Fairy Cube
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is a ''shōjo'' (targeted towards girls) fantasy manga written and illustrated by
Kaori Yuki is a Japanese manga artist best known for her gothic manga such as ''Earl Cain'', its sequel ''Godchild'', and ''Angel Sanctuary''. Yuki debuted professionally in 1987 with , which ran in the manga anthology ''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' published ...
. Appearing as a serial in the Japanese
manga magazine Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...
''
Hana to Yume , also known as , is a semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha on the 5th and 20th of every month. The magazine is B5-size, and always comes with or free supplements, such as drama CDs, pencil boards (shitajiki), manga ...
'' from February 2005 to 2006, the ''Fairy Cube'' chapters were collected into three bound volumes by
Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV ...
and published from October 2005 to July 2006. A related short story, "Psycho Knocker", appeared in the October 2004 issues of the same magazine. Yuki began ''Fairy Cube'' with the intent of writing a shorter manga. Set in a fictional universe in which a fairy-inhabited
Otherworld The concept of an otherworld in historical Indo-European religion is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other Earth/world"), a term used by Lucan in his description of the Celtic Otherworld ...
exists alongside present-day Earth, the series focuses on Ian Hasumi, a teenager who can see fairies, and his childhood friend Rin. After Ian's body is stolen from him, he starts on a journey to reclaim it and soon finds himself in conflict with a group of fairies who hope to capture the Earth by opening a pathway from the Otherworld.
Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
licensed ''Fairy Cube'' for an English-language release in North America. It previewed the series in its manga anthology ''
Shojo Beat ''Shojo Beat'' is a manga magazine formerly published in North America by Viz Media. Launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine for '' Shonen Jump'', it featured serialized chapters from six manga series, as well as articles on Japanese cult ...
'' and released the series from May 2008 to November 2008. A digital edition was published in 2011. Another English translation has been published by
Chuang Yi Chuang Yi Publishing Pte Ltd. ( zh, s=创艺出版社) was a publishing company based in Singapore that specialized in producing domestic and imported comics and comics-related merchandise in English and simplified Chinese. Chuang Yi distributed ...
in Singapore, and the series has been translated into several other languages. The series received a range of reviews: reviews of the first volume were generally positive, although the reviewers differed in their thoughts on the conclusion. The final volume placed in ICv2's list of the top 300 bestselling graphic novels for November 2008.


Plot

''Fairy Cube'' takes place in a fictional universe in which an
Otherworld The concept of an otherworld in historical Indo-European religion is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other Earth/world"), a term used by Lucan in his description of the Celtic Otherworld ...
, inhabited by a variety of fairies and other nonhuman entities, exists alongside present-day Earth. The series focuses on , a timid fifteen-year-old who sees fairies—invisible to normal people—and is stalked by , a spiteful spirit only he can see. In his
backstory A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...
, it is revealed that before the start of the series, his mother, left, causing his novelist father, , to burn wing marks on Ian's back to prevent him from doing the same. , Ian's abused childhood friend and secret "crush", later returns to the city where he lives after being separated for years. Stumbling upon the scene of a murder and seeing a man retrieve a cube from the victim's body, Ian follows him back to an antique shop, where the man, actually a
Gancanagh A gancanagh () () is a male fairy from the mythology of Northern Ireland, known for seducing women. Etymology The name has been rendered under various spellings including geancánach or ganconer. Sources collected from County Meath by the Iri ...
named , gives him Tokage's fairy cube—a cube belonging to a fairy that can allow the fairy to take over the human who has it. Soon after, Ian is killed by his own father, who was manipulated by Tokage, and now exists as a spirit, with Tokage possessing his body. Returning to Kaito's shop and after a trip through the Otherworld with , a small yet powerful and vicious fairy in love with Kaito, Ian takes control of the body of a deceased young boy, . Moved by his determination, Ainsel agrees to aid him in his quest to regain his body. Along the way, Ian encounters his maternal aunt , a
leanan sídhe The ' (; gd, leannan sìth, gv, lhiannan shee; ) is a figure from Irish Folklore. She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the ''Aos Sí'' ("people of the barrows") who takes a human lover. Lovers of the ''leannán sídhe'' are said to live brie ...
like Kureha, who explains that Kureha left before she completely drained the life force of Kazumi; , a
cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...
girl born in the Otherworld who, as the chairperson for the multi-million
land development Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing * Subdividing real estate into lots, typically for the purpose ...
company Gotoh Group, aims to restore the environment for the fairies; and , Shira's supernatural bodyguard whose clan guards a "demon door". Additionally, Ian learns that Tokage grew up in the Otherworld, abandoned by his parents Kureha and Kazumi, but loved by a non-native fairy; when his village tried to sacrifice him to the god of war and death, he slaughtered them and the god escaped. To infiltrate Gotoh Group, Rin allows herself to be captured, and under the pretense of a beauty contest, the company plans to harvest the energy of the fairy cubes and bystanders to open a "demon door" to the Otherworld. Ian rescues Rin, and the fairy god
Balor In Irish mythology, Balor or Balar was a leader of the Fomorians, a group of malevolent supernatural beings. He is often described as a giant with a large eye that wreaks destruction when opened. Balor takes part in the Battle of Mag Tuired, a ...
is revealed to be inhabiting the body of Shira's bedridden father and behind the plan. Ian eventually returns to his body through fairy magic, while Eriya's body accepts Tokage. Having been held captive by Gotoh for most of the series, Kureha appears and before dying, reveals that Tokage is Ian's stillborn twin. Shira is killed after cutting Balor's life-line, and Raven realizes that his fiancée, whom Kaito had seduced, had actually unsealed the demon door prior to the start of the series, angry with the two for playing with her feelings. Ainsel, secretly the consciousness of the door's sealing spell, and Kaito die together as a sacrifice to seal the demon door, as Ian and Rin help by letting the people of earth glimpse the fairies and using the energy of their belief.


Development

Manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...
Kaori Yuki is a Japanese manga artist best known for her gothic manga such as ''Earl Cain'', its sequel ''Godchild'', and ''Angel Sanctuary''. Yuki debuted professionally in 1987 with , which ran in the manga anthology ''Bessatsu Hana to Yume'' published ...
's earlier, related short manga "Psycho Knocker" appeared in the October 2004 issues of the Japanese ''shōjo'' (targeted towards girls)
manga magazine Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...
''
Hana to Yume , also known as , is a semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha on the 5th and 20th of every month. The magazine is B5-size, and always comes with or free supplements, such as drama CDs, pencil boards (shitajiki), manga ...
'' published twice a month. It focuses on a
pessimistic Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empt ...
, heartbroken teenager who makes a pact with a lonely ghost, unknowingly exchanging her life for two wishes. Chasing down spirits that have escaped from the demon door, Raven and Tokage rescue her from the ghost, a young girl who died suddenly, and seal a spirit which feeds on negative emotions. Yuki wrote the story as a reminder to herself not to be so pessimistic, a trait she shares with the teenage protagonist. Yuki started ''Fairy Cube'' with the goal of writing a short series. Because of the story's nature as a serial, she faced page limitations. When deciding on the ending, she considered having Ian and Rin as the sacrifice to close the demon door, but rejected it, feeling that it would be too unpleasant for the readers, although she expressed her fondness for sad endings. She was also unable to include Ian and Tokage's newfound friendship, because Rin and Ian's romantic relationship served as the focus of the story.


Release

The eighteen chapters of ''Fairy Cube'' appeared as a serial in ''Hana to Yume'' from February 2005 to 2006.
Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV ...
collected the chapters into three bound volumes and published them from October 19, 2005, to July 19, 2006. At the 2007
Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...
, a convention held in
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
,
Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
announced that it had licensed ''Fairy Cube'' for an English-language release in North America. Viz included a preview of ''Fairy Cube'' in the April 2008 issue of its manga anthology ''
Shojo Beat ''Shojo Beat'' is a manga magazine formerly published in North America by Viz Media. Launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine for '' Shonen Jump'', it featured serialized chapters from six manga series, as well as articles on Japanese cult ...
'', and published the series from May 6, 2008, to November 4, 2008. A digital edition of the series was also released in 2011. The series is also licensed in Singapore by
Chuang Yi Chuang Yi Publishing Pte Ltd. ( zh, s=创艺出版社) was a publishing company based in Singapore that specialized in producing domestic and imported comics and comics-related merchandise in English and simplified Chinese. Chuang Yi distributed ...
, and published in several other languages, among them German, Italian, and French.


Volume list


Reception

The final volume placed at the 221st spot on ICv2's list of the top 300 bestselling graphic novels for November 2008, with an estimated 516 copies sold. Writing for ''
School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...
'', Cara von Wrangel Kinsey found ''Fairy Cube'' "more accessible than Yuki's previous works," despite covering subjects such as murder and revenge. A. E. Sparrow of
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave the first volume a favorable review, enjoying the series' different view of the fairies. Mania Entertainment's Danielle Van Gorder wrote that the story reminded her of the pre-Victorian version of the fairytale "
Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
" or the British Sidhe fairies, in her review of the first volume. Van Gorder worried that the cover would mislead readers into believing that it was "a light and fluffy kind of story" and drive away the target audience. In a follow-up review of the final volume, she wrote that the conclusion of the series was less confusing than that of Yuki's earlier work ''
Angel Sanctuary is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki. It was serialized in the Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Hana to Yume'' from July 1994 to October 2000. It follows Setsuna Mudo, a human teenager who, as the rein ...
'' (1994–2000) and thought the story was "well-executed," though it still had some flaws. Rating the series 3 out of 4 stars, Jason Thompson, author of '' Manga: The Complete Guide'' (2007), wrote that while it reminded him of ''Angel Sanctuary'', it covered "more original subject matter" and had "tighter" plotting.
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
's Casey Brienza highly recommended the first volume, praising her inclusion of
Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a ...
. She enjoyed the plot and described the cover as beautiful, though she disliked the artistic inconsistencies caused by Yuki's use of assistants. According to Katherine Dacey of PopCultureShock in her review of the first volume, the story succeeded through Yuki's use of "outlandish touches," creating "an intoxicating—if occasionally ridiculous—mix of horror, romance, and revenge." In her review of the final volume, Dacey expressed her feelings of annoyance that the characters spent much of the volume talking with very little action, and wrote that the story, despite a promising start, went downhill with the introduction of the beauty contest in the second volume. Categorizing "Psycho Knocker" as "comeuppance theater," she enjoyed it more than ''Fairy Cube''s conclusion, though still wrote that "it isn't her best work." A reviewer of the French edition disliked how quickly the story progressed, commenting that the protagonists' personalities were not fully explored as a result. The reviewer praised the covers of the first and third volumes as "magnificent".


Notes


References


External links


''Fairy Cube''
at Viz Media's website * {{Hana to Yume 2005 manga Dark fantasy anime and manga Hakusensha manga Kaori Yuki Shōjo manga Viz Media manga