While shopping in random bookstores in Japan at the end of last year I kept seeing books with girls in school uniforms wielding swords. I did that thing where I pick a thing up, then put it down, then pick it up at the next store…. ^_^; Eventually I found a copy of Volume 2 signed by the creator, so I nabbed both volumes there….neither of which were Volume 1. So please forgive me if I get some of this wrong. I am coming in to this story in the middle.

So, let’s start from the beginning. Oni to Yoake is a web series by Ikuta Hana, about the members of a school kendo club who have the reborn souls of important swordsmen of the Bakumatsu, which was the end of the Edo period. Bakumatsu Joshi Kousei Oni to Yoake, Volume 1 (幕末女子高生 鬼と夜明け) begins the story with two high school girls who have the reborn souls of Sakamoto Ryouma and Toshizo Hijikata. Sakamoto transfers to Koharu High School, where the spirits of late Edo period warriors attend school, and falls in love at first sight with Hijikata, a member of the public morals committee. However, love is strictly prohibited by school rules. Got that? Good…because that is not what I am reviewing today. I haven’t read that. ^_^ That series has a Volume 2 and a Volume 3 thus far. I picked up Volume 2 because it was signed. But based on how confused I was reading this volume, I guess I had better start with Volume 1. ^_^

Oh wait, but it gets better. The book we’re looking at today isn’t the main story…it’s a sequel!  Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け　夕月夜) follows girls from a different school who also have the souls of Bakamatsu Shinsengumi swordsmen (or the infamous Hitokiri, which we’ll get to in a bit.)

Todo Yoshino, who has the soul of Toudo Heisuke, and Okita Sou, who hold the soul of  Okita Souji,  are having problems in their already established relationship. And there is something disturbing going on at their high school.  The Shinsengumi vs. the Hitokiri is about to begin. 

You may be familiar with the Four Killers of the Bakamatsu, called the Hitokiri from Ruroni Kenshin. Kenshin is supposed to be a former Hitokiri, on the run from the Shinsengumi.

Also, I know next to nothing about the Bakumatsu period! So there’s that complication as well. Ask me how lost I was? I was “stay up hours reading Wikipedia entries on the Shinsegumi and the people in this book” lost. LOL But I think I have the gist now.

This volume depicts the problems between Yoshino and Sou, and a historical intermission in which their souls’ previous bearers met, along with the  the purge of deserters, and, according to the books synopsis, “the events leading up to the Ikedaya Incident.” This is followed by a  “BL edition of the story with further new-souls of long-dead people being paired, along with school festivals, Valentine’s Day, and events at the high school of Izumi Kazusa and Tsuji Kaneshige,” who are dating.

You can tell this is an online comic, as it is in full-color. The art is good enough and dynamic when it needs to be. I’m interested enough to go back to Volume 1 and see where this started  – and to have stayed up late reading articles on the Bakumatsu and Shinsengumi, because why not?*  The real-life people seem pretty awful, though, for all the reasons you might expect.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – The boys do a cross-dress cafe, if that’s for you. I preferred the girls in Edo period men’s clothes, in the flashback
Yuri – I have *no* idea. 6?

Overall – 8

There is also a second stand-alone volume,  Oni to Yoake  Zenya (鬼と夜明け前夜 )

Girls with swords and karma. Totally in my wheelhouse.

*But! When I came across the Neale Incident I was amazed to find that I knew about that from, of all places, the Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月 ) series! Who says that vampires aren’t good for anything? (Well, me, obviously.)