Review by Ian Keogh

Three Exorcism Siblings is set in a feudal Japan afflicted by flesh-eating monsters known as Tengu. Due to a blood sacrifice that transformed him into a human/Tengu hybrid Mamoru Yamaemori is a particularly effective Tengu killer. However, his life will be short, and fellow Tengu killer Rengio Uzura has decreed if he falters or fails in his task his younger brothers will continue the family tradition. They’re already being trained in anticipation, and Volume 1 ended with a mass Tengu attack.

As we’re quickly told, leading them is a Ratengu, a Tengu that’s consumed so many humans it has a human intelligence, and it’s far more dangerous than the creatures Mamoru has already dealt with. It leads to the first half of this volume being a long and draining battle, playing to Shinta Harekawa’s artistic strengths as it’s spectacularly drawn with movement key, but gives the impression of dragging out the inevitable.

Harekawa, though has a couple of shocks to drop. They’re horrific and re-frame the established situation. There’s no movement toward the greater threat, but there’s no comfort to be found in what happens.

Once the battle is over, Harekawa jumps into an expansion of his mythology, building a world where protective shrines are scattered across the land, each designated a number and a protector. To many the very idea of a human and Tengu hybrid such as Mamoru is an abomination, and they’re going to take some convincing to view him as an ally, not a threat.

Until the end of the battle all the Protectors seen have been of the earnest, devoted and single-minded type, but the first woman Protector is introduced, and so are some other human/Tengu hybrids. They’re played as unhinged, but greatly exaggerated as such, diminishing their threat rather than underlining it.

Despite the prolonged battle preventing the plot advancing over the first half, this is a better volume than the first, introducing different threats and more interesting people. How they affect the ongoing continuity plays out in Volume 3.