Of Swords and Parasols

Cantarella is a fictional account of the life of Cesare Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI.  Among other things.  If you're remotely familiar with the Borgias, then you will understand what I mean when I said I went in with two assumptions:

Assumption #1:  Everyone is in love with their sibling.
Assumption #2:  Everyone is omnisexual.

My actual knowledge of Cesare's life, at least the parts covered in these two volumes, is rather general, and lines up with the events here so far:  Illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI(before he was pope.)  He has several siblings, chief among them are Juan, with whom he has a rivalry, and Lucrezia, who he is very close to(the manga gives Cesare a different mother from Juan and Lucrezia, but raised by their mother...I don't know if that part is history.)  In his youth, he's sent away to Spain but returns when his father becomes pope and is made a cardinal, and his sister is married off to an older(and, in the manga, skeevy) man.  In addition, his closest and constant compaion in an assassin named Don Michelotto(real name Chiaro in the manga), who is always at his side.

And then we get to the non-historical part about how his father sold Cesare's soul to Satan so dad could become pope, and how dad killed real mom.  Though really, those could be historical, too.

I admit, I had to spend a fair chunk of the first volume and some of the second going "demon crystal wings and arm loss mean love."  While I immediately liked Chiaro, who, despite having essentially been born an assassin, is rather sweet and dorky and, dare I say, "pure," Cesare...well...until he grew up, Cesare was basically a misunderstood woobie kid with abandonment and anger issues and a sister complex.  Grown up Cesare, though, is much more interesting.  Which is rather concerning, as grown up Cesare is a machiavellian alpha bastard who seems to have no problems using Chiaro and Lucrezia, the only people he cares about.  Lucrezia...well, I like her, but she's a bit too much of the "sweet and pure angel" for me to think a lot of her now, though that's probably the sort of heroine the book needs.  Still, I'm ok with her.  It says something, though, when your hero is a man of the cloth and is a ruthless, manipulative S.O.B., and his sidekick is an assassin who, despite his profession, appears to be amazingly pure and sweet.