Catergory: Manga Title: Kaguya-hime Author: Reiko Shimizu Content Status: Mild yaoi, yuri. - by Melissa Koh: safyre@jade-court.darkgod.net - - website: http://safyre.tsx.org - Basic Layout: In Kaguya-hime, the plotline is undefined, at least, from my point of view. The multiple plotlines varies in each book, with the exception that 10 orphans find out that they are actually clones of important personalities in the world, along with the fact that they are sacrificial lambs, in more ways than one. First, they are the sacrifices of the moon fairy, Kaguya-hime, and unwilling organ donors for their original bodies. Worse still, by the time they realised the latter fact, they have split up and are either killed for their organs or replacing the originals. Basically, it deals with human nature, the good and bad of it, though I seem to see more of the worse side than the good. The cruelty of humans is emphasized, of how ruthless humans are when threatened. Then again, in certain instances, we see the good side of it, but somehow, it usually ends up in tragedy... The lead of the story is Akira Okada. She's the only female among all the 10 orphans, and she attracts a lot of _unwanted_ attention from females and males. Aside from that, she's interested in Yui, another orphan, but has a complex relationship with her foster sister, Mayu. Akira is the clone of a Chinese Princess. It's not entirely clear whether the family is of royal blood, but they own quite a huge land and people. Currently, I'm up to book 12 [love book 12. Breet fills nearly half the book. Utsukushiiku! Kirei! Daisuke! Aishiteru! Waaah! Breet-sama ~!] Reiko Shimizu-sensei is now focusing on Akira, Breet, Satton and a couple of others I have yet to figure out ^_^ Character Design: The characters are not stereotypes, that's for sure. The characters have their own personalities, unique in their own way. It's a pity that we know only a few of them, and the others, well, we only know that they are infatuated with Akira, save for a few. Not all the characters look alike; they have their own traits and their specific features, unless Reiko Shimizu-sensei is drawing the clones or twins. But even then, it's entirely possible to tell them apart, like Breet and his clone, Julian. Characters like Breet and Akira are extremely beautiful, not in the cutesy way, but in the mature, serious way. There's a certain grace and elegance about it, but the art is simple. Though she cannnot be compared to CLAMP, but Reiko Shimizu's art is one of a kind, even if she does have weird concepts. The characters are supported by strong personalities, like Breet and Akira. As much as I dislike the latter, but I have to applaud her determination, though the contributing factor could be due to the fact that she's currently the host of Kaguya-hime. Breet has a vicious temper, as displayed in certain awkward situations which usually involves him being mistaken for a girl ^_^' But still, ka.wai.i!!! Flaws and Strengths: I'll begin with the flaws first: one thing which I didn't like was the wide span of topics she covered. Some of the characters were not completely developed, and we'd only learn about them in the later books, which by the way, takes an eternity. The attention on Akira was rather annoying at times as well, but note that I do not like the girl, even if she is the lead. Strengths = innumerable. Shimizu-sensei delights in surprising the reader, taking turns when we least expect it. She tends to lessen the tension at the most crucial moments by drawing super-deformed figures or stating something that sets the reader off in a laughing fit. Her characters have quirks of their own. I particularly liked the ones belonging to Breet, though it might be tampered by my infatuation with him. But hey, he's beautiful. Unfortunately, it's easy to lose track of where you are currently, since as I've stated earlier, the plotlines run a long way. In certain cases, you might have to refer to the previous books just to keep track of the current events. I know I did. Off-the-cuff comments: In the early books, the scenes of yuri might be offensive to some readers, since it's rather graphical. For one thing, there's quite a bit of exposure ^_^' [thinks of the time when a classmate showed the book to our teacher...wonder who had a fit...] While there are some explanations on the legend of Kaguya-hime, it might be wise to do a little research on the original. And yes, Kaguya-hime is a Japanese myth. The Princess of Radiance, I think. Refrain from causing mass disturbance in class after reading the manga, particularly the first book. It might give your classmate a heart attack, not to mention one on your teacher. Mild yaoi is involved in a couple of books. Nothing much, but enough to give some the jitters and jealousy since it concerns the wonderful Breet-sama. There's a huge cast. 10 as leads, including Akira, and then there's the orignal bodies... Note that a number of the cast goes missing somewhere in the book and tends to appear at the most unexpected times, and when they do, it's usually not for long. So don't be surprised if a couple of them disappear for good. [Wonders what happened to the guy with a name similar to Subaru's...] You might get irritated somewhere in the book if you're as impatient as I am. ----- Review: Kaguya-hime ~ End Completed on: 24.01.1999 - End Review - Copyright (c) Melissa Koh 1999. All Rights Reserved.