Sakura
Hime volume
11
Author: Arina Tanemura
Viz Media/Shojo Beat
184 pages
Author: Arina Tanemura
Viz Media/Shojo Beat
184 pages
Kohaku
follows Hayate into the woods and finds him there with Rurijo. Enju
also witnesses the clandestine meeting and confronts Rurijo about her
betrayal. Rurijo, now abandoned by Enju, vows to kill Princess
Sakura... (Source:
Viz Media)
Sakura
Hime makes my heart hurt in so many ways, it should be punishable by
law. Tanemura has created a cast of characters with conflicting
relationships and she's bringing them together in some very explosive
ways. As volume eleven opens, the Kohaku/Rurijo/Hayate love triangle
is coming to an apex but Enju isn't far behind, still determined to
bring Princess Sakura back to her side. That is, if Rurijo's sudden
vengeance quest against the princess doesn't get her killed first.
Funnily
enough, there is not a ton of Sakura in this volume, despite
Tanemura's noting it being a Sakura/Rurijo heavy volume. It does
center around them, yes, but the narrative is heavy mostly on Rurijo
and her issues and her relationship with Hayate. Aoba is notably
absent from the main story, flitting in and out when he can manage to
justify his existence. He's not the romantic male lead in this
volume; Hayate has taken this role, atypical as he is to it.
The
Kohaku/Rurijo/Hayate goes from awkward to double awkward and then
some when Hayate declares that he is in love with Rurijo. Last
volume, Kohaku had declared her feelings for Hayate and Hayate, still
conflicted over his new relationship with Rurijo, ran off without
answering her. Now she has her answer, and it is not
the answer she wants. Naturally, Kohaku is crushed, although being
Kohaku, she still wants Hayate to find happiness with Rurijo. Rurijo,
meanwhile, doesn't seem to realize Kohaku is in love with Hayate;
she's probably too concerned with her disintegrating body, courtesy
of Enju.
Volume
eleven is all about Rurijo and Hayate and Sakura, but Enju always
manages to pull back the focus to himself when he can. He's reminding
us, rather forcefully, that despite his dwindling forces he is still
someone to be feared and a threat to Princess Sakura's safety as well
as the safety of her companions. He is the one who ruins Rurijo's
life and sends her into a desperate attack on Sakura's life; he is
the one who manipulates Shuri to do his bidding and even kidnaps one
of our main protagonists all to get closer to his darling princess
sister.
We
also see the return of Princess Kaguya's hair, a plot line which
seemed to have been neglected in recent volumes. Remember how Enju
has been using the hair and eyeballs to revive Kaguya. Well, he's
still at it. It's rather amazing that her eyeballs aren't shriveled
raisins yet but I'll chalk that up to moon blood. It's during these
scenes in which Enju tries several methods to revive the moon
princess that we see Enju at his most ruthless; he has no problem
sacrificing others' lives to reach his ultimate goal.
There
is a lot of dramatic, gorgeous artwork in this installment of Sakura
Hime, from the chapter art to the scenes featuring Hayate and Rurijo.
As usual, Tanemura's illustration of characters in emotional turmoil
- blushing and crying, fighting and wheezing - is high in detail and
so very her style. She also uses blank space to her advantage, adding
another layer of artistic drama to some already emotionally charged
scenes. It's all typical Tanemura, but it's Arina Tanemura at her
strongest.
Also,
I love that we see so much of Sakura in her Chizakura form, because
her uniform is awesome and deserves more page time that it's been
getting lately. Sakura with Chizakura out is one of the highlights of
this series; she makes a yin-yang symbol slapped on a ruffled skirt
look cool. Plus, her sword skills are second to none in this title.
I'm always impressed with how casually Sakura swings Chizakura around
while still looking like a professional fighter. It's awesome.
Sakura
Hime's manga is burning through plot at a rapid face, heading towards
its finale - which just so happens to be coming up in the next
volume. This volume ends in the most dramatic, heartbreaking fashion;
one can only imagine how Sakura Hime's finale will top that one
single moment. It is obvious that Enju and Sakura are destined to
clash one more time, moon blood against blood. At this point, it's
not a question of who will win, Enju or Sakura, because I doubt
Tanemura is going to kill off her heroine. It's a question of who on
each side will survive the battle intact or at all.
Volume 12 of Sakura Hime is scheduled to come out in English in February of 2014. You can read more about the Sakura Hime manga and buy volumes of the series at the Shojo Beat website.
No comments:
Post a Comment