like a totally new experience.

The basic storyline follows a boy called Yuuto Amakawa, an average person living an average life. But that all changes on his 16th birthday while walking to school with his childhood friend Rinko, a buxom female samurai named Himari appears out of nowhere and tells him she is sworn to protect him from demons known as Ayakashi. Both Yuuto and Rinko don't know what to make of her so carry on to school. Later on one of these Ayakashi possesses one of Yuuto's friends, then Himari appears and defeats the Ayakashi in front of their eyes. After school, Himari invites herself to live with Yuuto, which makes Rinko jealous and causes a very awkward love-triangle. What makes Rinko even more jealous is that Himari is constantly heavily flirting with Yuuto, to the point where she basically asks Yuuto to undress her in public. More characters are introduced as the story develops and everyone of them has their own distinct personality which is great.

The characters interact well together, Rinko's jealousy of Himari is totally believable and Yuuto is a likeable character in his own way. If the later are like the anime, then the characters do start to develop incredibly well. Yuuto realises the responsibilities he has to fulfil, Rinko slowly gets over her jealousy and more of Himari's backstory is revealed, and it is rather sad so hopefully they will put that into the manga as well.

This manga is very well drawn as well, which is a huge plus point because it has quite a few action scenes and the style makes it look as though its happening at a breakneck pace. The style is also used well in more adult situations, there aren't any sex scenes or full frontal nudity, but it does get very close at times. The early volumes may be a bit slow to start but if you stick with it you'll surely get drawn into the story and you'll get to like the characters and their quirks.

Overall, I loved this manga, its one of the best I've read in a long time. The story is great, the characters are fun and likeable and you really do get drawn into their world and its amazing. I haven't even mentioned a quarter of what this manga is like as I don't want to spoil anything Personally, I would recommend this manga to anyone, whether you like action, romantic comedy, an enjoyable storyline. Also for the price its great value for money. Just make sure young ones don't get hold of it otherwise you'll have to answer some awkward questions.

Firstly this manga book arrived 3 days before the earliest day it was predicted to ariive, only 2 ( or possibly 3 ) days after I ordered it. Fantastic

Nice, fun series to read with opening colour pages and a bright vibrant feel.

As others have said it is not for the young. I am turning 16 soon and this is fine for me so i would put the age rating for this at 15/16 as i think it is anyway.

I have already purchased the next 3 volumes :)

what can i say really?
i found this an enjoyable enough read, with a good mix of humour, fanservice and action that made me want to continue reading.
its a well drawn series i found and i couldn't see any major translation errors.
so in all if you want a short fun fanservicy manga with healthy portions of action this is a good place to start.
(one other thing is that despite the large 'Parental Advisery' sticker it is not that bad, while there is some nudity no detail is shown and the nearest to sex it gets is references, should probably be a 16+)