Takaya Natsuki - Phantom Dream, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)
Otoya Tamaki is the son of a family destined to battle jaki, evil emanations/spirits that arise out of humans' negative emotions. Volume 1 is mostly one-shots about assorted jaki, with a chapter or two at the end that kicks off the main plot. I think the main plot concerns a rival family, branch families unconvinced of Tamaki's suitability as the successor of the family, finding your important person to protect, and the power of love. I am not actually sure, however.
This is Takaya Natsuki's first series, and it shows. There is none of the character design or the elegant paneling that is so integral to Fruits Basket, nor is there any of the pacing or choosing dramatic reveals over piling on information. On the other hand, although you have to work extremely hard to excavate the plot, the character development, and the world building, what's there underneath all the bad art is very interesting.
For one, the innocent, loving shoujo heroine, who is very Tohru-like, is having sex with the hero. In his house. With his mother's approval! I realize this is not surprising for many teenagers, but it's a fairly large departure from shoujo tropes. rachelmanija hadn't even realized it at all and didn't quite believe me until I showed her a few panels with the two naked in bed together.
RACHEL: I thought it was metaphoric nudity!
ME: Metaphoric nudity rarely has nipples.
RACHEL: It was just so unexpected that my brain just didn't register it!
Other themes seem to be how generations of dysfunction mess people up, dysfunctional family relationships, and how we are strengthened by finding an important person to protect or by never trying to kill the part of ourselves that loves someone. It feels very much like a thematic precursor to Fruits Basket, only with a lot more magic, monks, avatar animals, and evil spirits. And did I mention the bad art?
In fact, the art and the character design is so bad that I frequently couldn't tell characters apart, which made it ten times more difficult to work out the already complicated plot. There are three characters with short blond hair, maybe two with long wavy blond hair, and several characters that look like two different people, depending on the angle. Tamaki's mother has a low ponytail that frequently disappears when you view her face head-on, which makes her look like someone with short black hair at particular angles.
Small spoilers
It was so bad that Rachel was reading in bed and exclaimed, "[Name] just got his arm lopped off!"
Two seconds later: "Oh wait, I guess that wasn't him. He just showed up with his arm, so it must have been someone who looked like him."
Two more seconds later: "It actually was him! He had just regenerated his arm! I am so confused."
Also, as mentioned previously, there is absolutely no attempt at pacing. Instead, Takaya simply throws information and terms at the reader randomly, and frequently doesn't bother to explain or introduce the first five terms before piling on ten more (and I'm fairly sure they are terms Japanese audiences would have to remember as well, such as the names of avatars, different family names, the names of different power levels, and the names of weapons). And to top everything off, each page is so visually crowded that it only adds to the information overload.
Still, I think I'm going to end up reading more, just to see where she's going with the plot.
This is Takaya Natsuki's first series, and it shows. There is none of the character design or the elegant paneling that is so integral to Fruits Basket, nor is there any of the pacing or choosing dramatic reveals over piling on information. On the other hand, although you have to work extremely hard to excavate the plot, the character development, and the world building, what's there underneath all the bad art is very interesting.
For one, the innocent, loving shoujo heroine, who is very Tohru-like, is having sex with the hero. In his house. With his mother's approval! I realize this is not surprising for many teenagers, but it's a fairly large departure from shoujo tropes. rachelmanija hadn't even realized it at all and didn't quite believe me until I showed her a few panels with the two naked in bed together.
RACHEL: I thought it was metaphoric nudity!
ME: Metaphoric nudity rarely has nipples.
RACHEL: It was just so unexpected that my brain just didn't register it!
Other themes seem to be how generations of dysfunction mess people up, dysfunctional family relationships, and how we are strengthened by finding an important person to protect or by never trying to kill the part of ourselves that loves someone. It feels very much like a thematic precursor to Fruits Basket, only with a lot more magic, monks, avatar animals, and evil spirits. And did I mention the bad art?
In fact, the art and the character design is so bad that I frequently couldn't tell characters apart, which made it ten times more difficult to work out the already complicated plot. There are three characters with short blond hair, maybe two with long wavy blond hair, and several characters that look like two different people, depending on the angle. Tamaki's mother has a low ponytail that frequently disappears when you view her face head-on, which makes her look like someone with short black hair at particular angles.
Small spoilers
It was so bad that Rachel was reading in bed and exclaimed, "[Name] just got his arm lopped off!"
Two seconds later: "Oh wait, I guess that wasn't him. He just showed up with his arm, so it must have been someone who looked like him."
Two more seconds later: "It actually was him! He had just regenerated his arm! I am so confused."
Also, as mentioned previously, there is absolutely no attempt at pacing. Instead, Takaya simply throws information and terms at the reader randomly, and frequently doesn't bother to explain or introduce the first five terms before piling on ten more (and I'm fairly sure they are terms Japanese audiences would have to remember as well, such as the names of avatars, different family names, the names of different power levels, and the names of weapons). And to top everything off, each page is so visually crowded that it only adds to the information overload.
Still, I think I'm going to end up reading more, just to see where she's going with the plot.