Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs (Series Review) – Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Covers

Kogarashi Fuyuzora is a psychic who helps spirits pass on. They can go the easy way, resolving their unfinished business, or the hard way! So, when he moved into a haunted hot springs, he thought he knew what he was getting into!

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs (Series Review) – Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san

What did you read?

I watched the anime Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs back in 2019 and absolutely loved it. I loved it so much that I didn’t write up a review as I was planning to rewatch it and give it the full episodic analysis. Of course, things happened and before I knew it several years had passed. Then, I started to get back into reading manga again and figured that this would be a great series to start collecting. I was able to get most of the volumes fairly easily although some I had to order from overseas. Then, not long after I started collecting the manga, the final volume was released. All of a sudden, I had the entire collection and needed to sit down and read them. So, that’s what I did and this is the culmination of the last six months. I’m not sure how I’m going to summarise twenty-four books, but let’s give it a go!

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 1 Yuuna dropped Kogarashi into the hot springs at the wrong time

What happened?

Kogarashi Fuyuzora is a psychic, however, he only has one method for exorcising ghosts and demons – his fists. With a swift punch, he can send them flying to the afterlife. Unfortunately, being a psychic hasn’t always been a lot of fun. For most of his life, he’s been prone to possession by various ghosts who had unfinished business and wanted his help, whether he wanted to help them or not. After several years of living on the streets, he finally got it under control and even found a place where he could settle down. The Yuragi-sou is a former hot springs resort that has now become a boarding house. The rent is cheap, the food is cheap, and you can use the hot springs as much as you like. The only catch is that the room is haunted.

That shouldn’t be a problem for Kogarashi since he can simply exorcise the ghost with his fists. However, the ghost is a young curvaceous high schooler. He can’t hit a girl! So, Kogarashi decides to do it the other way. He offers to help Yuuna remember the regrets that are tying her to this location so that she can move on. Afterall, if a spirit stays too long it will most likely become an evil spirit. Bizarrely, Yuragi-sou is full of unusual characters. There’s Nonko, a mangaka and an oni, Yaya, a girl possessed by an ancient cat spirit, and Sagiri, a demon slayer ninja. And that’s just the beginning. Somehow, Kogarashi seems to attract trouble. Will he be able to help Yuuna pass on or is she stuck there until she becomes an evil spirit?

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 1 Kogarashi promises to help Yuuna move on

What did you think?

This series is fantastic. It starts with a fairly simple premise of Kogarashi trying to help Yuuna pass on, but that quickly spirals as he ends up helping a classmate with another supernatural issue. That makes more trouble and that ends up with yet another thing to deal with. I loved how things just got crazier and crazier. There was also a great balance between chapters that were just the character goofing around and chapters that drove the story forward. I never expected this series to impact me the way it did. I fell in love with all of the characters and really struggled as they brought the series to an end, knowing that only one of them would get the happily ever after. One of the wonderful things about this series is that I will definitely reread it, and probably some of the chapters over and over again. I’ve loved every moment that I spent at Yuragi-sou and have absolutely no regrets about buying the entire series.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 8 Yuuna accidentally confesses to Kogarashi

What was your favourite moment?

Having to pick just one is a tough ask. There are so many wonderful moments, both comedic and heartfelt. I think for the sake of picking just one, I will go with the water gun battle royale arc. Koyuzu found another spirit board game in which everyone was transported to a deserted island. Everyone was suddenly dressed in short shorts, bikinis, and a white shirt. They also had a water gun or more specifically, it was a Kogarashi-gun. He had been transformed into all of the water guns. As you might expect, the water in the guns would melt the girls’ clothes and once naked they would be removed from the game. The winner would get a love potion to do with as they please. Nakai shot herself as soon as the game started and was ejected, although Kogarashi-gun saw everything. The girls began to fight. Some alliances were formed and things got crazier and crazier. Eventually, everyone eliminated one another leaving Yaya and Shion who had masked their presence by Nekogami. Shion shot herself allowing Yaya to win. She used the love potion on Kogarashi and got him to grill her fish for dinner. Everything about this arc was hilarious, especially the ending.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 13 Koyuzu made Chisaki giant to fight Karara Hiougi

What was your least favourite moment?

For me, this was probably one of the most pivotal and heartwrenching moments in the entire series. I’m only putting it here because while I loved it, it left me drained emotionally. This was really sad. Chisaki had been struggling to find a way to tell Kogarashi that she liked him. So, when they went on their school trip, she thought that would be the moment to do it. Things weren’t going too well, so Chisaki and Yuuna went to a shrine for luck. There they met Ryuzen, a fortune teller who with the help of Yumesaki was able to show Chisaki her future.

In it, Kogarashi lost his spirit power, Yuuna passed on as a result, and everyone went their own ways. She met Kogarashi at university and they ended up living together. It was everything Chisaki wanted. He even bought a ring and was about to propose to her, when the world came crashing down. She woke from this vision of the future with the knowledge to stop Kogarashi from losing his spirit power, although it would mean that her future would not come to be. She had to give up everything to save everyone. Chisaki made the sacrifice and it was heartbreaking. From that moment on, I was cheering Chisaki on. Even though the story is called Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Spring, I continued to hope that she would get her happy ending.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 17 Chisaki upset

Who was your favourite character?

As this was such a long series, I feel like picking just one character as my favourite would be too cruel as I could easily list a top ten, however, that would make this post a little too long so I’ll save that post for another day. So for everyone’s sake, I will force myself to name one character. And that is Nonko Arahabaki. While she was the most openly flirtatious character, she was never a love interest for Kogarashi. She was more like the crazy, hot aunt that everyone should have. She was also a mangaka and one of the strongest beings in this world. I loved how her life consisted of drawing manga, drinking, wearing tiny bikinis, and bathing in the hot spring. She was just too cool!

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 8 Rin Harashima wakes up on Nonko's boobs

Who was your least favourite character?

This is a much tougher ask as I don’t really want to pick anyone as my least favourite. That said, it would be too easy to go with one of the fringe characters who only appeared from time to time, and ironically, whenever those characters did appear, it was always good fun. No, I’m going to pick the girl that I felt was the most unlikely one to win Kogarashi’s heart, as cruel as that might seem. I liked Hibari Ameno as a character. She was always fun, but I never bought into her as a realistic love rival. She did have some good moments with Kogarashi and almost always ended up falling on him in the most incredible of manners, however, I just couldn’t see it, and I felt like the future she saw was also the least impactful. Sorry, Hibari!

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 4 Kogarashi saves Hibari

Would you like some more?

After twenty-four volumes, you’d like to think that this series wrapped everything up neatly. Well, it did. So, as much as I loved spending time in this world with this wild cast of characters, I think the story is done. It’s time to move on. This series just reinforced the notion that I love these sorts of stories. So, while I don’t think we need more Yuuna, I will be looking for another series to really get my teeth into. There’s something very special about spending so much time with one group of characters. We really got to know them and that made it that much harder to say goodbye, even if it was the right thing to do. Ultimately, this series ended incredibly well and it had been building towards that moment from the very first volume.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 24 Kogarashi makes it so Yuuna can stay

What have you learned?

I started writing a harem rom-com a while back. Then, life got in the way and I haven’t been able to go back and finish writing the first book. I had planned on it being a nine-book series and after reading through Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, I think I’ve got a better idea of some of the tropes that I need to incorporate. However, the main thing that I’ll be taking away is the need to know where everything is going before I start writing again. The way that this series tied everything off at the end was incredible. There were no loose threads. And, considering that many things were foreshadowed at a very early stage was amazing. I don’t know how much of it was planned from the beginning, but it certainly felt like it was. A great ending is one of the most important things in a story, especially a long one as the readers have invested a lot of time. If you leave them feeling short-changed, it’s going to come back to bite you. They need to know that you have taken their time seriously. That’s the feeling I want to leave my readers with.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 24 Yuuna trying to work out how to save Kogarashi

Series Information

English TitleYuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs
Japanese TitleYuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
GenresComedyEcchiHarem, Romance, Supernatural
DemographicShounen

Manga

Series ReviewYuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs
AuthorTadahiro Miura
ArtistTadahiro Miura
Volumes24
1Because it’s Haunted, Right?
2Some Time Back I Got Possessed…
3Some Kind of Perverted Girl…
4Well? Are You Sufficiently Aroused?
5That’s Way Worse Than I Imagined!!
6Is This… Jealousy?!
7All You Have to Do is Come Get Him…
8Subjugation Ceremony Complete
9Your Girls Will Inevitably Just Pop Out!
10Stairway to Heaven
11Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
12I Can’t Give Up Without a Fight
13The Great Water War!
14An Unwanted Exorcism
15Who is the True Tenko Genryusai?!
16A Family Wedding!
17That’s the Woman I Fell in Love With!
18Child’s Play!
19All-Out War!
20Let’s Get Metaphysical!
21Trick or Treeeeat!
22Get Out of My Body!
23For the Days We Would Spend Together…
24I’ll Be With You Forever…

Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

What did you think?