Yuki Kaori - Parfum Extrait 0 (Chi. trans.)

[oyceter]

Saikawa Kanade and his half-Japanese, half-French cousin Anais solve three perfume-related mysteries. I feel this plot seems deceptively simple compared to the tangles in Angel Sanctuary and Cain Saga/Godchild, but given that it's only a one shot, what can you do?

I was bored a little by Kanade, despite his angsty backstory rivalry with a fellow perfumer, but I love Anais. She is half-French so Yuki Kaori has an excluse to give her blond hair and blue eyes*, and amazingly, there are no incestuous vibes between her and Kanade, despite the fact that they aren't actually related by blood (she's his aunt's stepdaughter). She is grumpy and tall and beats people up and glares sullenly from the cover. I wanted to get more backstory about her childhood bond with Kanade, but only tidbits for me.

Sadly, the crack is not quite up to normal Yuki Kaori levels, though there are goth girls, dead bodies galore, lots of evil women, and an evil MTF to boot. Oh Yuki Kaori, why?

Still, the art is gorgeous and there are enough cracktastically insane bits to please me, but it's definitely not among her more memorable pieces of work.


* I do not understand all these half-Continental-European characters running around in manga and anime and how they all have blond hair and blue eyes. I mean, obviously there is no set way to look if one is half-Asian and half-European, but it'd be nice if one of these half-Continental-European characters had brown hair and brown eyes for once.


ETA: I am going to the comic book store tomorrow, so tell me what in Yuki Kaori's backlist I should get! (Besides the rent boy serial killer one, which is, uh, already on the list.) Bonus points for letting me know if the plot involves crazy terminology like "organic angels," which will be a little confusing in Chinese.

Comments

[shati.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read it, Gravel Kingdom is worth it for the proto-Yuki -- the art is SO MESSY and the prince has a loyal bodyguard and there's angst and betrayal and I think a water goddess. Totally get the rentboy serial killer one; it is the most bizarre. Ludwig Revolution is Kaori Yuki + Grimm's, which is on the one hand a match made in Heaven and on the other hand kind of overkill (esp. in terms of treatment of female characters ...). Also I feel the leads are like a less interesting Cain and Riff. Also also, have you read Kaine, which is not Cain? It's the music one. I can't remember Neji/Screw or Cruel Fairytales very well at all, but Blood Hound might be worth reading for having a female protagonist (sadly, I didn't actually like her, or the vampires).

I just found out that my local library has both Godchild and Angel Sanctuary in the YA section. I can't decide whether this is awesome, or likely to lead to a lot of traumatized kids. Or both.

[oyceter]

OMG I really wanted to get Gravel Kingdom when I read the plot description online. I ended up getting Ludwig and Neji, but I found a manga rental store and am going to try to read all her stuff!

My library did the same thing! Well, only Godchild because they don't have AS, but they also don't have Cain Saga. I talked to my librarian and was like, "Um. You might want to get Cain Saga because it's actually the first part, and you might REALLY REALLY want to put it in adult!"

The funny thing is, they have Emma in adult, and while it has some nudity, Godchild is so much more disturbing!

[shati.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten how disturbing it was, too! Then I read the first few chapters and was like "..."

I mean, I mostly do approve of kids reading disturbing material (I did, and I turned out ... er ... well, anyway), and of material being shelved in children's/YA/adult because of complexity/intended audience instead of sex and violence. And I loved Kaori Yuki in high school. But -- I still really wonder if the people putting all the manga in YA are aware of the content ...

[oyceter]

I know, I mostly do approve of kids reading whatever, but since the library has got Nana and Tramps Like Us and Cantarella and Monster and Fake all up in the adult section, I feel they probably wouldn't put Yuki Kaori down in YA if they knew what was in there...