Ayakashi Triangle Vol 1 [Manga Review]

“Another Victory for the Mangaka King of Ecchi Action”

Few mangaka can truly claim the heights of greatness as Yabuki Kentaro. From penning the stellar action-comedy series Black Cat, to working as the artist for To-Love-Ru, to creating the sci-fi sensation Darling in the Franxx, Yabuki is undoubtedly skilled at crafting new worlds.

With all that skill and expertise behind him, Yabuki Kentaro has once again delivered a new world filled with a unique blend of ecchi and action in the form of the supernatural gender-bender, Ayakashi Triangle.

Join us today on Honey’s Anime as we review Ayakashi Triangle, Volume 1!

Contains Spoilers

Discussion Time

Ayakashi Triangle focuses on Matsuri, heir to the Kazamaki clan of exorcism—a type of ninjutsu used to dispel rogue spirits, otherwise known as ayakashi. His childhood friend, Kanade Suzu, is something called an ayakashi medium—essentially, a type of human with an overflowing life force that can draw ayakashi to her, both mundane and dangerous.

When Matsuri tries to save Suzu from the vicious cat-beast Shirogane, king of ayakashi, he’s struck with a jutsu that flips his gender, transforming him into a busty and attractive girl. At the very least Shirogane has his powers sealed to prevent him from devouring Suzu’s life force, but unless he voluntarily undoes Matsuri’s transformation, our hero will now be forced to live life as a heroine!

This gender-bending effect plays off nicely against Suzu and Matsuri’s relationship—a tense mix of budding romance that clashes with Matsuri’s need to protect his childhood friend. Suzu forbids Matsuri from killing Shirogane, since that would trap Matsuri in a girl’s body forever—but that won’t stop Matsuri from risking everything to fulfill his duty as an exorcist.

As always, Yabuki’s artwork is polished to perfection—an elegant mix of action, comedy, and ecchi that all come together with the skill of a true professional. The physical Seven Seas editions have all the nudity and ecchi-ness untouched, while the MangaPlus editions are conveniently censored. If you’re reading one of Yabuki’s works, it’s definitely worth it to grab the uncensored version, in our opinion!

1. Confident World Building

Despite Ayakashi Triangle maintaining a reasonably comedic tone throughout the first volume, there’s clearly a ton of backstory waiting to be revealed in later volumes. In the first few chapters alone, we learn about ayakashi, ninja powers, and the existence of other clans with their own unique jutsu.

Coupled with some great battles against dangerous ayakashi, we’re looking forward to seeing where the series goes as it expands its cast and doubles down on new threats!

2. Taking It Seriously

As we’ve already mentioned, Yabuki’s art isn’t for everyone, particularly when there’s nudity and panty-shots on every other page. But despite the premise of Matsuri becoming a girl, the topic is handled with a seriousness that we weren’t expecting.

Suzu’s attraction to Matsuri is based on their history together, and she’s already struggling with the concept of her own sexuality—questioning if she could possibly love a girl, particularly if it was Matsuri. And on Matsuri’s side, he doesn’t seem to mind whether he’s male or female—it’s just part of the exorcism job, so long as he can protect the girl he loves.

The series could have simply run with the gender flip as a complete joke, which might have landed it in hot water, but thankfully it seems Yabuki is willing to handle the concept delicately—something we really appreciate, and think makes the ecchi humor, and the potential romance, even better.

Final Thoughts

You never quite know when experienced mangaka are going to have their last ride on the merry-go-round, so to speak, but we’re happy to report that Ayakashi Triangle is looking like another victory for Yabuki.

Ayakashi Triangle is an entertaining mix of supernatural action and great comedy that uses ecchi humor to its advantage, all while keeping a rather serious tone about love and attraction going beyond gender alone.

Are you going to read Ayakashi Triangle? Let us know down in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading!