Tsukuba Sakura - Land of the Blindfolded, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

I bought the first book last Thanksgiving, read it, and was singularly unimpressed. Last week, in a continuation of my book-buying rampage (more on this later), I found vol. 2 for half off at my local comic book store, and decided to give it another try.

I have decided I was temporarily insane before, because the series is immensely cute, with nicely stylized art and character I just want to hug.

Kanade can sometimes see future when she touches people, and when the series begins, she's just met Arou, who can see the past when he touches people. Amazing, the title is actually referenced in the series (truly novel for manga): we are all living in the land of the blindfolded, but some people's blindfolds have slipped a little, and they're allowed to see forwards or backward in time.

Kanade tries hard to fix things that she can see in the future; unsurprisingly, her attempts often earn her no gratitude. "Imagine if you jerked someone out of the way of a hole, but they were blindfolded and couldn't see the hole," says the narrative, with a picture of the poor blindfolded person yelling at Kanade. She's such a shoujo heroine -- she believes in the best in everyone, believes in trying, believes that she can't just sit back and do nothing when she has this special look into the world.

Arou has a different problem; he can usually see people's secrets, or tragic things that have happened before, but he can't do anything about them.

Together, they fight crime! are incredibly cute and sweet.

Of course, they are afraid of touch, which leads to some wonderfully drawn panels of one reaching a trembling hand to the other.

Anyway, they are cute, they fight crime try to help people, he cooks, she smiles, and I have been suckered in.

ETA: fixed author's name

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Your post just inspired me to take a look at this series at the publisher' website. You know what? I found the cover completely off-putting, but when I downloaded the interior art sample, I thought the art was rather charming. (Well, so much as I could tell from a pdf.)

[oyceter]

I really do like the art -- it's fairly typical shoujo for the most part, but there are some panels that are lovely and spare and just the angle of a chin and the sweep of hair, or two hands.

I'm not sure if the series would be up your alley, though. It's pretty shoujo. But so cute! And pretty!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I loved Land of the Blindfolded. You can really see how Tsukuba's art changes over the course of the series. I've liked all of Tsukuba's stuff that I've read, and can't wait until I can buy her current series, Penguin Revolution, in English.

[pandap.livejournal.com]

Okay, that was me. Sorry, lj logged me out.

[oyceter]

Oh cool! I think I'm going to check out her other series as well.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Is Penguin Revolution about penguins... revolting?

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Penguin Revolution is charming despite having no actual penguins.

[oyceter]

Am very glad you shoved this into my hand last year, despite taking so long to fall for it!

[pandap.livejournal.com]

Only in the sense that a young man in the "Penguin" class of the talent agency Peacock wants to rise to the top, and be ranked No. 1. I don't want to give too much away, but mainly the story is Fujimaru Yukari's, a tiny girl who practices aikido and dreams of being a public official.

[oyceter]

I love manga so much.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome!