Sakura of DOOM

And the frightening thing is, I still haven't written up everything I read this weekend...

Ushitora is a demon assassin who hunts down "kuruizaki no hana," or the offspring of gods and humans; he kills them, and then members of his clan eat them to gain strength. One day, he decides he hates it and runs off with Masato, a young boy he spares. Years later, Ushitora, Masato, and Nao (another orphan Ushitora's picked up) are living together, albeit on the run. Masato and Nao know nothing about Ushitora and what he used to be, and Ushitora would like to keep things that way. But, of course, his past starts to catch up with him.

I know I sound like a broken record, but this is yet another Mizuki Hakase work that focuses on demons undemonifying, broken people making families, and a whole lot of goth. I'm hoping this one doesn't go as rapidly down the drain as The Demon Ororon did. Also, it helps that the paneling has improved somewhat, though I'm still having a pretty hard time following the action and who says what. On the other hand, it completely doesn't help that in close ups, Masato and Ushitora look identical.

My favorite parts so far have been the ones from Nao's POV; she's got a neat outlook, probably because she's seven or so. And I am a sucker for siblings protecting younger sisters!

Anyway, not recommended or unrecommended yet; I'm still waiting to see how further volumes go.

Good lord, I need to figure out a better way to summarize manga or my LJ subjects get horrifically long.

Anyway. I read vols. 1 and 2 in a flash after getting them in the mail (thanks rachelmanija!). I found that while it wasn't necessary the best manga I had ever read, it had hooks that were very detrimental to my sleeping habits.

The demon Ororon is the king of hell, and he's just been rescued off the street by Chiaki, who is half-angel but doesn't realize it. Chiaki has been living by herself and never knew her parents, so when Ororon grants her a wish for rescuing him, all she asks is that he stay by her side.

The cracktastic:

1. The angel-demon forbidden romances (of DOOM!), although I think flipping the typical gender mapping would be more interesting.

2. Angsty romance between two people who have been woefully neglected and abandoned, especially if one of them is a hot demon guy with three moles under his eyes and a nasty smile.

3. Both Heaven and Hell are after Ororon and Chiaki and they are doomed if they stay together, but they only have each other!

4. Ororon's siblings are trying to kill him/love him/want to protect him/all of the above!

5. Ororon's totally insane brother Othello tortures his conquered enemy to provoke hatred and love and twisted affection.

However, this still doesn't live up to the cracktastic-ness of Angel Sanctuary, since there are no weapons in human form, no reincarnations of different sexes, and most importantly, no incest.

It still sucked me in.

Then I read vols. 3 and 4, in which the doomed romance just stays in the background while Ororon fights off the multitude of demons, siblings, ghosts, and other such things, and Chiaki cries a lot about how Ororon has to kill things. The horrific angst factor goes down while the horrific blood-and-gore imagery factor goes up. My stomach didn't particularly appreciate the latter.

In addition, I really didn't like the translation, which was also badly edited (had a mispelled word or two at some points). And I can't read half of the fonts they used, which was extremely irritating.

Sadly, I liked Hakase's style a lot; it's not typically shoujo. Very long and lanky, with oversized feet and hands, lots of angles and stark black and white compositions. It actually reminded me a bit of Yazawa Ai, in terms of which parts of the body she emphasizes. I am assuming that Hakase is female, but I'm not sure... Layout-wise, I had a very tough time following the (multiple) fight scenes, and I had a hard time telling the characters apart from certain angles. It was especially noticeable after I'd been reading Fruits Basket, which really does have amazingly easy layout.

In the end, I think it would have been much more interesting if there had been less fighting, less bad fonts, and more doomed angsty romance with subplots concerning Heaven and Hell and the politics thereof. It's nicely goth-y, but too bloody and violent for my taste. Also, the ending is really freaking depressing and I would highly recommend that you avoid this if you are coming right out of seeing Brokeback Mountain.