Nanoka passes through a portal into the Taisho era, where exorcist Mao reluctantly rescues her from the jaws of a grotesque yokai. When Nanoka gets back to the present, she discovers she has some new, incredible abilities. She returns to the past looking for answers, only to get caught up in Mao’s investigation of a series of gruesome murders. As her questions about herself multiply, Nanoka learns that Mao is cursed by a cat demon named Byoki—and so is his sword. If anyone but Mao attempts to wield it, they are doomed. But when Mao’s life is in jeopardy, Nanoka picks up his blade and swings! (Source: VIZ Media)
Japanese study overview
MAO is a Japanese manga of 299,287 characters, with 10,360 unique words and 1,905 different kanji. Its difficulty rating on Jiten is hard, 3.4 out of 5. The full vocabulary list ranks all 10,360 words by how often they appear, and you can study them on Jiten or download them as an Anki deck.
Vocabulary highlights
Here are some of the words that appear most often in this media, as well as a sample of its rarer vocabulary.
- 摩緒Mao×1,242
- 私I×981
- 事thing×893
- 菜花Saika×806
- 家house×750
- 御honorific/polite/humble prefix×591
- 紗那Sada×496
- 猫cat (esp. the domestic cat, Felis catus)×492
- 鬼ogre×458
- 巻volume (of book)×405
- 殺すto kill×387
- 全all×358
- 大五Oogo×354
- 夏野Kano×349
- 高橋留美子Takahashi Rumiko (1957.10.10-)×329
- 白眉Hakubi×298
- 式神shikigami×116
- 兄弟子senior pupil (of the same master)×116
- 五色five colors (esp. red, blue, yellow, white and black)×103
- 呪具charm×101