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meganbmooreI read the first volume of this some time back, then reread it after I read about a volume and a half more and kept struggling to remember what had happened. When I reread it, I realized that no, I hadn’t forgotten anything, the plot was just confusing. The series, which is loosely based on the Japanese legend of Kaguya-Hime, the moon princess, is incredibly dense. In one of the afterwords, the mangka pretty much admits that she writes it going full force ahead to keep the readers thinking and guessing and not giving them a chance to catch up.
Kaguya is a high school student whose father is accused of illegal activities. While the house is surrounded by paparazzi, a flying man with a scythe cuts her house into pieces, and she finds herself transported to another world, her only companion being Gold, a robot boy who may or may not have the soul of a boy she vaguely remembers from her childhood. Soon, they’re joined by Bambi, a stoic, silverhaired, crossdressing young woman who makes a better looking boy than most guys in manga do (seriously, she even beats the guys in this series, and there are some rather attractive specimens) and who appears to be in love with Kaguya, and to have studied at various Schools For Shoujo Heroes. Eventually, they’re joined by Waseda, a Japanese student whose soul now resides in a fierce looking giant robot chicken, and who tells a tale of an angsty prince who lived in a palace covered by a veil, and who never knew the touch of another living being, as well as the tale of a planet cursed with a disease that randomly makes bodyparts fall off.
After that, the plot starts getting terribly complicated, but centers around the fact that everyone is looking for Kaguya because she has to choose the one planet that will survive when they all collide. In addition to hot crossdressers, robot boys, angsty 500-year-old princes who cannot be touched, giant robot chickens, lost and refound princesses,, and diseases that make bodyparts fall off, there’s also a flying castle, men who think women causing mass destruction is hot, super sekrit siblings, friends turned enemies, long lost siblings, and organic weapons. At one point, I thought a character said he was a dragon, only to later realize that it was more of a nickname. Then, later, another character did turn into a dragon.
The romantic plotline is secondary, and doesn’t show up until about halfway through the series, but has some interesting takes on its type. The plot, viewed as a whole, is both fascinating and awfully confusing, though the individual scenes typically make sense, and are awesome, as they take place, and most of the characters and character interactions are great. This was, I understand, a rather unique shoujo when it first came out, and seems to remain so, at least among licensed shoujo.
Kaguya is a high school student whose father is accused of illegal activities. While the house is surrounded by paparazzi, a flying man with a scythe cuts her house into pieces, and she finds herself transported to another world, her only companion being Gold, a robot boy who may or may not have the soul of a boy she vaguely remembers from her childhood. Soon, they’re joined by Bambi, a stoic, silverhaired, crossdressing young woman who makes a better looking boy than most guys in manga do (seriously, she even beats the guys in this series, and there are some rather attractive specimens) and who appears to be in love with Kaguya, and to have studied at various Schools For Shoujo Heroes. Eventually, they’re joined by Waseda, a Japanese student whose soul now resides in a fierce looking giant robot chicken, and who tells a tale of an angsty prince who lived in a palace covered by a veil, and who never knew the touch of another living being, as well as the tale of a planet cursed with a disease that randomly makes bodyparts fall off.
After that, the plot starts getting terribly complicated, but centers around the fact that everyone is looking for Kaguya because she has to choose the one planet that will survive when they all collide. In addition to hot crossdressers, robot boys, angsty 500-year-old princes who cannot be touched, giant robot chickens, lost and refound princesses,, and diseases that make bodyparts fall off, there’s also a flying castle, men who think women causing mass destruction is hot, super sekrit siblings, friends turned enemies, long lost siblings, and organic weapons. At one point, I thought a character said he was a dragon, only to later realize that it was more of a nickname. Then, later, another character did turn into a dragon.
The romantic plotline is secondary, and doesn’t show up until about halfway through the series, but has some interesting takes on its type. The plot, viewed as a whole, is both fascinating and awfully confusing, though the individual scenes typically make sense, and are awesome, as they take place, and most of the characters and character interactions are great. This was, I understand, a rather unique shoujo when it first came out, and seems to remain so, at least among licensed shoujo.