Special Edition - A Review:
Onmyoji and Tengu Eyes - Hide and Seek in the Wintry Mountains (Vol. 2)
Author: Yoshiko Utamine
Publishers: Cross Infinite World
Age Group: teen
Genre: Shojo Mystery
Type: Light Novel
Content Warnings: Taboos, child abductions, small amount of violence
The two otherworldy friends, Misato Miyazawa (our pale pretty boy with long black hair) and Ryouji Karino (our 90s flashy gangster wannabe), find themselves in the midst of a strange, supernatural mystery—and this time, demons are involved!
After defeating the Inugami, Misato’s team at the Abnormal Disaster Unit entrusts the good-looking onmyoji with the resolution of a new enigma. At the same time, hot-blooded freelance monk Ryouji is discreetly tasked with a missing person case in Izumo: Katsuki Narukami, Misato’s beloved younger brother, has vanished.
As their respective investigations progress, uncanny similarities between the two cases begin to surface and the more it seems like Ryouji and Misato are the latest players in an increasingly sinister game of tag.
From the first volume, Misato has grown quite a bit. He’s learned to accept the spirit snake attached to him (mostly). He’s not a doormat of a person and learned to hold his own (within reason). We see more of his personality in this volume. While he is a soft spoken person, it’s a defense mechanism. He’s not afraid to share his opinions and offload his stress to Ryouji and Hirose (his childhood friend who has a job at Town Hall and visits the Abnormal Disaster Unit). In this volume, we learn a lot more about his relationship with his brother and get a glimpse of his family life before he left. There are some scars from his youth of betrayal, guilt, and self-deprecation.
Ryouji is the same as he always is. We get a lot of growth from him in this volume that expands on the ending of the first. He’s learning to rely on Misato a little bit more and goes through a great emotional arc of wanting to repay the favor (Misato saved him from the Inugami) by helping find Misato’s brother.
It’s safe to say that the bromance is blooming nicely.
The characterization is a lot more compelling than the first volume. There are several different emotional arcs happening in this volume. Misato and Ryouji go through their own arcs as do a couple of secondary characters. This characterization is compelling because the audience can relate to the emotional journeys more than in the first volume. I think this comes from having a complex plot that is more coherent than the first volume was.
The audience can relate to Misato and Ryouji better than the first volume. We also get a few secondary protagonists in the Sugihara family, the family cursed from eating Adzuki beans. The legend of the area says if you eat adzuki beans you’ll be cursed with a rash that turns to adzuki beans and pus before it kills you. If a child is under 7, they’ll be lured to the mountain to play hide-and-seek never to be seen again.
The mother particularly goes through her own character arc from disbelief, to grief and blame, to realizing what’s happening to them is not their fault. While they did eat the adzuki beans, they’re new to the area and didn’t know the superstitions. We find out during the novel that the villagers fears and guilt from sacrificing and trying to appease the little girl (the one who lures children to play hide-and-seek) created this very curse the mother suffers from.
The creation of supernatural phenomena is always random. Sometimes it creates entities, curses, negative encounters, etc but not always. Otherwise this world would be overrun a long time ago. The book explains this very well.
Katsuki goes through his own arc that helps him to grow from a child mindset to more of an adult (remember those growing pains in teens and your 20s). He dearly misses his brother and follows the spirit paths towards a shikigami that’s keeping the children from being lured by the spirit girl (demon). The shikigami acts as a substitute.
Katsuki learns that he can’t always have his way. While he wants Misato to come back to the clan and he’ll do anything to make that happen, he learns he can’t force the issue. In fact, he needs to create a future for himself that doesn’t include other people that may leave his life. He cannot create his entire life plan based on having certain people always around him. This is an unsustainable life and he must face that people come and go. This very mindset helps him to connect with the demon eventually sending the girl demon to paradise by making her remember who she is beyond being a sister and the demon in hide-and-seek.
The world-building is contemporary with a merging of old town versus newer development in Tomoe. There are a lot of restless spirits which makes it easy for Misato to have a job. On the flip side, Ryouji works for the local real estate agency dealing with stuff as well. It’s an interesting difference in dynamic.
We get some expansion on the differing spiritual practices in this one; Shegundo, buddhism, Onmyoji, and a little Taoism. It’s fascinating to experience all of these differing beliefs, their similarities, and how each of the characters that focus on those use their spiritual abilities and training to help Misato and Ryouji as their respective investigations cross.
There are a lot more themes in this one!
The first theme continues from the first volume about finding your tribe or those you vibe with.
“They were both living in the same ghostly, gloomy place; that was all. They gazed at the same distant sky from their dim position in existence, the darkness unchanging whether twilight fell or dawn arrived. It was comforting to be with someone who was must like him” (p. 81).
This is a really important inner reflection from Ryouji as he’s talking with Tsugawa, one of Ryouji’s co-workers at the bar. It shows us how Ryouji feels about Misato. Knowing Ryouji’s background, this is a big reflection coming from him as he keeps people away from him, but Misato has broken through.
The second theme is about the ties/chains that bind us to each other. This theme is great because it shows the dichotomy connections have. Ties can mean a tight/close-knit connection between individuals that cannot be severed. It also refers to the chains used to restrain. The connections we encounter that become ties is both a comforting thing but can also be stifling. It’s how we choose to react to these connections that makes relationships dynamic, engaging, and worth the effort. Sometimes, things don’t work out and severing a tie is the only option. I don’t believe that ties can never be severed but it does take a lot of effort, boundary setting, and reminding yourself why you did it in the first place. We see this very thing with Misato as he thinks about his past with his brother.
We see more evidence of this when Ryouji contemplates pratityasamutpada, a key doctrine in Buddhism based on chains of causality. No one lives only according to their will because each action/causality has consequences/ripples into other people’s lives. The example for this volume is if Kasuki decides to continue to live in the spirit realm on the mountain (as the next head of the Narukami clan) this action ripples through other’s lives. The entire clan will have to find someone else to become heir, his tutor will lose his position in the clan, and his brother, Misato, will be forever worried about him.
The third theme builds on top of the first two but also goes in an inner direction rather than an outward direction. It’s a perfect theme on looking within. It’s remaining true to yourself by accepting all parts of you. In my circles there are a lot of people that are all ‘love and light’ and those that are all about ‘trauma (shadow) work’. Two separate ways of looking and dealing with things.
After Misato has a bad dream caused by a spirit that’s latched onto him, he rejects Shirota (the snake spirit that’s become part of him). When Misato comes back to his normal mindset, he says the following:
“…to ignore Shirota was to turn his back on himself. No wonder he’d lost sight of himself and been readily possessed by a malevolent entity” (p. 152).
We cannot come to terms with ourselves and our experiences if we are not willing to accept all parts of ourselves, the light and the dark. Everything must be in balance, not all light or all dark. Humans are complex beings that contain both. As such, it gives us the unique perspective to create right and wrong, to have beliefs, and develop a sense of self that interacts with other ‘selfs’. How we treat ourselves shows outward to others. We reject or accept others based on how we accept the many facets of ourselves. To ignore the darkness or the light within, is to ignore and reject the full self that makes you who you are.
Observations & Predictions
As I said in the characterization portion, the plot is more coherent which creates great emotional relation between the characters and audience. The waves of sub-plot come together with the main plot nicely, like diverging roads that all come together to create a merging highway towards the end.
The writing is also tighter than the first volume. This made me want to read it more than the first volume. It took me about a month to get through the first volume while this volume was about a week (distractions are fun). The tighter writing allowed the characters and themes to shine in this volume. While this volume isn’t perfect in pulling you in to read non-stop, the author and their team of editors did an excellent job improving upon their faults in the first volume.
One observations I want to go into is the bromance between Misato and Ryouji. When Ryouji thinks about their relationship, Tsugawa thinks they’re a couple. He vehemently disagrees saying they’re just friends, not even best friends, though he’s never had one so he doesn’t know if Misato qualifies. Ryouji has strong feelings about friendships and romance.
“All friendships are like toilet paper once romance gets in the way” (p. 81).
At the same time, we get a different reaction from Ryouji later in the book. During the final fight Misato calls Ryouji his partner. Ryouji reacts by blushing and stuttering over his words. Misato takes it back seeing Ryouji flustered. Ryouji says not to mind, he just never thought about it (p. 264). (If you’re a fujoshi then this little interaction is gold).
Later during the same fight, Ryouji calls Misato his partner. It’s then Misato realizes why Ryouji was so flustered, as it gets him flustered as well.
I can see the series going one of two ways based on the interactions between Ryouji and Misato. The first is that a romance will blossom between them. Ryouji will reject his feelings because he’ll want things to stay the same. He won’t want to lose the intimate friendship he and Misato have. Misato may also be a little like this, but it’s more likely he’ll try to reject it in turn because he doesn’t want to be betrayed again. He’s also still dealing with his emotions from this second volume so they may resurface from a different perspective.
The other way is that it remains a bromance with hidden gems that tantalize the fantasy of them eventually getting together. I think this route is more likely.
More “friendship”:
The Night Beyond the Tri-cornered Window
By: Tomoko Yamishita
The Case Files of Jeweler Richard
By: Nanako Tsujimura
More Supernatural Action:
Bureau of Paranormal Investigation
By: Er Dong Shui Shou
Jujutsu Kaisen
By: Gege Akutami
Same Vibes:
Dark Gathering
By: Kenichi Kondo
