Souya Himawari's Right Here, Right Now is the beginning of another one of those series that looks as though it's going to develop nicely, but it's too soon to tell for sure.
Mizuo Yanase is your typical high-school boy, although rather small, and not real interested in going to his tea ceremony lessons. One of his favorite hideouts is an abandoned temple. He stops by one day after not having been there for a while and parks himself on the site of the vanished altar, where the Buddha statue used to sit. He suddenly hears chanting and finds himself in the temple five hundred years ago, surrounded by monks, who immediately take him for an avatar of the Buddha. It's not long before he comes to the attention of sixteen-year-old Takakage Fujima, the heir of the Fujima lands, presently locked in a struggle for survival against the neighboring Kitagawa clan. Takakage is happy to carry the living Buddha into battle as an encouragement to his men. Takakage also has a more immediate interest in Mizuo.
I was a little disappointed in this one. Himawari's given it a light-hearted treatment, which tends to undercut the dramatic scenes substantially. Sadly, there is potential for strong dramatic conflict that's not developed -- at least, not yet: the situation, which includes a couple of trips for Mizuo back and forth through time, could develop some nice twists.
The drawing reflects this: it's pleasant enough, all the characters are appealing, but no more than that. Even though Takakage ages six years in the course of the story, he doesn't really look all that more mature, and certainly not hard-bitten enough to have earned the sobriqet "Demon." The visual narrative is sort of shoujo standard, loose but not particularly adventurous.
I may follow up on volume two, but given the lightness of this first part, it's not going to be high on my list.
From Juné.
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