Taeko WatanabeCritiques

Not the easiest manga to get into. Unless you really like Japanese history, maybe. There were a lot of politics and terms I wasn't familiar with. The translator made an odd choice in not translating a few things, like 'oni'. And that was one of the words I actually knew!So, from what I can gather, a girl signs up with this group of samurai, disguised as a boy of course, to revenge the deaths of her father and brother. And that sounds sort of cool and all, but in sharp contrast to the history and politics and what-the-heck-is-going-on-ness, the tone's a little manic. I can't get a handle on everyone's personality, because they're often drunk or being silly.I have one more volume that I borrowed from ILL, and the others aren't available. So I'll probably read that and then stop. Unless it gets really good.Oh yea, and there's an attempted rape, an attempted gay rape (only of course she's not really a boy). And, y'know, those are always fun. :P

I feel like I'm following what's going on a _little_ better, but there's too many characters for me to easily keep track of. And I still don't understand all the politics going on. So the main character comes face-to-face with the guy who killed her father and brother. And doesn't kill him, because she knows he knocked a woman up. And said woman is counting on him and the unborn baby is counting on him, yadda yadda.Well, she later regrets not killing him.And there's angst. And stuff. And visits to brothels.I can't say it's bad for what it is. But I don't think it's for me.

Sei is a young woman in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. Her family is killed in this tumultuous time and Sei is frustrated that she can do nothing to avenge her family's death. She does the only thing she can do - she cuts her hair, disguises herself as a boy, and signs up with a group of samurai to search for her family's killer.

I know very little about this time period in Japanese history - called the bakumatstu - and in some ways that's good and in some ways it is not. I do learn some about the history from the series but more often I get confused by the very specific information that is referenced. The notes in the back clear things up a little, but I for one could use about two times the notes than they provide. You can enjoy the series if you can just get over the specifics, which I do, or you could be very frustrated. Or you can pick up some non-fiction about the samurai of the bakumatsu and it wouldn't be an issue either way.

The romance trumps the violence in this series, making it more appropriate for teen or older readers and girls more than boys.

This is not something I would usually pick up except it combined two of my favourite things - crossdressing and the Shinsengumi. It's about a 15 year old girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to get revenge for her family and joins the (proto) Shinsengumi.

I have to say the book is really weird. It's obvious the author has done her historical research and she knows how... nasty things could get in the Shinsengumi, but the entire thing is drawn in this cutesy style that completely undermines that, even when violent things are happening. I can't decide if I like it or not. The one thing that does (mostly) amuse me is that the main char. keeps getting hit on. The attitude is basically, "well, women are better, but cute young men are great too." on the part of half the Shinsengumi. It's both amusing and disturbing (considering one of them tries to rape her...).

The thing to keep in mind is that despite the setting at the beginning of the revolution with the usually hardcore Shinsengumi, this is essentially a shoujo manga.

Kaze Hikaru volume 6 really shined for me. The book starts out strong with Watanabe's representation of the 'Ikedaya Incedent' and Okita's collapse. Then, that's followed by the tensions of the Okita/Kamiya/Saito triangle and Kamiya's dilemma when Kondo asks her to be his successor. There was a lot of action and story packed into a single volume and while it's not a portion of the story a reader could come into cold, I think it's one of the best single volumes to date.½