Yokai Rental Shop (Youkai Niisan) is a manga written and illustrated by Shin Mashiba, creator of Nightmare Inspector. It ran in G Fantasy from 2015 to 2017, and is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Hiiragi Yase discovers the existence of a long-lost half-brother from his dying mother. Excited by the prospect of meeting this new family member, Hiiragi tracks his half-brother down to a mysterious Pet Shop named "Crow". Upon meeting his half-brother, Hiiragi is shocked to find that his sibling is a rude shrimp covered head-to-toe in bandages. Karasu, Hiiragi's half-brother, derides Hiiragi's attempts to reach out. Before they can come to blows, a customer enters the shop with a special request. Karasu agrees to help the customer out, opening the way to the secret Yokai Rental Shop.
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: You don't get more abusive than the Nurarihyon. He's killed many of his half-Yokai offspring for failing to live up to his ideals. He doesn't even remember them, that's how little they mattered to him.
- Actually, That's My Assistant: Hiiragi initially mistakes Karasu's part-time worker as the owner of the pet shop and his half-brother. He's unpleasantly surprised when Karasu pops out of the ceiling like a bad Halloween decoration.
- Bad Boss: The Nurarihyon doesn't take failure or disobedience well. He destroys Tengu's wing after Shiori gets a scratch on her face.
- Bandage Mummy: Karasu, complete with Bandaged Face. They cover the scars left by his dad.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Karasu's customers often find themselves getting more than they bargained for after contracting with a Yokai. One customer contracts with an okuri-inu in order to scare off bullies. The okuri-inu severely injures the bullies, scaring them off. The customer then proceeds to ignore Karasu's instructions on dismissing the okuri-inu, causing it to turn on the customer and rip him apart as well.
- Cast From Hitpoints: Karasu's powers require him to shed blood. Transporting himself and others to the Spirit District only costs a few drops of blood, but summoning and binding yokai requires much more. Because of this, he often faints from anemia.
- Covered in Scars: Karasu, with a side of Eye Scream. The scars and the missing eye are remnants of his dad's attempts at killing him for being a failure.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Enju and Nurarihyon are incredibly pretty.
- Elemental Powers: Many yokai have power over a certain elements.
- Blow You Away: Tengu can unleash gales with his fan. When he's weakened, he can only cause a slight breeze.
- Green Thumb: Enju's specialty. He can manipulate plant growth, as well as create entirely new species of plants.
- Making a Splash: Kawado can control water. He carries a water gun into areas without sources of water.
- Playing with Fire: The ushi-oni can breathe fire. The nekomata can't control fire directly, but it can summon a flaming chariot.
- Exact Words: Karasu operates on this. He'll give the customer exactly what they request, word-for-word. Whether or not this is what his customers actually want is none of his business.
- The Glorious Warof Sisterly Rivalry: Taken to bloody extremes by one of the customers.
- Gratuitous French: In the English translation of the manga, Tengu peppers his speech with random French words.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Karasu Hiiragi and Enju. Their father has impregnated countless human women in order to create the ultimate half-Yokai.
- I Owe You My Life: Some of the yokai serving Karasu feel this way toward him. When humans forced yokai out of their homes, Karasu gave them a home and a purpose.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Karasu acts like a dismissive jerk to his half-brother and even ends up trapping Hiiragi in debt to him. Despite this, he does actually care about his younger half-brother and secretly looks out for Hiiragi.
- Magically-Binding Contract: The yokai working for Karasu are bound to him. Karasu draws a picture of the yokai using his blood, magically binding them to him and allowing him to summon them whenever he wants.
- Monster Lord: All full-blooded yokai must obey Nurarihyon, the king of the yokai.
- Power Limiter: The charm that Hiiragi wears keeps his yokai powers contained.
- Properly Paranoid: A customer rents a yokai in order to protect his daughter from any threats. This is on top of putting up security cameras around the house, putting a tracker on her, and basically enforcing house arrest on his daughter. It's revealed that he fears that his daughter will be harmed by Yakai, the mysterious organization that he made a deal with to save his sinking company. The yokai fails to protect his daughter and she's kidnapped by a member of the Yakai.
- Revenge Before Reason: Karasu runs the Yokai Rental Shop in order to raise funds and information on his father, who he very much wants dead.
- Secret Shop: The pet shop that Hiiragi initially finds is just a front for Karasu's real business, the Yokai Rental Shop. The animals kept in the front part of the shop cost an exorbitant amount of money, most likely to prevent people from actually purchasing them.
- Secret Underground Passage: Karasu keeps his Yokai in the 'Spirit District'. It can only be accessed by dripping Karasu's or Hiiragi's blood onto a scroll.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Enju's true form emerges when his human-like form is sufficiently damaged. He resembles a tiny, gnarled plant.
- Supreme Chef: Hiiragi is a skilled cook. He makes food for Karasu after the latter faints from blood-loss.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Hiiragi's yokai nature is that of an ability vampire. He's monstrously strong and can steal the abilities of other yokai by drinking their blood. Unfortunately, he has no control of his own actions when his powers awaken and he just rips apart any yokai within reach.
- Sweet Tooth: Prior to Hiiragi's arrival, Karasu subsisted primarily on chocolate.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Enju really wants his dad's approval. His entire sense of self-esteem is tied around his worth to his dad.
- Yōkai: They're rented out to customers by Karasu. Many of the yokai employed by Karasu are indebted to him and serve him willingly.
- Younger Than They Look: Karasu looks far younger than Hiiragi, but is in fact the older brother. Judging from the flashback to his youth, he's likely over a century old.
