Canon Vol 2

[meganbmoore]

Volume one of Canon set the series up to be a very good, if standard in concept, book about a girl who wanted revenge revenge on the vampire who killed her friends and was joined by a vampire who also wanted revenge against the same man.  The main thing that made it stand out from the norm was that Sakaki, the hero to Canon's heroine, seemed to be just as bad and as ruthless as Rod(I shall never stop loving that he is "Rod, the Vampire Lord"...I feel confident it sounds MUCH better in Japanese...rather like Oh! Great! is probably a cool name for a mangaka...somewhere...)  Volume 2, however, rather turns that idea on its head.

In Vol 2, we learn that it's Sakaki, not Rod, who killed Canon's friends and turned Canon herself into a vampire9though, apparently, he can still turn her back into a human at the end if he wants) and used his influence over her to change her memories so that she'd believe it was Rod.  We also learn that Sakaki's father was Rod's best friend, and that Rod saved a young Canon's life the night he murdered Sakaki's parents, and tried to murder Sakaki himself(not because they were evil, but because Sakaki's mother was human, and humans and vampires aren't supposed to be able to have kids) and then erased her memories of that night.  As a result, Canon is the perfect weapon to use against Rod, being someone he wants to live.

This removes all resmblance of the "vampire drawn to pure and sweet girl and wants to save her from himself" standard plot contrivance from the series, in a way.  Despite his actions, Sakaki does seem to have genuinely fallen for Canon, even though she's primarily a weapon to him.  Meanwhile, while Rod may not be the monster he was painted in volume 1, I can't quite shake the feeling that in the end, he will be the greater evil.  Rod butchered Sakaki's parents and even Sakaki himself, even though he survived, and has apparently done many horrible things in the past.  Sakaki was the victim, but became something just as bad in his path to vengeance.  And between them is Canon, an innocent who wants nothing more than her own revenge, and is willing to join whichever monster can give it to her.  

I'bve said this before, but half the reason I love Chika Shiomi's books is because, while shojo, they're(except for Yurara, which still isn't quite normal shojo) about as far from normal shojo as you can get...they're dark, the romance is secondary, the heroines kick serious butt and the "hero" may also be the bad guy.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Actually, Oh!Great's a pun on his real name (Ogure Ito). So it's really him being a mega dork and trying to show off his ultra-cool-sense-of-humor! (not)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

can i still reserve the right to mock it? pretty please? like rod the vampire lord?

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

YAY!