Author: Kirishima Tamaki
Imprint: Drap
Publisher: Koa Magazin
ISBN:
Crimson: 4-87734-328-8
Crimson Crown: 4-87734-413-6
Crimson Chaos:4-87734-440-3
Reviewed by Jeanne
A three-setter here, loosely linked stories with an over-arching plot. But first, oddly for me, I'm going to talk about the art.
Kirishima Tamaki has a nicely detailed art style and she isn't afraid of toner. I'm all for it, especially after seeing too many doujinshika turned Beboy stable artists, with their sketchy line drawings, lack of backgrounds, lack of detail, and art style by Xerox. These days if you can look at the style and say That's So-and-so, you're already ahead of the game. (Mind you, you can look at Mizushiro Setona and say That's Mizushiro Setona, which is scarcely a virtue. Le sigh.) Kirishima does suffer a little from Long Chin Syndrome and mouths that tend to be placed way too high in the characters' faces, but it's not universal and it's nowhere near as bad as Belne or Ozkai Minami or- well, you name it. And her characters have hair in abundance, always a virtue.
We've talked before about her yakuza series. Crimson is a fantasy. I'm always happy with manga that aren't for a change about schoolboys, as 90% of shoujo/ BL manga seems to be. Yes, manga is written for young women, heterosexual by default, and it is natural and desirable that young heterosexual women should be interested in guys their own age. But when you're neither young nor heterosexual it's a tad difficult to work up enthusiasm for the adolescent male of the species. Older males of the species are fine, as are young males of some other species. Crimson luckily has both.
Our hero is Shiba Yukinari, an early 20's rambunctious type. His father left him a double occupation- detective and monster hunter. (I'm not sure why a detective. Kirishima keeping her options open, maybe, in case the plot went off in that direction?) There's a very good reason why he's a monster hunter. As we're told many times over, the universe consists of four worlds. Life and rebirth cycles through the Meikai, the traditional Japanese 'other world,' situated at the centre of the universe. Humans live in Ninkai, the human world. A race of shape-shifting demons who take on animal form live in Youkai (different kanji from the youkai you're thinking of.) Ninkai and Youkai together make a ring around the Meikai. Circling them is Shintenkai, the realm of the silver-haired and long lived Celestials.
The Youkai monsters- a lower life form than the shape-shifting humanoid inhabitants of Youkai- get into the human world at the full and new moon, looking for life forms to kill and gain power from. Monster hunters kill the beasts, extract the jewels they carry inside them (their 'core', written in katakana, which is a concentrated spiritual essence) and send them back to the Meikai by means of ponds and pools that link the human world to that one. The monster hunters and the guardians of the pools are both Celestials, sent in pairs from their own world to the human one. Celestials have classic Japanese fashion sense, in that they often wear traditional court robes, or at least kimono. Men in kimono... are remarkably hot.
Yukinari- who wears jeans, btw- has silver hair cause his dad was a Celestial. He was a hunter who was killed by a particularly ferocious beast leaving his son to be raised by his partner, the guardian Mishiro. But Yukinari's silver hair has red tips for reasons he doesn't quite get, until one day a kid with purple hair and yellow eyes appears out of nowhere waving a sword at him and demanding *his* 'core'. Yukinari feels a blinding pain in his forehead and before you know it he's got a jewel there- and pointed ears and skin markings as well.
(Past here are spoilers for vol 1.)
Long story short- as Mishiro tells the story- Yukinari's mother was a highborn member of Youkai who fled to Ninkai and married Yukinari's father. She eventually returned to the political marriage that had been made for her, leaving her sword with her celestial husband who passed it on to Yukinari. And the kid? Is Yukinari's half-brother, a full demon and intended heir to one of the five kingdoms of Youkai. But he has no 'core' or spiritual essence of his own because his mother's love was all given to her earthly husband and son. Kid, whose name is Riifei, dares the dangerous passage from Meikai to Ninkai in order to slay his half-brother and get the jewel for himself. Something about meeting this half-brother calls up all of Yukinari's demon blood and he takes on demon form- including, as he discovers later, the ability to shape-shift into a small but ferocious demon animal himself.
There's a wrinkle in all this, of course. Though Riifei keeps popping up waving that sword he never seems able to get a stroke in. And Yukinari's reaction to him is 'kawaaaiiii!' It's love at first sight. When Riifei eventually breaks into Yukinari's house to slaughter him, Yukinari grabs and kisses him. Geemu obaaa- especially when two demon assassins also appear, sent by a rival candidate to the throne to wipe out Riifei, and Yukinari turns into his demon form for the first time to save his half-brother. Now it's Riifei squealing Kawaiii! So with no more ado we have sex between our heroes. I love stories that cut to the chase.
All is not plain sailing of course. There's the little matter of that throne waiting for Riifei back home, and his sad relationship with his mother who went catatonic when she saw Yukinari's father being killed in the magic glass that she used to watch her family on earth in. There's the usual and inevitable heart-burnings from Riifei, the 'does he love me how can he love me no-one has ever loved me' of the Insecure Uke TM. It's not true no-one ever loved him, by the way. His servant Rao follows him to Ninkai determined to propose marriage. Poor Rao, the nice guy who doesn't get uhh the guy. There are also a number of side stories about various other people and celestials who wander in and out of Yukinari and Riifei's life, and back stories about Mishiro and Yukinari's father, and Riifei's parents and his cousin, and a truly nasty specimen from Youkai who takes up most of the third book. A fun read, funny and weepy by turns. Recommended for fantasy lovers and fans of 'm/m because it's there.'
Cast
Shiba Yukinari (aka You)- detective, monster hunter, arrested adolescent
Riifei: his demon half-brother, heir to the demon kingdom of Akoku
Kazutora: Yukinari's Celestial father, a demon hunter
Mishiro: a guardian, Kazutora's partner. Lives in a jinja (Shinto shrine)
Rao: Riifei's devoted servant who follows him to Ninkai
Minfa: Yukinari and Riifei's mother, now living in Youkai
Kunato: Riifei's father
Shaiya: Riifei's kinsman, another candidate for heir to the kingdom
Sajin: Mishiro's superior in Tenkai; has the hots for him
Tsuzuki: Ruler of the demon land Yakoku
Shintaro: local policeman, possessed of spiritual powers
Azumi: the Celestial who's been secretly guarding Shintaro since he was a boy