What is Kamui? According to the book it is simply a term used to describe “the spirits”. Spirits that seemingly walk the Earth, and wage unholy war against it’s inhabitants.

Once again the Earth (big surprise) is not in it’s happy place. It started a long long time ago, once upon a time mankind lived in harmony with the spirits of the Earth… you know, around the time of God of War and so forth (Now you remember God of War, right? The PS2 game?)… but when mankind embraced technology that relationship became strained, and mankind/spirits got a “divorce” of sorts? Well, like any bad marriage it looks like mankind and the spirits went to Divorce Court and said divorce turned bitter.

Just like that movie with Michael Douglas called War of the Roses, mankind was having a severe bitching match with the spirits, which seems to have gotten worst in the here and now of Kamui. Apparently a spirit named Okikurumi has been taken from a village, and one man (Atsuma) has been sent to retrieve it… eventually. This spirit has seemingly set off an imbalance between the spirit world and the human world, but we don’t need to be in that much of a hurry now that Atsuma has joined forces with the local big group known as NOA which leads to a world of Real World meets school drama slash action and drama.

NOA, not to be confused with the Japanese food products company of the same name, is a group of young people who wield the power of the kamui (spirits), and who may or may not be party to information concerning the present disposition of the spirit Okikurumi, and it’s possible retrieval… oh, and they have their own Charles Xavier School of Gifted Youngsters thing, if said institute was run by Walter Koeing and the gang at PSICorp.

Since obviously NOA is the big show in town it looks like Atsuma is going to be playing ball with them if he wants to make any progress in finding Okikurumi in a timely manner. In order to do this he’ll have to join forces with them, go to bat sometimes whenever the spirits run rampant, and end up getting hooked up to this female student named Anzu who he ends up saving during an Atanan incident where these students were fighting a Godzilla sized spirit with conventional rifles and, duh, needed to be saved.

He saves her (and her teammates), and suddenly she is so attached to him despite the fact she knows practically nothing about him. That’s not so bad, right? Well before you know it those awkward schoollife moments begins to happen, and they throws the two together faster than you can say “Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon”, as if on cue (or to make us think Kamui is partially flavored with the taste of schoolyard melodrama along with the supernatural psychic spirit stuff).

Of course somebody has it in mind to use this girl as a way to make Atsuma “bleed”, which is going to be such a sad mistake, but you’ll see that in a few as the book’ casual pacing explodes as Anzu asks Atsuma to this annual ball dance thing NOA’ school holds, which turns into a nightmare as these guys attempt to exploit the dance to attack Atsuma which backfires when he flips out and goes dark side on them and the rest of the dance which leads to a violent confrontation that kicks the action meter back up a few notches in a violent dark way.

As the volume ends, Anzu loses her fascination with Atsuma, Atsuma is looked on with fear by those who survived the incident, and he flips out, we wonder where will things go with Volume 3. What happened to Atsuma, what role does he play in the plans of these NOA people and their schemes, what will be the next turn of the screw in the story… oh, and will anyone remember that thing Atsuma joined NOA for in the first place, something about finding some stolen village spirit that tipped the scales of power or something.
More next time, but for now…

Kamui Breakdown the 2nd
What’s Hot?
What started off abit slowly, then kicked slightly, revs into full throttle at the latter half and has a twist of the blade in the plot that gets you hyped for Volume 3. If you are still reading this you should be hyped for what comes next.

What’s Not?
Of course it was abit slow getting here, but I didn’t mind the buildup since it was kind of cute. You might, of course, but I recommend reading this before you declare it obsolete.

Moments to Remember?
I’d say remember the warming glow of Anzu and her attentions to Atsuma, but since I am pretty sure that is a throwaway relationship that isn’t going to go pass this volume maybe you should ignore it. Then again maybe not, who knows.

What to Ignore?
Not much to ignore, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Overall?
We got a twist that should keep readers going right into volume 3, so as we head out of this review and into the next we should be picking up speed. The first half of the book has one action moment but moves slowly, but it is a buildup to the explosion of tension at the ball which hopefully spills into Volume 3.
But that is for that review, stay tuned.