Noragami has always been something of an underground hit. Even though it never won any major industry accolades, its acolytes were always some of the most dedicated in the business, particularly when the anime by Studio Bones came out in 2014. The prospect of its elusive creators coming back after three years away was therefore exciting, but the result is less than stellar.

Yadoya no Oinusama is one of the most confusing manga I’ve read this year. Part of that is undoubtedly because of the narrative structure, but the premise is not strongly defined enough to really string everything together. It certainly is a far cry from the simplicity of Adachitoka’s previous work, lacking that core killer concept.

Trying to sum up the events of the first chapter is where the trouble begins. Kasumi is seemingly a normal middle schooler who goes on a field trip one day, only to get attacked in the middle of a forest by a bear. A fight ensues where Kasumi is able to skillfully defend herself from the beast, but ends up falling down a cliff out of sheer bloodlust. She then wakes up in her room once more with her grandma, who had previously passed away, beginning a chain of false awakenings that make you question the very fabric of reality.

Narration from a mysterious character at the beginning frames Yadoya no Oinusama as an “unravelling of memories,” but the mechanics of this are far too obtuse and repetitive. Even though the encounter with her late grandma obviously turns out to be nothing more than a dream, when Kasumi returns to reality, she is being pursued by a group of hunters as a black wolf. This status quo then sticks throughout the rest of the chapter, eventually revealing that the girl had been an animal all along and had even been responsible for blinding her grandma’s eye with an errant paw.

Would you believe me if I said there was another layer to this? The initial scenario presented at the beginning, where Kasumi is a normal girl attending middle school, is true… but it is also true that she is some kind of magical wolf. Chapter one brings these two threads together at the very end when Kasumi wakes up in her animal form on her field trip, prompting the question: and? What was actually the point of all that back and forth?

There’s nothing wrong with presenting a winding narrative, especially if the point is to bring the reader into the mind of an equally confused character. At the same time, there must be some kind of payoff by the end, particularly when the calories required to digest are so high. It is reasonable to assume that Kasumi is some kind of forgotten god due to the story’s heavy inclusion of a shrine and spiritual imagery at the end, but dangling narrative revelations isn’t the same thing as crafting a compelling story.

In many ways, Yadoya no Oinusama reminds me quite a lot of Kaijin Fugeki. Much like Oh! Great’s latest series, the story drops you straight in at the deep end and expects you to start swimming without much in the way of support. Noragami mega fans might find more mileage with this, but it definitely lacks the same kind of simple appeal.

Chapter One Club is a weekly column that aims to spotlight the latest in new series and one-shots from across a wide variety of different demographics and publications.