New Flavors: Sakurahime Kaden

Sakurahime Kaden
by Tanemura Arina
Sakura is a princess who lives alone with a few maids in a mansion deep in the mountains. She’s been engaged to the prince of the country since she was born. She doesn’t like that fact, as she wants to decide her fate on her own. However, one day, a messenger from the prince suddenly came to take her to the capital…

I first heard about it from wingstodust. And since she's currently so crazy about it, I got more curious about this manga since we have similar shoujo tastes. So now that I've finally checked it out . . .

DAMN YOU WINGSTODUST FOR MAKING MY SHOUJO MANGA READING LIST EVEN LONGER =P

However, it wasn't immune to typical shoujo cliches/whatsoever. Here are some of my complains, or in other words, stuff in the series that annoyed me or made me go FACEPALM:

• When I've read from the plot that the leading lady is going to be fetched by a messenger, I assumed that the leading guy (aka her destined love partner) would be the messenger whom she'll fall in love with instead of her fiance OR the messenger is actually the prince pretending to be the messenger just to surprise her. Option number two was the correct one.
• THE SAKURA CURSE CONTINUES. I don't do it intentionally, but seriously, why isn't there a leading female with the name "Sakura" that I will find likable???!!! I thought Sakura Mikan of Gakuen Alice would've been an exemption to that "rule", but she became unbearable to me later. With this manga's Sakura, I already got annoyed with her when I saw her clinging to the tree like some stupid brat then falling down from it in just a few panels. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
• If the leading girl has some serious magical destiny, that destiny would be revealed to her all of a sudden in the first chapter, then she gets to summon her power afterwards (or before that), then she'll go clumsy mode since it was her first time, but still, she will defeat the enemy successfully. WHY IS THE PATTERN ALWAYS LIKE THIS???!!!!
• IT'S MAHOU SHOUJO! Even if she's supposedly some moon princess warrior, she transforms into a girl with the same face yet different hair color and hairstyle. Her costume has to be in MINISKIRT and have to be really PRETTY and FLUFFY and FANCY!!!! There also has to be some PINK and RIBBONS!!!! She has to fight LOOKING SO GIRLY AND KYAA!!! *sarcastic*
  While her sword? It's kinda . . . PLAIN. It will only be as pretty as the heroine if IF it was a MAGICAL STICK however the story won't make sense if she will imitate the likes of Sailormoon. Come to think of it, both have connections with the moon. Thanks to the Magical Girl deal I could not take the fights seriously.
• One of the most stupid-yet-trying-to-sound-deadly weapon names I've ever heard: BLOODY CHERRY BLOSSOM
• OF COURSE even if the leading girl isn't exactly a fighter and has no battle experience, for some miracle she will be able to do cool moves and defeat the enemy like a pro!!! IT'S MAGIC!!!!
• And oh yeah, kisses in this series don't exactly equal to canon either. Two kissing scenes in this chapter, but no pairing officially canon. At least it's not the typical kiss-only-in-the-final-chapters type of series, but with this style it makes me feel that the kissings just happened for kicks. This reminds me of an Eden of the East episode. *sigh*

Actually, I have many more complains but I fail to remember them at the moment (or maybe I'm just distracted because I'm listening to the Hetalia drama cd at the moment . . ehehe). So if I have so many things to bash on this series, why the hell did I contonue reading it?

BLAME THIS GUY:

I love the leading guys that this mangaka creates! They're usually, if not always, my types!!! KYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Sapphire Pyro's biased reasons for liking Aoba:

• He is very cute when in love. And it was love since childhood. How sweeeeet! *a sucker for love since childhood romances*
• He is crack. Mwahahahahha!
• He has the yin and yang type of power! I like those stuff!
• He turns into a wolf. A WOLF! One of my top favorite animals ever! YAY!
• He is good with horses. I FREAKIN' LOVE HORSES!
• He is an archer. I have a thing for archers. Hehe.
• He is multi-talented! He's a scholar, a fighter, an artist, etc.
• Not to mention he's gorgeous! Ohohohohoho!!!!

HOW CAN I NOT FREAKIN' LOVE THIS GUY????
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another thing that I love so much from this manga:

THE COMEDY! It's so cute and crack! Hahahaha! I don't find Sakura that funny though, but her interactions with Aoba had been fun! Hehe. I love those moments when he tortures her in a flirty way. Haha! And I always enjoy couple bickerings! Wahahahaha!

Fujimaru's incredibly crack too. I love it most when he teases Aoba (like about the height! Haha!). Speaking of the crown prince . . .

SHOULD THERE ALWAYS BE A LOVE TRIANGLE IN SHOUJO MANGAS???!!!!

Well, at least in a way it wasn't your typical love triangle. The third party didn't have his one-side love with nothing happening. He was actually able to kiss her . . . in just a few chapters. Usually it's the third party who's in Aoba's position in the panel right now.

And I can't say that Fujimaru is exactly in love with Sakura. It seemed more like he wanted to protect her out of obligation as future emperor, and his liking to her is just secondary; while with Aoba, he's very damn serious about her.

BUT OF COURSE NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, MAIN COUPLE WILL STILL LOVE EACH OTHER AND THEY ARE SO GOING TO END UP TOGETHER IF THE MANGAKA PLANS A HAPPY ENDING

Even though I hate Sakura, I like the Aoba x Sakura pairing. I find them sweet and cute. Hehe.

I am slightly disappointed on what Aoba did though. If he's seriously madly in love with her, then how dare he point his arrow on her . . . even shot her and almost killed her?! He even admits that he really got mad at her for being the reason why he can't become the crown prince.

Well, at least it's different from other shoujo mangas. This is the leading guy who had the guts to kill the girl he loves (and she even finally fell in love with him for that . . . WHAT? WHOA!).

I like it for being unique but . . . I don't smell enough true love. Makes me pretty sad. Ehehe.

Speaking of love . . . could this guy be the possible new love interest . . . ?

Hhhhmm . . . I doubt though. He seems to be more like some "moon relative" of Sakura or something, but he sides with the demons instead and wants her to join him. I wish he's actually Sakura's older brother that became a monster. But then again, only the moon princesses turn into such, right? I mean, only the females. So maybe that can't possibly the case.

Oh well, whatever. I just want more background of that guy soon. I find him a pretty interesting villain.

You know, if it weren't for my biases, I might've just considered this as an average shoujo series. But thanks to those biases, I was able to read more and realize it's not exactly as bad as it seemed, even with those shoujo cliches.

The story's actually interesting. Yes, it had the shoujo cliches, but some of its twists aren't exactly that common. They were pretty good actually. I don't think I need to worry about the conclusion of the arcs/events though (because DEFINITELY things will be okay and successful no matter what happens) so it's upto HOW things happened will make this series good. It's very promising so far, so I don't think I'll be dropping this anytime soon.

As for the art, yes, it's pretty. The typical shoujo pretty with the giant glinterring eyes and flowery backgrounds and all that. But with this mangaka's art style? Those illustrations aren't just pretty, but really really GORGEOUS! Take a closer look on panels that take up a page or spread in two pages! Such magnificence. I'm awed.

Anyway, I'm positive that Tanemura fans will love this manga too. Also those who adore magical girls and pretty art and sweet love stories. Fans of the supernatural may appreciate this too since it involves demon fighting, transfigurations, etc.

I like this manga but I wasn't that hooked. Maybe it's because I'm still traumatized on the most recent Mahou Shoujo manga I've read (Shugo Chara was a big disappointment!!!! I still like the leading guy though . . . BUT STIL!!!) . . . ehehehe. So even if I'll still be reading it, I don't think I can cover it up-to-date. But it's possible for xtine06 to cover this, since she's more hyper than I am when it comes to this kind of stuff. Hehe. She adored Fullmoon o Sagashite more than I did, after all. Hehe.

Plot and Scan Source: Aerandria Scans