DC has launched its manga line, CMX, with three titles. I passed on From Eroica with Love (mostly due to the truly unsettling design of the title character) and Madara (as Johanna said, it sounds too much like a video game), but I’m a sucker for shojo and snapped up a copy of Land of the Blindfolded, by Tsukuba Sakura.
It’s a tricky volume to review. Just over half of the content is from the title series. There are also two “bonus” stand-alone stories from Sakura. The Land of the Blindfolded material is perfectly competent stuff, if a bit under-realized. The bonus stories, however, are marvelous and give you a much better sense of Sakura’s gifts as a storyteller.
Land of the Blindfolded has an elegant and promising premise. Outgoing everygirl Otusaka Kanade can get glimpses of a person’s future when she makes physical contact. Naitou Arou, almost too good to be true but a bit withdrawn, can see a person’s past under the same circumstances. Kanade sees her gifts as a way to help people avoid misfortune. Arou fears Kanade will cause more trouble than she averts when she meddles. They’re both a bit right and a bit wrong in the way they view things, and the first two chapters show them reaching common ground. Beyond their shared abilities, Kanade and Arou also seem to be crushing on each other a bit.
Their dynamic gets a shift in the third chapter with the introduction of Namiki Masahiro, who shares Kanade’s ability to see the future. He doesn’t share her conscience, however, and seems more than happy to watch hapless people step in front of speeding cars. (That would take him from callow to sociopathic, in my opinion.) Kanade, the optimist, refuses to believe Masahiro would let anyone come to harm if he could prevent it. Arou knows better. Masahiro actually rather enjoys taunting future-blind Arou with dire predictions about classmates, including Kanade.
The characters are all distinct, and it’s nice to see their individual philosophies evolve with experience (even Masahiro). It’s also nice to see the girl pursued by two boys, as opposed to a more traditional role as a competitor for a boy’s affection. Unfortunately, the various elements of the story – the mysticism, the romance, the comedy — don’t mesh as well as they should. The pacing of the stories has an odd rhythm, stopping cold when it should be moving forward or racing along to the expense of smaller, more edifying moments.
Those flaws become more evident (or maybe more disappointing) when you see Sakura’s tremendous facility for thoughtful human comedy on display in the bonus stories, “After the Festival” and “The Mistaken Man.” Each story takes a charming and generous view of human foibles, the small reversals that make life interesting, and how an open heart can turn misunderstanding into good fortune.
“After the Festival” is both spectacularly romantic and wonderfully ordinary. Two students meet on a school sports day. Each steps out of traditional comfort zones to try something new, and they’re rewarded with a promising change in their lives. I would love to list all the wonderful aspects of this story, but I can’t without spoiling the effect of reading it. (Even the art is better; there’s a truly amazing sequence towards the end that made me gasp… or maybe swoon.)
“The Mistaken Man” features two friends, one chronically absent-minded, the other an amusing lothario. They come into conflict when they meet a mysterious and beautiful fellow student, and they have to overcome misunderstandings and self-interest as the story progresses. (Again, to give too much detail would be to spoil the story’s effect.)
So where does this leave me? Sakura is obviously a gifted storyteller, as evidenced by the two stand-alone stories. She can handle themes and character types central to the ongoing story with ease and inventiveness, but she hasn’t yet done so. At the same time, if Land of the Blindfolded can achieve (or approach) the level of craft as “After the Festival,” it will be something really special. And the only way for me to find that out is to buy the second volume.
Tease.