Of Swords and Parasols

(I originally typed "Angel Sanctuary" into the subject line...)

Though wonderfully cracked out and charmingly demented, this never really took off like Angel Sanctuary. Then again, I think Kaori Yuki tried to cram about 2/3 of the plot of Angel Sanctuary’s 20 volumes into a 3 volume series.
( spoilers )
Not that I don’t still have eleven volumes of Count Cain/Godchild to go, but does anyone know if any more of Kaori Yuki’s titles have been licensed?

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!



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.