I heard of Kekkaishi for a long time now and finally decided to take it up thinking: I must give this a chance! Tanabe Yellow was once an assistant to Makoto Raiku, she must have some real nice stuff! (Cause I love Gash endlessly.)
I came to the manga and really, really read it. Sometimes, I forced myself to continue with it.
There were a couple of good things. One, although I kept forcing myself to read, this manga was quite easy to read - in term of story and flow. Even if I put it on hold now, I could still see myself going back to it.
Two, It was quite authentic - more like honest - the characters' displays and emotions. Manga characters can be quite dramatic sometimes (especially some over-the-top stuff, you've been there for sure). But in Kekkaishi, especially the MCs (the 2 families), they don't do those silly shits of acting up. Sure, sometimes I felt cheesy how they don't see anyone else but their most important person amidst a-crowd-of-people. It still seemed authentic and real and upfront and nice.
The bad thing, like my "Subject" of this comment: many ideas and storylines are half-baked, unexplained and wasted potentials. Imagine a lava chocolate cake, Tanabe Yellow would just scrape the top surface without ever spooning down to that gooey, chocolatey goodness that'd pour out and melt in one's mouth. Like the old man Heisuke. I didn't get the full scope of his story with Risa and Byako. Like who they were? What were their connections? How was she manipulative? How her desire of maintenance went with his efforts of supporting her? How did they stop being spouses? How did she became assistant to Heisuke? How was her love for Byako formed/intensified/etc.? It really was thin. And it could have been a hella good storyline to shed more lights into these characters. Byako seemed like an opponent at the start. But damn, he got finished easily. And then the story with the Princess and Byako. And how he never found a goal for his life? And what led him to the resolution that he wanted to stay with the Princess? And then it was damn confusing when the Princess seemingly died after she fixed him up. Then somehow he also met his end there which I found out after reading things online. This manga is too damn vague!
Yoshimori and Tokine and the families are really likable though.
Oh yeah, and the story of Hazama and Karasumori. Man, it was too damn brief to be the catastrophe of it all. He just asked and was granted those dark power without sacrificing anything? Too good to be true even for the most evil of them all. And then the love storyline... was like picking your vegetables, so simple, so... I don't know. I'm disappointed.
After so many things, I became pretty disheartened. I mean this series is over 300 chapters! You could have done something more conclusive than this (not the eventual ending but the many small storylines' endings), Tanabe Yellow! Please do so in your next works! Please stop doing half-baked ideas with potentially beloved side characters (you just blatantly introduce them here, then sweep them out like dust - too many sides that are just sides, unexplored and surface.)