And now for something entirely different.

[moonsheen]

She was a pretty thing, even so young. With her hands folded primly in her lap and her head tilted, she seemed like she belonged in a painting. Her smile was what any normal person might call blithe, but her eyes were awake. It was the first thing Graham noticed about her, and it was what set him on edge. Deep, brown eyes watched his every movement, and his every shift with great fascination.

"It is nice to finally meet you, Graham," Sara declared, and her gaze lifted a moment to follow Tiara as she retreated. That tall dark boy, Kagetsu, was waiting by the old gate. Graham had been watching too, in quick nervous jerks of his head that he couldn’t disguise as anything else but anxious. He didn’t want his magic user to go, and he couldn’t help but feel a little abandoned in this new, strange situation.

"It’s allright," the girl in front of him continued, serenely. Those eyes were quick studies, "…Kagetsu will take care of her."

There was something about those words that Graham didn’t like.

"It…Is…Nice to meet you too, Miss Sa-ra," he answered slowly, ducking his head as he remembered Tiara’s careful instructions. He was to be on his best behavior; Sara was, after all, very important to her.

Sara looked pleased. "Thank you."




I like Shamanic Princess even if it's confusing, I'm probably missing a hell of a lot by not knowing anything about the novel it was based on, and it's about as obscure a title as they get. I recommend it at least for it's art. It's like CLAMP, except not.

Tiara, the main character, is a bitch. She's irrational, foul-tempered, haughty, a spoiled brat, and she's one of the more interesting anime heroines for it. She's powerful, she knows it, and she seems to genuinely enjoy flinging that power around. It's no surprise that it manifests itself as an utterly possesive, utterly wicked force that almost drives her mad--as she was forced to face it at a very young age. Still, she overestimates the power she has over her own emotions, which completely rule her. She THINKS she has the power to kill Kagetsu, but when she's finally faced with him she doubts herself. When she's faced with SARA she completely falls apart. She's the exact opposite of her counterpart, Lena, who thinks things through and mostly keeps a straight face even in the worst of situations.

Rewatching it, I really love the relationship between Tiara and Sara. It's always seemed like Tiara had LIKE liked Kagetsu well enough (at least until he ran off on her), but she LOVED Sara. Of course, there's also the Tiara and Lena rivalry/friendship, which is like a much more elegant, much bustier version of Ino and Sakura, right down to picking flowers together as little kids.

Then there's Graham. Tiara's one-eyed, half-mad, half bishounen former familiar who's breif story almost made me cry. He won my heart for trying to strangle Kagetsu (who I actually like, but who does a few undeniably STUPID things), laughing hysterically, and then rolling over and sobbing all in about the span half a minute.

There's a lot of mixed jealousy and admiration between these characters. There's a lot of beautiful scenes with magic just coiling around like something alive. There's Graham. There's...The obligatory furry sidekick. But he's not so bad! really! (He's a FERRET.) And there's some glimpses at a VERY interesting world, with equally interesting/mysterious diety at the center of all of its workings.

There's also mirror-image molestation and wings. But we've all seen THAT before.