has anyone read this?

I actually just finished reading it a few weeks ago. Manga Planet has the entire series (161 chapters), which requires a subscription; but at only $6.99/month, it's not a bad deal at all.

I honestly really enjoyed it. I loved the spiritual and mythological aspects, and how it merged some parts of Christian mythology with a LOT of Buddhist and Hindu mythology. There are a whooole bunch of gods and demons and spirits and such from several real world religions, and the way they all played into the fictional story was really neat.

I watched the two different OVA series after I finished the manga, and I'm honestly glad I did. Several of the OVAs adapted story arcs from the manga, but with the shorter runtime of the OVAs, I feel that having that added context from having been fresh off the much longer and more detailed manga helped me to enjoy the OVAs more than if I had just watched them by themselves.

So yeah, I would definitely recommend checking out the manga, it's got a good progression as it goes from Kujaku spending a chapter or two each dealing with smaller scale possessions and hauntings, to eventually having one gigantic, ongoing story arc that lasts over the entire second half of the story and gets downright cosmic in scale.

Sadly, there are several sequel manga that have never been translated, but seeing as it was as recent as 2020 that Manga Planet provided the first ever English translation (legal or otherwise) of the entire first series (that's currently well over 35 years old) perhaps the remainder of the franchise will get its loooong awaited due. Here's hopin'!

I actually just finished reading it a few weeks ago. Manga Planet has the entire series (161 chapters), which requires a subscription; but at only $6.99/month, it's not a bad deal at all.

I honestly really enjoyed it. I loved the spiritual and mythological aspects, and how it merged some parts of Christian mythology with a LOT of Buddhist and Hindu mythology. There are a whooole bunch of gods and demons and spirits and such from several real world religions, and the way they all played into the fictional story was really neat.

I watched the two different OVA series after I finished the manga, and I'm honestly glad I did. Several of the OVAs adapted story arcs from the manga, but with the shorter runtime of the OVAs, I feel that having that added context from having been fresh off the much longer and more detailed manga helped me to enjoy the OVAs more than if I had just watched them by themselves.

So yeah, I would definitely recommend checking out the manga, it's got a good progression as it goes from Kujaku spending a chapter or two each dealing with smaller scale possessions and hauntings, to eventually having one gigantic, ongoing story arc that lasts over the entire second half of the story and gets downright cosmic in scale.

Sadly, there are several sequel manga that have never been translated, but seeing as it was as recent as 2020 that Manga Planet provided the first ever English translation (legal or otherwise) of the entire first series (that's currently well over 35 years old) perhaps the remainder of the franchise will get its loooong awaited due. Here's hopin'!

I have not read the sequels yet since they unfortunately have not been translated into English, officially or otherwise (I would LOVE to, the first series was a helluva lotta fun!!), but the first series does leave itself open for further adventures, while still having tied up all of its own plotlines, large and small.

Part of me wonders where it goes from there since the final antagonist is basically a cosmic universe-ender type, but, without giving too much away, circumstances occur that set up what I assume is probably a "back to basics" approach for the beginning of the first sequel (Kujakuō: Tamaseiden), but it's done in a way that doesn't feel cheap but feels fitting with what occurs during the climax.

So yeah, don't wanna spoil anything, but the first series is certainly pretty well contained, and I unfortunately do not have any knowledge of any of the several sequels, which irks me to no end. It sucks just how many really good obscure manga don't get the love they deserve in America, even from regular fans...

Well... oscure to Americans, at least, as the series was quite popular in Japan, having gotten not only three lengthy manga sequels, but also two OVA series totalling five episodes (the first had three, second had two) that loosely adapted several story arcs from the first manga (and they actually were all released here in the US back in the late 90s by U.S. Manga Corps, I actually own the DVD box set 😁), four video games, two for the NES/Famicom, one for the Sega Master System, and one for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (the two Sega games were released here in the US as "Spellcaster" and "Mystic Defender" respectively, but unfortunately all ties to not only the manga, but each other, were changed/removed, including changing the main character Kujaku's name to "Kane" and "Yamato" respectively), and two live action Chinese films (One called "Peacock King" which is what Kujakuō literally means, and a sequel "Saga of the Phoenix")! Believe me, a manga does NOT get ALL of that (ESPECIALLY back in the late 80s/early 90s) if it's not selling like hotcakes lmao