By Rumiko Takahashi. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

Once again, we get another cute, fun volume of the manga where everyone is interesting except our two leads. I’m still not quite sure why that is. Certainly we know that Takahashi can create memorable females – this is the creator of Lum, after all – but Sakura is just so even-tempered and sweet that you wonder what on Earth she’s doing starring in this. Rinne too tends to be a lot less jerk-like and shallow than her previous male leads.

Do you think Takahashi has been reading her own negative press? Perhaps someone translated TV Tropes for her, and she decided to stop working with the violent short-tempered girl and the unthinking jerk with a heart of gold guy. It’s good to see her stepping out of the boxes, I suppose, but it’s kind of like a world-class curry chef deciding his next world-class meal will avoid curry. Sometimes people should stick with what they do best.

That’s not to say Rin-Ne Volume 3 is bad in any way. Any Takahashi manga is at least readable, and this goes way above that, mostly due to the fact that, aside from the two leads, everyone in it is a fun goof. We get a new rival introduced, this one a romantic rival (not that there’s been much romance so far), who has loved Sakura since they were kids. Naturally, she doesn’t recall him at all. He’s also an exorcist, and (surprise) his methods clash with Rinne’s.

The best chapters are the silliest, showing things such as the ever-popular Toilet Hanako (here a young girl) being manipulated by an evil spirit (which splits into balls much like an old console game), or the chapter with the Damashigami, who lures all the females of Sakura’s class into an underworld trap. There’s the occasional dollop of plot and foreshadowing as well, as Rinne clearly despises Damashigamis for reasons yet unstated, and is starting to note that Sakura is cute.

This is decent Takahashi, and no one will regret purchasing it. But it still feels like she’s running in neutral, and I’d really like the story to amp up into something bigger, soon. A personality for Sakura would be nice, too.