 |
 |
 |
||
 |
The reader meets Count Cain in the headlining story, "Wasurareta Juliet". The rich, beautiful Suzette mysteriously dies and is put to rest. Suddenly, however, her corpse is discovered missing from her grave and walking around at night murdering people! When her friend Ariel discovers shady happenings in the graveyard, his path of inquiry leads him to none other than her cousin, Count Cain himself. Cain knows that Suzette was playing dead till her secret lover could come and rescue her, but her lover never came. Now Suzette is back in zombie mode and looking for revenge, and its up to Cain and Ariel to found out who the secret lover is and stop Suzette. "In no Bibi (Bibi the Branded)", the second story, involves another strange family mystery. In this one, a supposedly dead cousin of Cain's appears to have come back to murder her beloved father. Cain does a little investigating and discovers that the killer is not in fact the dead daughter, but is the girl's long-lost half sister. Yet the half-sister does not remember attempting to kill her father. Sensing something horribly amiss, Cain soon finds that he's stumbled upon a very twisted family feud and plot for revenge. Finally, in the last story, "Cleo Dreyfus no Shi (The Death of Cleo Dreyfus)", Cain confronts the sneaky brother of a recently deceased friend and uses a bit of trickery to make him pay for his crimes. It isn't a mystery, but the reader does learn a little more about just what to expect in the future from our aristocratic detective.
Besides the "Count Cain" stories, there are two other one-shots in Wasurareta Juliet. "Jikan wo Tometa Shounen-tachi (The Boys Who Stopped Time)" is a murder mystery that takes place at a British public school in 1918. Rupert is sent the school against his will and stuck under the supervision of John, an upper-class snob. The school has also just hired a new maid, Edith, the sister of the last maid whose murder has yet to be solved. When Rupert and John accidentally stumble upon an old lab and a notebook claiming that a secret fraternity had created an elixir of immortality, they find themselves knee-deep secret school intrigue. With help from Edith and John's unofficial errand boy Christopher, they start to make connections between the book and the maid's death that leads to a starling revelation. This story is generally very curious and the characters rather fun, but it suffers from a flimsy ending. In "Double", the second story, a poor boy named Len goes to New York City to find Emilio, his blood brother, who left to become famous. When he gets there, he finds that Emilio is much changed. Strange things start tallying up when Len starts to investigate. This story is marred by a strange plot twist involving Emilio's brother that comes out of the blue and is too convenient to be believable. Although both stories start out fine, they end poorly and come off as weak next to the stronger, better-written "Count Cain" shorts. While the "Count Cain" stories in Wasurareta Juliet are particularly interesting, her art does not garner much comment. She is good at rendering expressions, but she seems to struggle with drawing faces from certain odd angles. Likewise, the panels are occasionally difficult to follow as there is either too much text or too much imagery conflicting with one another; the pages can be very busy. At times her style feels a bit underdeveloped, but this may be the curse of hindsight. Wasurareta Juliet, which was released in 1992, has a very sketchy feel compared to the polished and uncluttered look of the first volume of God Child, the last "Count Cain" series, which came out in 2001. It isn't an unattractive style, though. Some readers may prefer her sketchier, more utilitarian look to the more "clean", mainstream shoujo look. I think, though, that most will agree that the style of Wasurareta Juliet is rather outdated. Overall, Wasurareta Juliet is an intriguing beginning to the "Count Cain" series. Cain, with his poison collection and caseload of strange murders to solve, is himself a bit of an enigma at this stage of the series. Rather than turn the reader off, she’ll find instead that she’s curious enough to keep reading in hopes of learning more about his character. Don't let Yuki's young style turn you off; the stories are just as strange and macabre as her current work. I love Yuki Kaori's manga, and if Wasurareta Juliet is any indication then the "Count Cain" series is going to be a good one. The next arc in the series is Shounen no Fukasuru Oto, and I can't wait to start it! "Wasurareta Juliet" is available in English from Viz as "The Cain Saga" #1. { shoujo reviews - reviews - main } |
 |
||
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
Next to Tenshi Kinryouku, Yuki Kaori's "Hakushaku Cain Series" – or simply
"Count Cain", as I shall be referring to it – is her best known work among English speaking readers. (You can exchange "Count" with "Earl", it's the same thing. I've always
used to the former, so Count he shall here be.) Set at some point in late Victorian England, this murder mystery series is broken up into five parts, of which
Wasurareta Juliet is the first. The detective-hero of the stories is Count Cain Hargreaves, a teenage aristocrat and connoisseur of poisons. Along with his quick mind,
Cain regularly puts his knowledge of the many uses and effects his vast and sophisticated collection to the test when solving bizarre and gruesome crimes. In
Wasurareta Juliet the reader is introduced to Cain's caseload in three short stories. More plot than character driven, Cain himself does not feel like a fully developed
personality in this arc. Nevertheless, the idea of a Victorian detective collecting dangerous substances and using them to solve dark fairytale-inspired crimes is too interesting
for the reader to give up after this volume. By the time you hit the atogaki at the end, you'll be itching for more Cain stories.
True to the so-called "gothic" themes of Yuki's work, the mysteries in
Wasurareta Juliet are complicated and twisted. The clues lead to all kinds of startling revelations about the true natures of seemingly innocent characters and the
perverse means by which victims seek their revenge. References to fairytales and classic stories, in this case "Cinderella" and Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", combined
with the morbid, often violent crimes Cain must solve make the Wasurareta Juliet shorts more than a little disturbing. There are also plenty of pop-culture references,
as to be expected from Yuki, in this case from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Twin Peaks". Curiously, Cain himself does not feel like a fully rounded character in these
stories. He is insightful, thorough, and a little mysterious when it comes to his work, like any good detective should be, but there isn’t much about his personality at this point
that sets him apart. In "Wasurareta Juliet" the story the reader sees that he can be emotional and sensitive, while in "Cleo Dreyfus" he is cold and threatening. Which is the real
Cain? The stories in Wasurareta Juliet are more plot than character driven, with Cain being moved by the story rather than moving the story himself. But he is such an
original character - a Victorian detective named after the first murderer, solving crimes with poison - that by the end of the volume the reader will be very curious to know more
about him.