Higuri You - Cantarella, vol. 07-08 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

I was so desperate for these that I actually talked to a librarian and made her go back and grab them off the reshelving carts.

I have been completely converted to the series, and it is now the Gothic shoujo series of my heart, since Godchild is coming to an end and there are no long Yuki Kaori titles to look forward to (yes, Fairy Cube, but that's not long!).

Seriously! Canonical incest! The literal selling of souls! Demons in Renaissance Italy! A masked assassin as the upholder of virtue!

Wow! Lucrezia/Chiaro is so canon! And Chiaro can't return Cesare's affections, not like that; Lucrezia is in love with Chiaro and her brother at the same time; Cesare loves Chiaro romantically and Lucrezia unromantically; and it's all a giant mess! There should be Cesare/Chiaro/Lucrezia fic chock full of displaced longing.

And there's a non-Borgia textually incestuous relationship as well! Well, it's one-sided, but still, so is Lucrezia's. Of course, Lucrezia and Alfonso are going to marry each other (at least, so says history), and they can mutually incestuously long for their respective siblings together!

Also, Cesare can't die at the big finale, can he? Unless Higuri plans to end it when he's 31?

I can't remember if it was these volumes or the last two, but I howled with glee at the psychotropic weather. Lightning strikes down the statue of the angel Michael when Cesare loses Chiaro! Awesome!

Oh oh oh! And vol. 8 opens with a spread of Cesare as Jesus on the cross, complete with "IMRI" and a crown of thorns! So insane!

Mely has commented about how accurate the manga is to historical events and mindsets (aside from the whole selling souls thing); I am sure it is, but since I know nearly nothing, I can't tell.

Oh! And Vanozza the Demon! Taunting Cesare! Child!Cesare pleading with Chiaro to save him! Volpe trying to cut off Cesare's arm to spare him his demonic hand! Volpe embraces Cesare even though Cesare's blood is poisonous, just because! Volpe wanting to kill the one person who can save Cesare because he is jealous he's not that close to Cesare!

I am sad Pantacilia got killed, especially since she was Jewish (I think? Or just had ties to the Jewish community?), but also just because she was relatively down-to-earth amidst Borgia madness.

And I am not sure where Lucrezia and Chiaro are anymore! They escaped, then they were caught, then Chiaro was beaten bloody in a panel that was way too sexy for what it was depicting (you can tell the whip scenes here were not as perfunctory as the ones in Golden Cain, then they escape again, then they are caught again? Who knows? Wait, maybe Lucrezia is back with her family and Alfonso is pursuing Chiaro so he can have his own personal valet butler combat butler masked assassin.

SO MUCH LOVE.

When is volume 9 out? Now nownow?

And in conclusion, I give you this sentence with no context: Clearly, sacrificing arms is the new tragic eye loss! (I have three canonical examples of arm sacrifice and/or attempted arm sacrifice now.)

Comments

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I love those reviews. I think I never got past volume 7 because, well, I couldn't find volume 8 and now you make me want to go back a-hunting it to get back to the madness ^_^

[oyceter]

Oh no! Volume 8 has some really awesome moments! Including the bound, bloody, tortured Chiaro ;).

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I am always amazed that some people's libraries have comics and manga. Mine is seriously lacking in either.

[oyceter]

I really love my library. The YA librarians in particular seem to be very good -- there's a ton of new stuff there, always on display, and the manga section has doubled in the past few years. I suspect it's two or three times larger than I actually think it is, just because everything's constantly in circulation. There's even a teen manga buying club that meets each year and decides on some titles to get.

And it's exciting because they started an adult comic collection as well!

Well, and it also helps that the library buyer for YA runs the knitting group I go to ;).

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

That's very cool. Manga in the US has come down in price from when I used to buy it (oh, the days of $15 and $20 graphic novels...if they even had them! Most manga just came out in normal comic book editions of 20ish pages a month for $3), but they're still quite pricey. I know I couldn't afford to read a fraction of the manga I do if I had to pay $10 a book.

[oyceter]

Oh man, yeah. I have a few series that I get when the new vols come out, but a lot I've acquired used or on sale. And of course that's not counting the tons of stuff I tachiyomi or get from the library.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

"Clearly, sacrificing arms is the new tragic eye loss!"

Clearly, the mangaka is a fan of Basara.

Or wuxia.

Or both.

[oyceter]

Heee!

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

Dude, reading a manga series at the same time as you is so much different, because my mental process is more like, "Yes! OMG, me too!" instead of "Well, that sounds cool....holy crap, I should read that and understand this post."

One amazing fact I found said that artists started to change their depictions of Jesus Christ around this time in history, so that he would look more like Cesare Borgia. My first thought was, "Well, they could have done a better job at making Jesus more like a bishounen."

Also, don't you love You Higuri's author comments? "I'm wearing a Cesare Borgia t-shirt as I write this!"

[oyceter]

Eeeee! Cantarella squeee!!!

I laugh and laugh at the artists making Christ look more like Cesare! Art imitates life....

I love You Higuri's author notes so much! They're not as insane as Yuki Kaori's (I love her "I know Cain should be wearing more to sleep, but I wanted him to sleep naked" and "Let me tell you about all the research I did about torture devices!"), but I love her entire thing about going to Italy and ending up with stitches and riding in an ambulance for the first time.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Why haven't I read this manga before? It's name should be 'Everybody Is Gay For Cesare Borgia.' AWESOME.

I will look for scanlations. NOW. XDDD

[oyceter]

It is awesome! Soryo Fuyumi's also writing a series on Cesare Borgia, but I haven't read it yet =(. And I think it is somewhat less cracky.

[littlerhymes]

Cantarella! It's totally my favourite new manga series (new for me, not new for the world, obviously) for this year. I'm glad you love it. It's so awesome on a crack level *and* a history level.

The bit where the moth man is Machiavelli = still the win.

[oyceter]

I love it so much! It so satisfyingly fills that cracktastic gothic shoujo space in my heart!

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I love Cantarella so much.

And it gives me hope that if it does well enough-- and it seems to be doing well-- they'll license Higuri's Ludwig II, which is a lot like Cantarella EXCEPT ABOUT KING LUDWIG II OF BAVARIA AND HIS CUSTOM-MADE CLOCKWORK MUSICIANS AND THE BUILDING OF NEUSCHWANSTEIN HE IS CRAZIER THAN CESARE IT IS MADE OF AWESOME. I'm reading that one in French. There aren't any demons, but THERE DON'T NEED TO BE.

Oh, You Higuri, never stop making historical figures into bishounen.

Oh, and have you seen this (http://bp3.blogger.com/_-l0iGQjvwP0/RiYv_fcCn6I/AAAAAAAAACE/0A3L3hURGpM/s1600-h/347229ALA-READ-PosterLG.jpghttp://bp3.blogger.com/_-l0iGQjvwP0/RiYv_fcCn6I/AAAAAAAAACE/0A3L3hURGpM/s1600-h/347229ALA-READ-PosterLG.jpg)? It is actually real, we have one. Because Cesare Borgia wants the youth of America to be smart, yo.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Trying link again. Here. (http://images.comicbookresources.com/stateoftheindustry/goread_sm.jpg) Sorry this is small.

[oyceter]

OMG! OMG NO WAY! OMG MAD KING LUDWIG! I did not know about this! How could I not know about this?!

Oooh, yes, I saw the poster! I really want one, bwahaha. It would go so beautifully with my Sandman one.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Her version of Ludwig looks like this (http://www.geocities.com/gedojudea/ludwig/lud5.jpe)! And is madly in love with his stable boy and seven or eight other princes, household staff, members of the nobility and passing Prussian soldiers!

I have emailed several yaoi companies, including Blu, to whine about inquire after the licensing, and Blu said they were looking at if Cantarella did well because that would prove there was a market for You Higuri historicals. So I have hope.

[oyceter]

WANT.

WANT.

WANT.

i should not buy cantarella now even to support more you higuri historical manga. really. should not. must... resist!