Mao is Takahashi Rumiko's next big-manga after Rin-ne. Whether or not it can become popular overseas or even if it's popular in Japan is anybody's guess. But I imagine this series will run for 10 years like all her other stories. I have caught up to the chapters that have been released so far, so I'll give my first impression reviews as the story starts to unfold.

This review will be split into 2 parts. The first part is talking about MAO itself, while the next part will be talking about MAO in comparison to Inuyasha. Of course no big spoilers.

PART 1 - MAO

Story - 6

I'll give a description because the Wikipedia and MAL descriptions aren't really telling. The story is about a girl named Nanoka who can transport from the modern age back into the Taisho Period (1912-1926) in Japan through a gate. This gate is special as it is beside the place where she had a near-death experience as a child. In the Taisho Period, she meets Mao, an exorcist who has been cursed by a Byouki (cat demon) from some mysterious person, and Otoya, a shikigami who aids Mao. As they meet up and learn more about each other, Mao learns that he and Nanoka have a connection to the Byouki, and they must work together to find answers to what they are, and where to find the Byouki. Keep in mind, if this were an anime, these events would be known to the viewer in the first 3 episodes, so it's not really spoiling anything. Well the 3rd episode of an 11-14 episode series may spoil something, but the 3rd episode of a 100+ episode series (which MAO is likely going to be) won't really spoil anything.

The idea of being able to travel through time periods is an interesting idea, and not to mention that the Taisho Period does have a lot of supernatural elements implemented in the story. I would say that aside from the third enemy they faced in the story/first actual important enemy (Spiders), most of the enemies make a lot of sense when we compare it to things like Vampires and Werewolves in that sort of realistic fantasy idea. I will say that MAO's story is quite confusing with the first read-through, as it has all these terms and ideas that may not really be something you catch on to until you read it again. It's definitely setting up for something bigger as the story will progress, so I'll excuse being confused for now, as the story has just begun.

Art - 7

The thing with the art is that it does feel a bit old and outdated because of the designs. The character designs of the 2 main characters you'll be able to tell feel dated. The face shape doesn't look as furbished as other manga released nowadays, and you can tell that the line-art for at least the hair isn't very layered. Many of these characters also either have black hair, or white hair, similar to Inuyasha, and there aren't really any layers to their hair colors, as the black hair remains the darkest color of black, and the white hair remains white with no shades of grey or anything.

However, Rumiko's art when it comes to the creatures in MAO are very great. The unique designs alongside the depth of each stroke of ink adds to a whole new level of growth of Rumiko as an artist. The creatures up until Chapter 11 have been very elementary however as the story has only just begun, but I can't wait to see what other creatures she has in store.

With her art, if I were to rate it based on the characters alone, it'd probably be a 5. But I consider the fact that she has been doing these type of designs all her life, and these designs are probably what she's most comfortable drawing, and I have a lot of respect for her for doing designs that she may be happy drawing, rather than trying to be one of those artists that only follow the trend of what's hot and drawing those type of characters in their stories instead. So that bumps it up to a 6. Then her creature designs are an 8 to me so far, so that averages it to a 7.

Characters - 9

I was afraid this would be another story about a girl and a guy bickering about everything to each other, but it doesn't allow for that because of how the characters are (at least not yet).

Mao - I absolutely love that Mao has a very chill personality. It's very realistic in my opinion considering he's been alive for over 900 years and lives an immortal life. It just feels like a joke that he would have overflowing emotions at this point in his life, so having him not have many emotions actually does feel realistic in an unrealistic scenario. He knows how the world works so he's never afraid or shocked at anything, of course he gets shocked at Nanoka in some instances since she is an outcast in the world that he's come to understand and know.

Nanoka - I feel like we haven't had a good grasp of who Nanoka is and how she acts since she hasn't really had a break in the series yet. For now, she just feels like a sweet girl and nothing more. I admire that she has the strength to move on with life, even after such a tragic thing happened to her. I also admire how smart she is. When her friends tell her that someone likes her, she UNDERSTANDS it and doesn't try acting all embarrassed. She accepts it but doesn't think much more of it. When she's in the Taisho period, she actually CHECKS the dates to understand her surrounding so she can research about it.

Otoya - I usually hate when child-characters are a part of the main cast as they contribute absolutely nothing to the series, and when they do, they're unlikable know-it-all's (Max from Pokemon). With Otoya, he is a know-it-all, but he doesn't rub it in anyone's face that he is. He gives them information when they need it and that's all. He doesn't need to act like he's the smartest person in the room. He is useful, and very great being a part of the cast.

Even some of the side characters have been very interesting.

Enjoyment - 8

I think MAO is one of those stories that may get better as the story progresses. I remember reading the first 3 chapters and not really feeling the story, but since there were only 11 chapters out, I decided to just continue reading, and the story did get a bit more interesting.It definitely has its problems, but I do think that the story is the way it is currently because it's trying to lead up to something big. The Byouki for example made me think "I don't really like this villain..." until I reread it and realized that the Byouki was stated as being controlled by someone else to do what it did, so I am interested in where the story is headed. I'm quite interested to see how Nanoka and Mao are connected to the Byouki and whoever is controlling it, and I am also interested in seeing where the story is headed after that interesting turn-of-events from Chapter 11.

Overall - 8

It's more of a 7.6 to me currently, so it's rounded up. I think if Rumiko learns how to pace herself, develop the characters well, and not drag the series on for too long (depending on what she has in store for the story), then she may be able to make MAO a great and promising series. Plus, an anime adaption is due in 2-6 years similar to Rumiko's other long-running series.Hopefully Sunrise can work on it again as it's quite similar to Inuyasha, and not to mention some of her other adaptions have felt very cheap compared to Inuyasha which had rich animation and an excellent soundtrack.

PART 2 - MAO & Inuyasha

Story

MAO is basically Inuyasha honestly. A school girl in her final year of middle school can travel back to a previous era (Taisho for MAO, Sengoku for Inuyasha), and meets a white-haired boy with some sort of curse (MAO and Inuyasha) in a world of strange creatures. They decide to travel together alongside a little boy (Otoya for MAO, Shippo for Inuyasha), and maybe along the way, Mao and Nanoka might even meet traveling companions too like Inuyasha and Kagome did. I mean I love Rumiko but this was a straight up copy of Inuyasha's idea. I think there were things Rumiko probably wanted to do in Inuyasha that she couldn't do since it may have been too late in the story to do what she wanted to do, so she wanted to try it with MAO. MAO is a spiritual successor to Inuyasha, so if you like Inuyasha, you might as well check out MAO.

Personally, I doubt MAO will be able to become as popular as Inuyasha, but I think it'll still have a good enough story, and if the right studio and staff pick it up, then maybe it can become something great. Of course it also depends on Rumiko's writing for the future chapters.

Art

No comment.

Characters

You see, what I love about MAO is that the characters get the job done quickly, whereas Inuyasha had some dumb characters that only made the story that much harder to finish.

- Mao doesn't overthink things and doesn't care for others which makes it easier for him to get the job done before anything bad can happen to someone. Inuyasha would literally be fighting someone and then would have to drop his guard down to protect Kagome because the girl wouldn't realize how much she was in the way of things. Sometimes Inuyasha would also be busy talking and showing off to the point where the enemy would get even stronger because of how much time he wasted by not finishing off the villain sooner. He doesn't let his feelings get in the way of his objective.

- Nanoka actually FIGHTS BACK rather than just stand by and let her life almost end every single time there's a villain, unlike Kagome. Even Nanoka said she doesn't fight back, but that didn't stop her from trying to fight for her life. But we still have like 100 more chapters to come so who knows if she'll become a damsel in distress later.

- I love Shippo, but he didn't really contribute all that much to the group overall. At least Otoya is knowledgable and has information rather than being used just for comedy.

Really, Inuyasha could have been cut in half if we had the current Mao and Nanoka in their shoes. It may have even benefited the series. Especially since Inuyasha and Kagome failed to develop as characters to a useful extent and bickered so much when it got old after episode 30 or something. Who knows if Mao and Nanoka will bicker, but at least it won't be to the extent of Inuyasha and Kagome's annoying bickering.

Enjoyment

I think I enjoyed Inuyasha a bit more than MAO. Like comparing a fair amount of content from the beginning of Inuyasha to the beginning of MAO only. Inuyasha was fresh and new, and it had such a strange but dark story filled with nice comedy every now and then. I feel like MAO tries too hard to be like Inuyasha and ends up feeling a bit like a failed attempt of Inuyasha. Even outside of feeling liked a flat version of Inuyasha with the first few chapters, I feel like the narrative and villains just aren't as strong or as appealing. Like I said though, MAO has gotten better with each upcoming chapter, so this can easily change as I'm sure they're saving the better villains for later down the story.

I just think that Inuasha presented itself better than MAO for the first few chapters. The story felt like it had a direction. Like it was a single thread moving into many separate threads to create a big story. MAO on the other hand felt like multiple threads that had trouble connecting before it ultimately did connect some threads together while there were also other threads that had yet to be connected to each other. They're sort of like opposite stories. Some aspects of Inuyasha that were done wrong are done right in MAO, while some of the aspects done wrong in MAO were done better in Inuyasha.

Overall

I think that MAO is trying to set itself up to be similar to Inuyasha but is failing in presenting itself due to the pacing. I don't think that MAO will be as good or enjoyable as Inuyasha in how unique and different it was when comparing what both had done in the same amount of time, but I do think that MAO easily has the chance to be a better overall product than Inuyasha. MAO has better characters so far, and is setting itself up to do something in a very confusing but interesting way compared to Inuyasha which was also setting itself up for a bigger story but wasn't really giving out information on anything. MAO could be an overall better product than Inuyasha if Rumiko paces herself more and continues to make MAO better with each new chapter alongside understanding the flaws in Inuyasha and fixing it for MAO, but I don't think MAO will have the chance to surpass Inuyasha in the general feeling.

MAO lacks the feelings that made Inuyasha so great, but I think it can still be its own great thing. Whereas I think Inuyasha will give you more enjoyment than MAO and leave a lasting impression/feeling far into the future as it is just written and paced in a much better way, I think MAO may give better character development and a better overall story than Inuyasha.

I'm excited to see where MAO goes on from this point on.

Also I didn't majorly proofread this so there are likely errors ;3;