Time Killers: Kazue Kato Short Story Collection

by Kazue Kato

Explore fantastic realms of imagination in this stunning collection of short stories by Kazue Kato, creator of the smash-hit manga series Blue Exorcist! With Kato’s amazing and distinctive art leaping from the page, Time Killers includes her first work, Boku to Usagi (Me and the Rabbit), and features the stories and character designs that would become her breakthrough series, Blue Exorcist. Take off on a flight of fantasy with Time Killers!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Short Stories, Action, Graphic Novels, Shonen

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2011

About the author

Kazue Kato, 加藤和恵, is a Japanese mangaka.

See also authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Noran Miss Pumkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories, driven with great art, and skillful story telling. The stories make me wish some were stories. The red rabbit clan prequel, before they were slaughtered by humans for their $$$$$$$$$ pelts-wow that would be amazing. The color pages delighted my eyes-the books is mostly BW. In time I will add this to my collection-it is a keeper for any manga collector.

[Maria Shuffit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not usually a fan of short story collections, whether fully text or in graphic form, but this one was very enjoyable. I haven't read any of the mangaka's other works, so I'm not sure if these are spin-offs (the exception being the final story which relates to Blue Exorcist, which was mostly obvious just from being familiar with the covers of that series; the story itself was not difficult to follow even though I've never read any of Blue Exorcist.) but every story was given the attention and care of a full-blown series. Even though each story is barely more than a handful of pages, they manage to contain a whole world, deep characters, and heartfelt storylines.

As a whole collection, the book kept a similar tone and feel for each story, tying them together nicely while avoiding them all blending together - each stood out on its own but maintained a level feel together.

I also really love the art, very soft and beautiful!

This isn't something I normally care about with books, but I couldn't help but notice the quality of the book itself. The pages were sleek and slightly thicker than normal manga. There were some color pages as well, adding a little something extra.

Overall, a great book that I am likely to pull off the shelf and reread now and again!

[haven ⋄ f (hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 -

This was unexpected. I jumped right in without knowing who created this and it caused for a bit of confusion. I then actually read the summary (I do do that sometimes) and realized that the author of Blue Exorcist created these.

The art style was rougher and not as refined as BE is so I was wondering about that. Throughout the collection, you can really tell the artist improving and refining their skills.

My favorite stories were “The Rabbit and Me,” “Astronerd,” and “The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident.”

•The Rabbit and Me: I enjoyed this premise. If the author chooses to go back to this after finishing Blue Exorcist, I would totally read it. I was super bummed out when it ended because it was SO good!
•Astronerd: This author does romance better than shojo authors do. It’s still cheesy tho. Anyways, I liked the astrology/aliens touch.
•The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident: I loved this one. One of my favorite manga short stories. It had everything I enjoyed. I liked the demon touch because it was so freaky. I would say it’s a action/thriller/romance. The author draws creepy and unusual faces quite well. I liked the wistful ending. It gave the overall story a nice touch. (Side Note: I thought that BE was inspired off of this, but it ends up that this story was inspired by BE according to the author’s note. I would have never guessed that)

I personally didn’t compare any of the stories to each other because I could tell the author was sort of doing whatever. (Confirmed in the author’s note) Because of this, I was able to appreciate each story by itself. They all are pretty short, except the last one, so they’re all rushed. I’m not a big fan of it but I understand it.

Overall, if you’re looking for a quick read of short fast-paced stories in manga format, this is it. There’s some gems in here I wish the author would come back to. The art progression is splendid.

[Paula Gimenez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siempre insisto en que leer libros/ mangas de historias cortas es una excelente opción para conocer la pluma o el estilo de un autor, más cuando tiene una sola serie muy conocida, pero en este caso la autora fue aún más allá.
Tenemos historias tan, pero tan diferentes entre sí y tan diferentes respecto a Ao no Exorcist (obra más conocida de Kato) que me hizo darme cuenta de lo versátil que ella es, y de la creatividad que tiene.
También está genial que, al final, trae una pequeña explicación de por qué hizo tal historia o qué quiso expresar con tal otra.
La única contra que tiene para mí es que los personajes son un punto fuerte de la autora, y obviamente no llegamos a conocer a ninguno con profundidad. Aún así creo que vale muchísimo la pena

[Akylina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning art in every single story and every single page. I enjoyed all of the stories, and especially the longer ones, but my favourite was undoubtedly the last one, "The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident" which is said to be a very early version of the author's most well-known series "Blue Exorcist".

Having received this beautiful book as a New Year's present, I can see that my reading year is off to an incredible start.

[Chivitouille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha resultado todo un descubrimiento saber como ha sido el proceso de Kazue Kato hasta llegar a Blue Exorcist.
En esta obra nos encontramos con una recopilación de varias historias cortas y ha resultado más que interesante conocer algunas de sus facetas como mangaka.
Que al principio dibujaba lo que le daba la gana hasta llegar al punto de dibujar pensando en los lectores y encontrarse que esto último requiere un poco más de esfuerzo.
Me ha sorprendido bastante que la primera historia "Yo y el conejo" tuviese una atmósfera más adulta y oscura, con un protagonista con un pasado difícil, de igual manera "Historia de un guerrero nacido en la tierra roja" tiene un final algo crudo pero que al ser de las historias más cortas tiene un desarrollo interesante.
Nos encontramos un humor bastante ácido en "¡USA Boy!" y una trama algo predecible en la de "El amo y yo", esto por hablar de algunas cuantas.
Pero en lo personal la que más curiosidad y ganas de leer tenía era la de "El incidente de la mansión de Uguisu Miyama", la cual es un preámbulo para lo que es Blue Exorcist, aunque más bien Kazue Kato menciona que ya tenía la idea del manga y que se basó en esa idea para realizar esta historia corta por lo que algunos de sus personajes hacen su aparición.
Sin duda es interesante y emocionante ver una perspectiva diferente de esta idea y la historia aunque corta resulta genial.
Siendo este un tomo recopilatorio algunas historias son mejores que otras pero sin duda lo interesante y por lo que vale la pena leerlo es ver las diferente facetas de Kazue Kato en su caminar hasta convertirse en la mangaka que es.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun glimpse into the artist's history. Still not a fan of the art style overall but the short stories were quite interesting with an ongoing theme of rabbits. I think the first was my favorite, and the last, especially since it incorporated a certain demon cat as a main character.

[Holly Letson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I couldn't get into these stories.

[DoctorFeddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

WTF?!!!!

Time Killers:
Un volumetto con tutte le storie di KAZUO KATO prima di “ blue exsorcist”, alcune storie erano veramente fatte bene, altre invece che non riuscivi a trovare il nesso logico, e udite udite alcune pagine sono a colori. Le storie più carine sono “ la storia di un guerriero nato sulle grandi terre rosse”, “NIRAI”, “ Preghiere di una fanciulla” e “ ciò che avvenne alla residenza dell'usignolo di alta montagna” che è la bozza che da vita a Blue Exsorcist. Per il disegno si vede che sono disegni di un Mangaka ancora acerbo, che sta per fare il salto di qualità, come preferenza ( nel disegno) restano le storie che ho già citato

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories.
Kazue Kato demonstrates how her art and storytelling progressed over the years into Blue Exorcist. Some of these stories were rather short (only a few pages) but I liked seeing the early stages of character designs and themes that would appear in her later works.

My favorite stories were:
The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident
Nirai
A Warrior Born of the Red Earth
and Highway of Life, Stray Star.

I was interested in A Maiden's Prayer but I felt it lacked any solid story development despite the art and setting being very cool and Ghibli-esque.

[Shiritaku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine Kurzgeschichten Sammlung, die sehr unterschiedliche Werke beinhaltet. Manche fand ich tatsächlich sehr seltsam, andere aber sehr spannend und interessant, dass ich auch gern mehr dazu gelesen hätte.
Zeichnerisch fand ich aber alle schön.
Am besten waren "Der Fall Miyama-Uguisu" (angelehnt an Blue Exorcist - möchte ich jetzt auch lesen 👀) und "Hoshiota". "Herr und Diener" war aber auch ganz schön, etwas melancholisch und nachdenklich.

Alles in allem eigentlich ein ganz netter Band, aber kein Muss.

[Inés del revés · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesante recopilación de historias cortas de Kazue Kato. Además agradecí un montón las últimas páginas en las que la autora te explica su evolución y a qué época de su carrera pertenece cada historia. Algunas se quedan cortitas y saben a poco pero otras te dejan con ganas de más y llegan a emocionar. Muy recomendado, sobretodo si te gusta "Blue Exorcist" la famosa saga de esta autora (de las pocas mujeres que se han podido hacer un nombre en el género shonen siendo abiertamente mujeres)

[Michellejulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Blue Exorcist, so naturally I picked up this work. I personally really enjoyed most of the stories and felt that several of them would make great lengthy works as well! It’s hard to enjoy short story collections, you’re bond to not love every single story, thereof the 4/5 star rating. But these stories are among the best I’ve read in short story collections and are definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy Blue Exorcist!

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a cool concept! I don't think I've ever seen manga short fiction, or re-publication of a manga creator's short works/older works. At least, unless they're someone like Tezuka or Takahashi. I really enjoyed getting to know Kato's body of work more and see what kind of stories they've explored over the years.

[PurplePixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a solid book with interesting stories that take you to any realm imaginable. I love the feel of the physical book too. Quality paper and cover. It's really nice to have the colored pages as well. Seriously an amazing buy.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A lot of fun story concepts, and it's fun to see what things Kato is drawn to as a creator (and it helps that I'm drawn to the same things). The first story about the rabbit assassin and a wanna-be doctor at odds was my favorite and something I would have been excited to read more of

[Monika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ostatnie opowiadanie najlepsze. Było ono też powodem przez, który sięgnęłam po tą mangę. Chciałam zobaczyć od czego zaczął się pomysł na Ao no Exorcist.
Reszta opowiadań była okej, takie dla zabicia czasu.

[Boujee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the short stories, some I'll easily forget; there's two or three I can think of in this book that I really enjoyed.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool.

[Piper Winchester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and deep in places.
Not bad for debut stories.

[Rin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre collection of short manga. I skipped the one that uses harmful imaginings of Native American Indians.

[Synne Evensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very neat little collection of the authors first oen shot stories, I loved them 💖💕 I could clearly see where Rin, Shiemi and Yukio originally came from and that is super fun

[vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read anything by this mangaka before, but I really liked her art style and designs. There were some quite interesting and creative ideas in there, but the thing is - most of the short stories were just that: ideas and snippets that barely had enough pages to get explored further. The storytelling was a bit sloppy and incoherent in places.
Still, I did not regret buying this collection, since it was a nice read. The last story was by far my favourite. It's apparently to prototype to her big series Blue Exorcist and I'm considering giving it a try because of the short story.

[Abooked · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though some of the stories are really short (5 pages), Kato is able to create solid stories and great characters. The last story is the 'beginning' of 'Blue Exorcist' and now i'm interested.

[Skye (Skye's Scribblings) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out all my reviews at Skye's Scribblings!

Genre: Short Story Collection
Rated: Older Teen (violence, fighting, demons)

Why I Read It: I really like the author's current series, Blue Exorcist, and this collection promised a precursor short story to the series. My curiosity couldn't pass it up!

Art: There were several different styles as the author tried her hand at a few mediums, but the main style was playful but occasionally grotesque with great settings and some cute characters. Most of the pieces were black and white, with a few of the shorter stories and title pages in color.

Story: Eleven short pieces of different lengths and mediums on a wide variety of subjects. Most were interesting but there were several standouts for me, namely the last two in the book: Astronerd and The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident.

• The Rabbit and Me: Teenage assassin and aspiring doctor become friends. Very violent but an interesting premise.

• Tomato: Fantastical world of humans and human-like rabbits. Rabbit and human guard team take a job to protect a rabbit woman's tomato patch from a greedy human. Violence and a life lesson ensue. The art and characters were a little too odd for me, and the story a little confusing.

• A Warrior Born of the Red Earth: Color, five pages. Native American warrior story. Tragic.

• Usaboy!!!: Color, five pages. Superhero bunny family. Comical but odd.

• A Guide to Princess Clothes: Color, one page. Comical.

• Highway of Life, Stray Star: Seven pages. Violent punk dad takes care of his little girl. Sweet.

• Nirai: Eight pages. Based on the mermaid legend? Not sure. Confusing but interesting.

• Master and I: Magical wish-granting rice bowl. Comical but serious story about how getting everything you want may not be a good thing.

• A Maiden's Prayer: Eight pages. Dystopic fantasy about a lonely girl finding a home.

• Astronerd: My favorite! Boy tries to hide his love of astronomy at his new school but falls for a girl who loves it as well. Then aliens come to destroy the Earth! Can he save the girl? Fun and funny with great characters (including the aliens!) and an excellent story.

• The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident: A precursor to Blue Exorcist, but the familiar characters play different roles. Same world and setup though, and a great story.

Extras: There is a fold-out color poster in the front, and an Author's Note at the back where she talks a bit about her inspiration for each story and where they were first published.

Conclusion: While not quite as good as I was hoping, I did read all of the stories and enjoyed most of them. Overall an interesting collection.

Read It Again?: Maybe the last two stories.

[Esme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories from the author of blue exorcist. In this short stories we see the way the author created her characters from blue exorcist. The stories were interesting especially "A warrior born in a red earth" which i liked it, it was sad and invented, and the ending story reminded me a lot of blue exorcist. Four stars because I love the different storylines and characters and situation they go through to make it still interesting even though they were short.

[z3r0 c00l]

01/29/22

[Judyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5-4/5

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

I have not read Blue Exorcist, although I’ve almost picked it up a few times, so I had no idea what I was getting with this book. But I was intrigued, and I like one-shot stories.

First of all, there are color-pages in this book, and it’s printed on glossy paper, so it’s a rather pretty book.

The first story is the author’s first work, so it’s much weaker, particularly in the artwork. It was an interesting story, though, about an assassin and an aspiring doctor. After that is a bunny and human bodyguard team protecting a tomato farmer. There are several very short stories, but several of them are memorable. Including one about a princess and her complicated clothing, a sad story about an Indian, one about a thug father and his daughter (the ending of which was particularly adorable), and one about a guy who wishes for so many things he forgets what’s important. There are some really sweet characters, as well as some adorable sidekick/mascot characters.

The last two stories are the longest, one about a nerd who falls for a classmate, only for aliens (very cute, tiny aliens) to try to destroy the Earth. And the last one is about demons and exorcists, a demon learning to kill another demon in order to save the girl who cared for him (which apparently people say is like an earlier work compared to Blue Exorcist).

These are humorous, and sweet stories, some are sad, some have mascot-like characters. The art is definitely better by the end. I also enjoyed the explanation from the author of how she got from the first story to now with Blue Exorcist. I was surprised by how much I liked it, and now plan to either read or watch Blue Exorcist.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, and Erik Jansen from MediaLab PR. Thank you so, so much!

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories by Kazue Kato, creator of Blue Exorcist.

Kato-sensei has a strange sense of humor. Good thing I do too.

This collection contains everything from the story of a bunny-hood-wearing assassin to bunny ninja body guards to the bunny-hood-and-cape-wearing child of a pair of superheroes. Lots of bunnies.

It also contains some very short works, like "A Warrior Born of Red Earth," which is in full color and is great to look at, even if it's lacking in the substance department. It has an entertaining little short about a guy whose rice ball begins granting him wishes, as well as the story of our planet being destroyed by aliens.

The best by far, though, is a story that seems almost like a precursor to Blue Exorcist itself, "The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident." You can definitely see characters that look like Rin, Shiemi, and even Kuro in this tale, as well as a story line that seems like it could be a part of Blue Exorcist itself.

It's a bit tough to get through a few of these short stories, but they're short, so the ones that don't interest you don't last long (lol).

If you love Kazue Kato and Blue Exorcist, I highly recommend picking up this volume.