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Tuesday 27 May 2014

Otogi Taisen Phantasma

It's rare that I actually recommend a manga, but this one's pretty good. It's also but the author of Kyousou no Simulacra, which is also good. Basic Summary: Guy discovers he's a prince of a magical kingdom; and now the King since his father died recently. Some people want to protect him, some people want to assassinate him. 

Despite the lackluster summary, the series makes up for it in terms of its characters. Much like D-Frag, the series is very character-dependent, with a boke and tsukkomi kind of humour running throughout the entire comic. The main character, as usual, is the tsukkomi, reacting as the straightman to many of the quirky casts outrageous antics. 

The cast seems to be mostly based on fairytales or legends from around the world, with the main female protagonist called Kaguya (ie. Kaguya-Hime) and with others being based off Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White (who's a bloodthirsty Swat-like commando) etc etc. 



This is made even more evident with their powers, which come from a Type-moon like ranking system in which most magic users are able to gain the powers from Fairy Tales. 

So far, the plot is still fairly slow-paced in the 6 chapters that have been released in english so far. However, it's an enjoyable enough read because the characters are just pretty humorous, especially when you have lots of running gags throughout the show. Such as how Cinderella always says she'd rather die than surrender and Ibara; being the S that she is, then remarks 'what admirable resolve'.

Or there's Jirou, or Jeremy as he prefers to be called, the younger brother of the main character and hence the 2nd-in-line to the throne. However, he has such an inferiority complex that he hates his name Jirou (which implies 2nd) and keeps getting everyone to call him Jeremy.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Yoshimura Hideaki story without some deeper hints at eldritch abominations. Such as the main characters own magical ability, which summons a giant mecha-looking knight that is capable of dispelling magic. However, in chapter 6, you get a look at the eyes of the knight and it generally doesn't look good. It should be interesting to see what happens or just what his power really is. It might hit the unknown tiers; such as elder gods or something. This is definitely a manga I will be keeping an eye out for.

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