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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Manga Review: Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura, Volume 7, by Arina Tanemura


Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5
Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)
Volumes: 10+

Amazon Synopsis:

Sakura is the granddaughter of a mysterious moon princess who slew demons with her Blood Cherry Blossom sword. All her life Sakura has been forbidden to look at the full moon without knowing why. Then one night, unhappy over her impending marriage, Sakura gazes up at the moon, only to see a demon attacking her...
Every time Asagiri uses her powers, she shortens her life span. In spite of this, she continues to use her powers to fight her former lover, Ukyo. Though Ukyo will not attack her, this is a fight Asagiri cannot win.

Review:

I haven’t really been a huge follower of this book, and I’m not sure why. It just hasn’t grabbed my attention, or kept my attention, as well as I would like it to. I read it, and I’m starting to remember what happens in each volume better, but I don’t think about it much after I finish it. It doesn’t seem to be leaving much of a standing impression, I guess.
The first chapter of this volume continues showing Asagiri and Ukyo’s story, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. I found that I liked them, and that their relationship is right up there with Hayate and Kohaku’s relationship, which is still my favorite. My liking of them definitely made what happened between them even worse, and I was really not happy about it. This carries into the next chapter, where Aoba and Sakura have been reunited and they are all running away, trying to get out but end up being caught by Enju (Sakura’s somewhat-evil brother).
Within these chapters, there are some moments that I will not explain in depth, but that make me dislike Enju even more. He’s just… I don’t like what he’s doing to Sakura. There’s a point where she can choose to turn her back on him, and while she should openly fight with him, I understand why she doesn’t. Even though he’s not the same person she knew, he is still her brother, and that’s hard to turn away from.
There’s some fighting between everyone, and Sakura ends up in this mirror world, where people that are killed by her sword go or something. While there, she finds out that Enju has been working to get the pieces of Princess Kaguya back together, which is kind of a bad idea. Mostly she’s upset because she thinks Kaguya will be replacing her, but otherwise I’m not sure what to think of it. I didn’t think Kaguya was a bad person (is she, and I just haven’t been paying attention?), but I’m curious as to what she is like, especially because this doesn’t sound like it could be good in any way. And we got to see her, kind of, and that was definitely creepy. Maybe it’s just that the whole, bringing people back from the dead is a bad thing? ‘cause I know it is.
Then Fujimurasaki (the emperor or whatever) shows up and they all run away as the ‘bad guys’ hide out is set on fire. The volume ends with Sakura promising to defeat Enju, which is good, but makes me wonder what is going to happen next, since apparently it’s moving into a new story arc.
After that, there are some comic strips showing the other team (the ‘bad guys’ or whatever), in which they are goofing around and doing human things, while not being very human. It was entertaining, but a little weird to see all of them acting comically, when I have only seen them serious and fighting thus far.
Again, this doesn’t seem to be giving me much of a longing impression, but I do mostly enjoy the books when I get them. I’m not even thinking about stopping the series or anything (I have read all of Tanemura’s previous published books, and don’t intend to stop with this one; besides, I am enjoying it), but I hope that it starts getting better, and I begin enjoying it even more and feeling more strongly about it.

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