Kirikagohime to Mahoutsukai by Chisato Nesumi

Tommorrow is the Superbowl, and while I don't care for football, it always puts me in the mood for a certain manga: Eyeshield 21. Go ahead and click that li'l link to see my review. Shameless promotion ending in 3...2...1...

Kirikagohime to Mahoutsukai by Chisato Nesumi

Art and story (c) Chisato Nesumi

Genre: Josei

Length: One Volume – 9 Chapters

             The art is really amazing, and cute! Smooth, confident lines with good backgrounds make it very easy on the eyes. Body positions are excellent and the clothes have just enough detail to look pretty. There are also a lot of tones, so it never looks 'blank' either. The magic effects look original and the action with them is easy to follow. All in all, the art is the best feature.

             Nebelhaut is a grouchy wizard who likes to keep to him self at all times. His home, the Mist Tower, holds only himself, Kerze, a servant he created with an enchantment, and Nebelhaut's vast collection of beautiful and unique things. Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the wizard is unhappily shopping in town when a group of traveling entertainers catches his eye with their advertisements for they hold a rare item. Nebelhaut, wanting the rare piece for his collection, brazenly steals the item in the middle of the show. Bringing it back to his tower, the wizard puts it in a cage like every other treasure, despite the fact that it is a living, breathing fairy.

             This story is a mix between Beauty and the Beast and Howl's Moving Castle. Nebelhaut comes on really strong, though, and I'm not really into the mean types but he has his charm. The story is fairly straight forward but the world of the Misty Tower is fun to see. Kerze, the cat girl, is the cutest and her human form is the perfect blend of cat and inanimate object so she doesn’t seem too cliched of a cat girl. The problem being, like most one volume length manga, it’s got a not so awesome open ending and the characters aren't given time to fully evolve. Still, it’s charming to look at and a cute read.

   

4/5 Short and silly, sometimes it is fun to read something like this just for the concept of it.