Kekkaishi Vol 1
Yoshimori Sumimura's family have been Kekkaishi(demon slayers) for centuries. At 14, Yoshimori is the 22nd heir of his family. Meanwhile, the Sumimura family's neighbors, the Yukimura's, claim to be the TRUE kekkaishi. Both family heads claim the other is the usurper of the title. (Note: the Sumimura kekkaishi seem to all be male and the mark that labels them as a kekkaishi appears on the palm of the hand. The Yukimura's symbol-which is identical-appears at the top of the breast, and all the Yukimura Kekkaishi are female. This is clearly a sign people have been too busy bickering to notice in the last 21 generations.) Yoshimori would rather make cake castles than hunt ayakashi, but isn't getting any choice in the matter. It's made better, though, by the fact that he can patrol with Tokine, the pretty 16 year old heir to the Yukimura family.
Yoshimori, of course, has had a crush on Tokine since birth and is always trying to help and protect Tokine whent hey fight ayakashi. Tokine, however, always ends up protecting Yoshimori(including getting a terrible scar on her arm when she protected him from an ayakashi that tricked him when they were younger) and mostly treats him like an annoying little brother who has to be protected, but really should just go away. Eventually, Tokine can't take the schoolboy crushing and trailing anymore, and tells Yoshimori that she thinks he's disgusting. WOE! EMO! ANGST! The heart of a 14 year old isn't designed to handle such things! And immediately on the heals of that he learnsthat other boys think she's cute! And teachers! MORE WOE! MORE EMO! MORE ANGST! (I am far too fond of going "WOE! EMO! ANGST" lately...)
Meanwhile, their grandparents are still rabidly feuding(personally, I think they used to date) their school is built over the ruins of a castle whose lord attracted so many ayakashi that the ayakashi eventually wiped everyone out, so the school grounds still attract ayakashi(this is manga, it makes perfect sense for people to knowingly build a school at a site they know attracts monsters) and the ghost of a pastry chef who won't move on has moved in with Yoshimori's family.
For the most part, despite being very fun and likable, there isn't a lot that makes it stand out among your typical shonen manga. What does stand out is what originally brought the title to my attention in this post a while back at
scans_daily. The clumsy, often ineffectual one who usually gets by on luck and has to be rescued a lot is Yoshimori. The capable, skilled, intelligent, observant one who is always saving the other is Tokine. And apparently, she remains the smart, capable one. Even without that bonus, though, I'd still stay tuned in for at least a few more volumes.