Cruel Fairytales by Kaori Yuki

Synopsis: “The Angel and the Witches” is an old fairytale, in which a Girl was saved by the Angel from the hungry Witches of the Secret Forest, or so it is supposed. 11 years ago the Master of Aluked Castle lost his sister in the forest, after she got lost he summons to the Castle, girls that are similar to her; right age, blue eyes and blond hair. But once the girls enter the Castle they are never to be seen again. What is the secret of the Castle and it’s Master? And what is the connection between the Master of Aluked Castle and the “The Angel and the Witches” fairytale?

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Kaori Yuki’s fans rejoice. This was her second manga to be released. And like any other of her works, it’s dark and filled with twists. This is a rather short story (2 chapters only), but it is amazing what Kaori Yuki can do in a few pages, she can give you a story, a cast of interesting characters, an atmosphere and a masterpiece for a conclusion. This is probably the strongest and most important thing to evaluate from this manga, the execution. No aspect is left behind or forgotten, there are no plot holes, no main character underdeveloped and it is unpredictable.

While the art was almost flawless, there where some scenes I couldn’t even guess what just happened, probably because most of the scenes are dark, both in atmosphere (although I like this) and in coloring, another problem is that the artwork is somewhat outdated. Yet this are just minor problems since the artwork is filled with detail and it is easy to get used to.

No main character is left behind, all of them have a past, and a dark one, although I feel it would have turned out better if their pasts where discovered with out the rush, while this makes the manga shocking, in a good way, it may have done more good to the series if this rushed feeling where not to exist or maybe, just maybe, I just want to continue reading more about the characters and more about the story. You be the judge of that. But I did wanted to learn more about them and those secondary characters.

As for the story, you can expect a solid, well developed and twisted story in the good way. Worthy of Kaori Yuki the story has a bit of everything; love, drama, suspense and comedy. After I read this series, I couldn’t avoid thinking on what I just read and how would I say that this manga is excellent, I rolled on my bed for 20 minutes, thinking, thinking and thinking some more. I even had trouble writing the summary and the review because I wanted to be extra careful to avoid spoilers.