It may seem like we live in a normal world, void of the supernatural, but that’s all wrong. Youkai, also known as monsters, walk among us and most monsters can only be seen by a few people. So few people can see youkai that the majority of the public don’t truly believe in their existence, and the ones who can see them tend to fear and kill them. One man wants to change all that and his name is Kantarou Ichinomiya. Kantarou wants to befriend the monsters and to do this he befriends the most powerful youkai, the Oni Eating Tengu, also known as the Ogre Eating Goblin. Although Kantarou is an exorcist, which typically kill yuokai, he wants to save them and with the Oni Eating Tengu, which Kantarou name Haruka, he can’t fail.

Highlights   

Kantarou’s job lets him meet many different youkai, and my favorite youkai he meets in this volume is the Kappa. Kappa are human like youkai, although they tend to look more like frogs or turtles. Due to their amphibian-like attributes, Kappas have a tendency to need to stay wet and will carry water with them. Kappa typically inhabit ponds or rivers and don’t leave their watery home often. One Kappa comese to Kantarou with a request. The request is that he wants to function in normal human life. The first thing that the Kappa tries to do is be a waiter at a restaurant. The Kappa shows the potential to be good in thisjob, but when he begins to feel dehydrated, he pours the water on himself that he was about to give his customer. After other epic failures, the Kappa thinks long and hard, his emotions running the gamut. The Kappa then decides that it would be best if he returned home. Of course many more adventures will happen.

Overall 

Tactics is very interesting, it uses a lot of Japanese folklore, which I enjoy. All the youkai are traditional Japanese monsters, although some of them are pictured differently than their traditional form. It’s a very original story that has depth, in both charters and story format. By story format, I mean that it isn’t an action story, but then again it is, also it has hints of romance and comedy. All these different elements fuse together to make a great story. One problem is that the first chapter of this volume is the continuation of a previous story from volume 7, and the fact that I haven't read that volume, I was very confused, so this is not a volume that you would just pick up and start reading. That aside, this is a very entertaining volume.   

ComicsOnline Gives Tactics Volume 8 4.5 out of 5 yuokai