The biggest hurdle to getting into Kamakura Monogatari is the art. It appears to strive to be vaguely Shigeru Mizuki-esque with its supernatural characters while having a very cartoony look to its humans and backgrounds filled with tiny details. There's rarely any comfortable place for you to rest your eyes, and occasionally a sense of disconnect pops up when someone refers to one of the characters (Akiko's husband, usually) as “handsome,” because by the standards of most comic art, he's just sort of awkward-looking like most of the other people. The busyness is much more of an issue, however, because while it does mirror the story's mix of literary elements, it can also be very tiring to read.

If you can get used to the art, however, the story here is off the beaten path in a nice way. Our protagonist, Akiko, is a young-looking twenty-one-year-old married to a man twelve years her senior and adjusting to life in rural Kamakura. Like many people who move to a new part of the country, she's most upset when people assume she's not from there, because she really wants to think that living in Kamakura for a few years makes her like a native. As the story shows, it absolutely doesn't – and more than the way she dresses, what marks her out is the fact that she didn't realize that yokai really are wandering around the town and forests. As the book goes on, she begins to get used to them, but early chapters have her freaking out over kappa sightings or getting kidnapped by foxes who, like everyone else, assume she's not from there.

It's really a mix of slice-of-life and mild magic realism, and most of the time, that works very well. (Especially when it involves surfing oni.) The supernatural doesn't turn up in every chapter or become the focus of all the events, so it really does feel ancillary to Akiko's other issues, like family coming to visit or her husband meeting his deadlines. There's not quite enough acceptance of the supernatural to make this true magic realism, but it's a neat blend of genres that's very appealing.

Kamakura Monogatari is itself a mix of genres and art styles even without taking the literary factors into consideration. It's a slow read because of this, but if you're up for a small challenge and a more grounded story, it's worth checking out.