Ayakashi Triangle is a new Shonen Jump manga series from Kentaro Yabuki, who is best known for Black Cat and serving as the artist for To Love Ru. This new series, from the look of it so far, includes some of the supernatural elements of the earlier and some of the fanservice of the latter.
The first chapter quickly introduces the story’s hero, the young exorcist Matsuri, and his childhood friend Suzu. An ayakashi (monster/yokai) cat suddenly shows up, but sine it’s seemingly weak, Matsuri leaves Suzu be as she plays with this monster kitty. Little does Matsuri know that this kitty isn’t some weak demon; he is the ayakashi king!
To save Suzu, Matsuki imprisons the ayakashi king to minimize his power. However, in the process, the king gets one major blast of energy off. And what does it do? It changes Matsuki from a boy into a girl.
And that’s the first chapter.
The whole idea of ninja exorcists already had me interested. I’m a sucker for a good monster/exorcist story like Blue Exorcist or the more recent SJ manga series Bone Collection. So, I was already interested from the get go when I saw the premise.
The first chapter is really packed full and, while there are some ecchi moments, overall it’s a lot of fun. What I find most interesting is the way Matsuri reacts to everything. One minute he’s male trying to protect his childhood friend that clearly has a crush on him, the next he’s…a girl trying to protect his childhood friend. But through it all, Matsuri is unflappable. He notices his new body, but just continues to roll with the punches. Matsuri is still planning to be a ninja exorcist and a protector. Despite the obvious transformation, to Matsuri, nothing really seems to change.
But as a reader, I’m eager to see how this change affects Matsuri. What will happen next? Does Matsuri want to switch their body back to male? Will Suzu’s crush remain despite the change in Matsuri’s body? What other monsters will we see, especially after the revelation that Suzu is basically a giant ayakashi magnet. The series is rated above Teen, so you’d need to read it on the SJ website and not their app. But so far, I think it’s worth checking out.
You can read Ayakashi Triangle at Shonen Jump. The most current chapters are always free.
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