manga: Fairy Cube Vol 1

[meganbmoore]

First thought after closing the book: Man, Kaori Yuki really likes to cram as much as is humanly possible into a single volume of manga.

Ever since he was a child, Ian has seen fairies, including Tokage, an evil fairy that looks just like Ian and is always hanging over Ian’s shoulder, and making bad things happen around Ian so people will hate him. When he was younger, Ian had a friend named Rin with whom he could share the otherworld he saw. However, Ian’s father hated Ian’s mother for leaving him and was obsessively possessive of Ian, so he caused Rin’s father to be transferred and demoted, and also tied Ian down and burned the fairy wing birthmarks off his back.

Cut forward to their high school days, and Ian is known as a liar for claiming to see fairies, and still abused, and Rin has also become an abused child at the hands of her mother, because her father has left them, and only comes home if he hears Rin has been hurt. Meanwhile, people have been dying, with the blood from their wounds forming fairy wings. When Ian sees a strange man taking a cube from one such victim, the police accuse him of lying when a body isn’t found.

And now for the crazy stuff!

So, Ian and Rin do the big “you are the most important thing in the world to me, lets run away together!” thing. Except Tokage uses it as an opportunity to push Ian’s father to far, and he stabs Ian in the back as Ian is making the dramatic speech…and Ian keeps making the speech.

ANYWAY!

Then Tokage takes over Ian’s body and steals Rin and Ian becomes a ghost. Pissed and wanting revenge, Ian figures out that the man he saw take the cube, Kaito, is a part of it. When he goes to confront Kaito, his would-be fairy girlfriend, Ainsel, attacks Ian and Kaito transports the two of them to the fae world so they won’t wreak the shop.

At this point, we’re about 50-60 pages into the volume. See what I mean about lot happening?

Anyway, Ian and Ainsel have a random adventure in the fae world and bond, and when they get back, Kaito tells Ian that the cubes are fairies who attached themselves to humans, and that the humans die when the fairies are unable to properly bond. So, to let Ian get revenge on Tokage and his body and Rin back, Kaito hooks Ian up with the body of a 10~ year old boy, and Ainsel loans him some of her power. Or bonds her power to him. I’m not quite sure which.

Yes, in case you didn’t notice, our romance went from abused childhood friends who saw fairies to necrophilia and pseudo-pedophilia. In theory, this is temporary.

Anyway, Ian moves in with the grandmother of Eriya, the boy whose body he’s living in, and meets Rin and Tokage in his new form and learns Tokage is a gangster and there are fairy rings and fairy turf wars and…stuff. Imagine 5-6 manga condensed into one, ok? 

(Hmm, I said "anyway" a lot...)

Anyway, there’s more angst (romantic and otherwise) than is healthy, people who turn into animals(and vice versa) love from beyond the grave, all sorts of mythology, a mysterious shop owner with long hair, a stoic and seemingly ill tempered butler, all sorts of mythology and evil lizards in boxes. If any of those things appeal.

I have to say, though, that while both Ian and Rin started out pretty interesting, by the end, both felt like fairly normal shoujo leads. I do really like Ainsel, though.  Then again, she reminds me of Kurai.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I haven't read anything by her in a long time, but this actually sounds kind of cool. I'll have to look for it at Book Off.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Interesting, but a little odd. Mind you, aside from this, I've only read the first 4 volumes of Angel Sanctuary by her.

I just wish reading her manga didn't feel like she was trying to get as much as she could into every chapter out of fear of cancelation or something.