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5/01/2012

Manga Tuesdays; Sakura-Gari


Manga:  Sakura-Gari (The hunt for cherry blossoms)

Written by:  Watase Yuu
Genres:  Tragedy, History, Psylochical, Yaoi, Josei, Mature
Volumes:  3
Anime: nope
own/ library/ borrowed/ read online (it wasn't in my language so I used the internet to help me understand the story)
completed/ ongoing
publisher: Shogakukan Inc.





Summary:During the Taisho era (1911-1925), 17-year-old Tagami Masataka hoped to integrate in a preparatory school in Tokyo. In order to provide for himself, he became a servant to the Soma family. Their 25-year-old son, Saiki, is scheming while his family hides dark secrets.Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=9867

Review:
At first it was a little bit difficult to read, because I don't know a thing about the Taisho era, at least, that's what I thought, it turned out I was thinking way too difficult...

The story is about Masataka and his master and the young master of the house: Souma Saiki (from now on referred to as Souma), who is wanted by everyone, because of his doll-like looks. Masataka moves in as a servant in the household of Souma to earn money to pay his school fees and he finds out there's something strange going on with this household. So have almost all servant run away and has wife of the master (not the mother of Souma, he's an illegitimate child) of the family committed suicide He gets along great with Souma, he even sees him as an old brother, but still everyone keeps telling him he should run away. But Masataka, who was sold when he was little and after that brought up in  a family where he would always come second because of his sickly younger brother, is to happy that someone finally likes him. After an accident with a former employee of the family in the old resident of the lady, this resident gets on fire and Masataka saves a young girl who was locked inside. He had never seen this girl before, but she turns out to be Soumas half sister. She tells him that Souma killed her mother and to look inside box inside the old resident and that's how Masataka finds out that Souma is having sex with people for the company of his father and later his own company, but also killed people. But Souma catches him looking around and rapes him, though he loves him. After that Masataka is frightened of Souma, while Souma keeps raping him, unable to express his love otherwise. As the story continues, Masataka gets more messed up and Souma eventually stops raping him, but keeps touching him, so Masataka won't gain his trust in Souma again. It isn't till the last chapter that the two make up, but still the story has a sad ending which I won't spoil for you :).

Well as you see of the length of my summary (I write a longer summary because then I'm like: o, o, this was also beautiful, they also have to read this!), I quite loved this manga. It's was a beautiful tragedy and for ones it really ended like a tragedy should, at least, that's what I thought (I cried really hard and that's what should happen). I really loved how messed up the characters were/became and how I wasn't bothered by the fact that it was a historical story. The art was beautiful, although I thought that there wasn't a lot of difference between the really beautiful people and the just normal people, which is why you really had to know that Souma-sama is doll-like looking.  

Rating:
4.5 stars (not 5 because it's too damn early in the morning)

Some things about manga for non-manga readers :P :

Manga is a Japanese cartoon or comic. There are lots of them in all kind of different genres (really from porn to manga for little girls). Of most mangas there is a new chapter released every month, so that's why some are ongoing (it also can be that the translation group is a bit slow. DON'T EVER GET ANGRY BECAUSE OF THAT THOUGH! Manga's are translated by volunteers, and not very much people speak both English and Japanese well enough to translate them. If your bothered by it, join such a group! They are always looking for new members! Also editors and cleaners are needed!).
If you are too lazy to read, of most mangas there is an anime to watch ;)
If you consider reading manga pay attention! Manga is written from right to left!

some terms:
Shoujo= Manga for mostly teenage girls (it can be very childish, it can be really mature)
Shounen= Manga for mostly teenage boys (example: Naruto )
Josei= Manga for older women (the manga site says: late teenage and adult audiences, this is usually because the characters in the manga are not in high school anymore, this doesn't mean it's not fun to read if you are younger)
Seinen= Manga for older men (also for late teenage and adult audiences, also usually fun to read if you're younger)
School life= is sometimes quite interesting because the japanese school life seems very different than what I am used to
Shoujoai= girls love
Shounenai= boys love
Yuri = let's just say: the more advanced version of girls love
Yaoi= the more advanced version of boys love

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