- Mangaka : Shouoto, Aya
- Publisher : VIZ
- Genre : Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo, Harem, Supernatural
- Published : October 2017
Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji (The Demon Prince of Momochi House) Vol. 10 Introduction
Momochi House is abuzz with news of Himari and Aoi confirming their feelings for each other. The ayakashi are quite lively and eager to probe into the young couple’s life. Aoi seems to be completely unfazed, unlike the very bashful Himari, until an uninvited guest appears and announces he will make Himari his wife! With both Himari and the title of the Nue on the line, Aoi will take on the brazen ayakashi with everything he’s got!
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
The house has become quite lively with ayakashi treating Himari and Aoi’s news as if it concerned them. Only Ise seems to be upset, disapproving of ‘someone like Himari’ living with his Aoi in such a relationship. Himari tries to clear her head and explore the house on her own, but Aoi joins her. His presence is both comforting yet distracting to her in light of their new relationship but after a while, she finds herself having fun and relaxing. Himari worries, though, that she’s not making any progress on finding information to free Aoi and it seems that Aoi may be trying to keep things fun instead of focusing on the task at hand.
Himari knows Aoi has spent far longer than her looking through Momochi House so she determines she must look in places that a boy would overlook. Her first stop is a huge kimono wardrobe where she meets a friendly ayakashi who collects beautiful clothes. All we can see is an arm with slender, bendy fingers that moves around and changes position a lot for something we can see so little of. This ayakashi tells Himari more about the role of the Nue and how he should be creating more rooms but is not. She says Momochi House itself is alive and is under the care of the Nue and there have been several Nue before Aoi. Himari is grateful to learn so much from such a knowledgeable ayakashi but then it tries to trap Himari in a large box to steal her beautiful clothing!
Just in time, The Guardian of the Gate Himari met while searching for Aoi’s past appears and traps the ayakashi known as Hand of the Kimono in her own box. He tries to tell Himari about his upset stomach from eating the light of the lantern hairpin but Himari cannot get past the tiny gate he has with him. Throughout the manga, people have made a few funny faces but this one takes the cake with The Guardian pulling a silly-looking gate out of his shirt and Himari’s eyes wide and white. Even more unnerving, he says that he wants to marry Himari just as Aoi walks up.
The Guardian explains that by marrying Himari and taking the Momochi name, he would become the Omamori-sama and Aoi would be free from his duties. This makes Himari reconsider her initial disgust but Aoi surprises her when he says he has no intention of giving up either Himari OR his role as the Nue. The Guardian decides to trap Himari in an Iro Oni Dama ayakashi and forces Aoi to play a ‘game’ to see who can rescue Himari first. Ayakashi sure love their games. Thankfully, Aoi wins and forces the rowdy Guardian whose name is Hakka to become his shikigami. The Nue immediately plunges his fingers down Shuten Douji’s throat and threatens him not to get close to Himari. Aoi transforms back and sends Hakka through multiple ceilings just to teach him a lesson while assuring Himari everything is fine. But something neither of them expected crawls out of one of the far off Momochi rooms and has it out for the Nue.
In the bonus chapter, Ise’s past as a member of the noble orangutan tribe is explored. Having been cursed by his tribe for reckless behavior, Ise cannot use his powers in the human realm so he spends his days watching humans via a magic pond. One day, he meets a weak ayakashi that instantly takes to Ise and thinks he’s a cool rebel. They go down to the human world together so the little guy can become friends with a human girl he likes, but they are attacked by a powerful ayakashi. Ise sacrifices himself to save his friend but Aoi offers to save him. The little ayakashi uses the last of his power to make it back to Ise and ask Aoi to take care of his friend before passing on.
1. The Waiting is Over but the Story is Not
We were so anxious to see Himari and Aoi finally kiss and admit their feelings and it’s great to just see them be together finally. One part of the drama feels at least settled, but there’s still so much more to explore in Momochi House. Himari has yet to figure out how to free Aoi or become a proper landlady to the house. As always, new and different ayakashi threaten our lovely couple and we get to learn more about the ayakashi world as the series goes on.
1. The Battle with Hakka is Pretty Drawn Out
Hakka and Aoi fighting was the most action-packed scene and the only other thing of importance was the Hand of the Kimono. Both characters had some interesting things to say about the Omamori-sama but Hakka and Aoi’s fight felt more like jealous teens throwing fists than a serious battle between ayakashi and lacked atmosphere. That is until the Nue threatened to kill Hakka with his fingers in Hakka’s throat.
Final Thoughts
Even after the momentous occasions of Aoi and Himari’s kiss and Aoi accepting his past, there’s still so much to learn and discover which is only HINTED at in volume 10. In the last volume, Kasha said that Aoi was only pretending to feel human emotions but his violence towards Hakka suggests he very much feels normal emotions. His new confidence with Himari is more like how the Nue acts around her though, so we’re not sure what that means for the future!
Author: May
