Kara Dennison
July 15, 2025 
Back in 2019, Rumiko Takahashi premiered her new manga MAO in the pages of Weekly Shonen Sunday. Six years later, it’s following in the footsteps of her other hit series: an anime is on the way! While it definitely differs from more lighthearted series like Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2, this time-traveling dark fantasy has many of the hallmarks of a Takahashi series. Even if you’re not familiar with the manga (which is still updating once a week), there are plenty of reasons to get excited for this upcoming anime!
Reality Meets Fantasy
Most of Rumiko Takahashi’s manga series juxtapose the mundane with the unbelievable in unique ways. Urusei Yatsura twists Japanese folklore into a sci-fi harem series, for example. Inuyasha sends its heroine back to a feudal Japan full of magical and demons. MAO treads similar ground, but with a much darker tone.
Heroine Nanoka has always had a strange life, after dying when she was eight and yet somehow coming back to life. Seven years later, the strangeness continues: she finds herself transported back to a Taisho era filled with otherworldly monsters. Fortunately, the eponymous hero—a long-lived onmyoji currently working as a doctor—is on the case. And when the two discover they have a unique bond, they begin working together.
Action-Packed Fights
Action in a Rumiko Takahashi series can range from anything-goes martial arts to epic demonic swordplay. MAO leans more toward the latter, infusing its combat with demon blood and putting forward an element-based system of magic and combat. The fights in the manga are a regular occurrence, with the lead duo’s investigations often starting as medical calls or local oddities before turning into demon extermination.
As the series continues, however, we learn more about where Mao came from: why he’s so long-lived and why he has the powers he has. There are many players who have been around for quite some time, from old friends and enemies to someone wearing the face of the woman he loved. What starts as a monster-of-the-week action romp becomes a centuries-long conspiracy with five competitors at its center.
A Bond Across Time
While not addressed as often as it might be in other Rumiko Takahashi series, the relationship between Mao and Nanoka is still a central pillar of MAO. The two are bonded across time thanks to a cat demon named Byoki targeting both of them as potential vessels. And as the chapters of the manga goes on, there’s no denying that Nanoka seems to be catching feelings for her unusual companion. Mao definitely care about her in return, at least to some degree. But when you’re 900 years old and constantly crossing swords with old foes, these things get complicated.
There are definitely echoes of Inuyasha and Kagome in this pair, albeit in a different time period. But how will it play out? The manga is still in full swing, so answers to all the series’s mysteries are relatively far away. But seeing this duo come to life in anime is an exciting prospect.
MAO is currently available to read from Viz Manga.
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