The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Three Exorcism Siblings

What's It About? 

In the mountains above Japan, Mamoru Yamaemori spends his days tending to his family shrine, fighting tengu— monsters who feast on human flesh—and, making sure his two younger brothers will never have to pick up his mantle. Unable to escape the life forced upon him by his parents and a dark ritual involving Tengu blood, all he knows is that his existence is a curse: he is destined to die young in the service of others.

But to fight monsters, Mamoru must dance that line between loving older brother and mindless beast – or else he risks becoming that which he is sworn to destroy.

Three Exorcism Siblings has a story and art by Shinta Harekawa. The English translation is by Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clements and was lettered by Tom Williams. Published by Titan Manga (April 16, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I can't help but feel that Three Exorcism Siblings is Tokyo Ghoul by way of Demon Slayer. It's by no means a perfect description of this volume, but all the same, the links are there. Our main Yamaemori brother, twenty-one-year-old Mamoru, has been drinking the so-called "blood of sacrifice" since childhood to be able to slay tengu on the mountain, and one day, while protecting his youngest brother Yu, he begins to transform into a tengu himself. Although his mentor Yuji claims not to understand what's going on, the fact that this happens and that the Yamaemori family has a reputation for dying young seems to suggest that the very reason that they're "cursed" is because they all turn into tengu and die (or are killed). Sure, Yuji may not know about this, but it seems a tad bit too convenient. And now, with Mamoru's transformation, his brothers Kei and Yu have to become his failsafe: if he fully transforms, they'll have to kill him, but in the meantime, they're busy protecting their family.

It's not a bad start to a series. The brothers' devotion to each other, made stronger by their parents' early deaths when Mamoru was twelve, is truly touching. Mamoru's wish to keep Kei and Yu out of the family business and their equal determination to use it to protect him grounds the action. Their family life is precious to them, something other tengu-fighting guardians can't quite understand. Yuji, at least, respects their wish to stay together until what he believes will be Mamoru's inevitable descent into monstrosity. Still, no one believes that he can regain his humanity or even hold onto it for very long. The idea of the boys fighting to prove the world wrong while Mamoru grapples with his changes is the story's core, and it works.

Unfortunately, there's not a great story flow to the volume. The book opens with a lot of info dumping that attempts (and fails) not to be awkward, and the tengu designs look like someone ran the creatures from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are through the ugly filter. Apart from the boys' determination to stay together and protect each other, they don't have much in the way of personality – just a collection of tropes thrown into a human shape: Mamoru's bad at housework, Kei's smart and wears glasses, Yu's perky and good at soccer. And for all of the information we're given, the lore isn't well realized, although, in all fairness, that could change.

What you get is a serviceable first volume that doesn't quite achieve "good." That could change because this has potential with the brothers' relationship and family history. Unless you have a specific appetite for this style of action fantasy, I can't wholeheartedly recommend it.

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Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Author Shinta Hirakawa's previous manga work was untranslated BL romance Senpai, This Can't Be Love!, but with Three Exorcism Siblings, he makes his English language manga debut with a fairly standard fantasy action story. So far, given the six opening chapters that comprise this volume, other than some suitably gory violence and attractive male character designs, there isn't much to elevate this above the hundreds of other similar titles.

These early chapters cover the discovery of Mamoru's powers and his first trials in attempting to control them. He's mentored by the stoic forty-something Guardian Yuji Shinomoto, who can't hide his disgust at Mamoru's cursed nature and forces him to undertake exhausting and dangerous tasks. It's unlike other supernatural shonen action manga like Demon Slayer, but it lacks the same emotional hooks and fun characters. It's also almost entirely humorless.

For the moment, the familial relationships between the three siblings are pretty basic but have the potential to evolve into something more compelling with time. Mamoru hoped to keep them out of the family business of Tengu hunting, but given his affliction, his brothers both decide to become Guardians. It will become their job to kill him if he loses control, which could lead to some interesting tension later.

Three Exorcism Siblings hews so closely to its genre's tropes and basic storytelling conventions that it's tough to say anything interesting. It's completely fine. It looks decent, and the action is well-presented, but we've seen this so many times. Perhaps later volumes will be more stimulating, but based on the lack of inspiration in this volume, I don't plan to read more.