Monday, July 22, 2013

Manga Mondays #158: Godchild vol. 1 by Kaori Yuki

Manga Mondays Meme


I've been doing Manga Mondays every week since I started my blog 3 years ago. It started out as a personal feature, but I decided to turn it into a meme last year. There are quite a few people who do Manga Mondays. I don't claim by any means that I owned or created the idea of Manga Mondays - it's an obvious choice given the alliteration. I think a meme is a great way for everyone to publicize their own Manga Mondays and get a little more publicity.

The linky will be below my review.

Godchild vol. 1 by Kaori Yuki


Summary

Deep in the heart of 19th century London, a young nobleman named Cain walks the shadowy cobblestone streets of the aristocratic society into which he was born. Forced to become an earl upon the untimely death of his father, Cain assumes the role of head of the Hargreaves, a noble family with a dark past. With Riff, his faithful manservant, and Mary Weather, his 10-year-old half sister, Cain investigates the mysterious crimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes. (courtesy of Goodreads)

Review

*Warning: Potential spoilers. My manga reviews tend to be more of a summary than a review. I find it hard to review manga in the same way I do regular books.

Yet another attempt to find a winning new manga series failed. Also yet another series that isn't bad per se, but definitely isn't my thing.


Godchild is a companion series to something else Kaori Yuki has written. Perhaps I would have liked the volume more if I'd read her previous series, but it didn't feel like it was strongly linked to anything else.

My main problem with this volume is that it felt disjointed. It is a compilation of several different short stories. Each is a creepy take on a fairy tale or rhyme or classic children's story. For example, a serial killer is going around in a white rabbit mask killing young girls by cutting off their heads in a Victorian mansion with an Alice in Wonderland theme. It's both ridiculous and disturbing at the same time (and I actually mean ridiculous in a good way - it's creepy fun). Similar treatments are given to Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and other rhymes.

The stories themselves aren't that bad. Weird, but meant to thrill and scare. But it felt like there was no point. There was some overarching characters - Cain the Earl and Mary Weather, his half sister, but no discernible story outside of the horror stories in which they had to fight their way out of.

The Victorian England setting was fun, but slightly anachronistic. At one point, a character accuses another of having a Lolita complex - a book that wasn't published until the 1950s. But I don't take those things too seriously in manga.

Godchild may be the series for you if you like a good scare, but I prefer a cohesive story. Onto the next series.

Any recommendations?

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3 comments:

  1. I was obsessed with this manga at some point. Yes, it feels disjointed at the beginning, but I think a story starts to happen around vol. 5. Unfortunately haven't finished it, but the art and just the weirdness of the story is intriguing (and gross at times!).

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  2. Nice review! I like the idea of this manga having a darker take on nursery rhymes and fairy-tales. Every now and then, I need to read something creepy and thrilling. I wonder if the following volumes will have a more cohesive story-line?

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