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Monday, December 12, 2011

Manga Review: Dawn of the Arcana, Volume 1, by Rei Toma

Rating (Out of 5 Stars): 2.5 
Publisher: VIZ Media

Goodreads Synopsis:

Princess Nakaba of Senan is forced to marry Prince Caesar of the enemy country Belquat, tantamount to becoming a hostage. While Caesar is pleasing to the eye, he is also selfish and possessive, telling Nakaba outright: “You are my property.” With only her attendant Loki at her side, Nakaba must find a way to cope with her hostile surroundings, her fake marriage...and a mysterious power!

Review:
 
I'm a bit disappointed. When I first saw this, I thought that I would really like it. The art looked good, the summary sounded good, even though I only had a vague remembrance of what it was supposed to be, and it's from Shojo Beat. It looked exactly like the type of manga that I like. I even saved it for last. So I was disappointed in finding out that it wasn't very good.
It's about Nakaba, a princess, who has just been married to Prince Caesar. And she has a servant, or whatever, who has, I think, dog ears. She's also a red head, and that's a big deal to everyone, as most royals have dark hair, so no one wants much to do with her. She doesn't want to be married to Caesar, and he's all forceful about now he owns her. And her servant, Loki, tries to protect her and then gets in trouble for threatening Caesar and has to hide for a while. Caesar forces himself on Nakaba at one point, and she fights him. And then Caesar is in this tournament and Loki challenges him and he loses and so Loki gets pardoned.
There's also some back story to Loki and Nakaba. She's a princess of this town, or place, that was attacked, and we find out that the person who sent it out is Caesar's father. She's been with only Loki for a long time now, and she keeps having flashbacks to how the attack went down, as she was very little at the time.
Nakaba is okay. She tries fighting everyone, but she isn't very good at it. Not forceful enough, or something of the sort. And she cries a little easily and faints a couple of times. I don't particularly like her, but there's the possibility that she will get better. I hope she does.
I don't like Caesar. He's a jerk to her in the beginning, and then at the end he hugs her after she says something to him that he wasn't expecting. He's had a tough childhood, as his parents kind of suck, but I still don't like him very much. I do like Loki, though. He's a bit adorable. He's protective and very loyal to Nakaba. He's probably just about the best part of the book for me.
And the art, I mentioned earlier. The cover makes it seem like it will be very pretty. And it wasn't really bad. Just not very good. It was all a little lackluster to me. I will give it another try, for maybe a couple for volumes, and I hope that it gets better.

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