StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing Crimson Spell

Crimson Spell by Yamane Ayano

Wikipedia’s Description: Prince Vald is forced by circumstance to use his family’s cursed sword, and so he seeks out the services of Havi, a sorcerer to help him lift the curse. They travel to find the materials to help lift the curse. The curse is unknown to Vald, but it manifests itself as turning Vald into a bloodthirsty and lustful demon at night. Havi subdues the demon by having sex with it, and when Vald awakes, he remembers nothing.

This review is based on a copy I bought myself

StrangenessAbounds’s Review:

Here comes one of my favorite yaoi manga since I started reading: Yamane Ayano’s Crimson Spell (クリムゾン・スぺル Kurimuzon Superu). Yamane Ayano is legendary for her ability to draw the most beautiful faces and create spell-binding plots – something that many mangaka (manga artists) are not able to do. Either the art is wonderful and the story/plot suffers, or vice versa. Not so with Crimson Spell.

Within just a few pages (as seems to be Yamane’s tradition), we have our first sex scene. If you know me, you that there is little I hate more than censorship – Crimson Spell has almost no censoring. Yamane knows how to draw vivid, imaginative and frequent sex scenes. The sexuality in Crimson Spell is likely to be its biggest selling point with yaoi fans.

Of course, the art in Crimson Spell is detailed, well-drawn, and luscious. Her chibis (small, cute-ified versions of the characters) are darling and hilarious. They also serve to demonstrate emotions – such as pouting or irritation – that might not go over so well if they characters had been in their regularly drawn forms. If I had to pick my favorite characters, I’d be torn between the two main ones: Havi the sorcerer and Vald the cursed prince. Havi looks suspiciously like Sephiroth of Final Fantasy VII fame (though I suspect that the tall, long-haired, seme character has been around much longer than Sephiroth or Havi), but Vald has a sweet, innocent look about him – when he isn’t fighting or in his beast form, that is.

The story is pretty good. Towards the beginning, after our heroes first start having sex, there is a small lag in storytelling, as it’s being given over to sex and fighting. However, the story picks up soon after that and doesn’t drop the ball again. For the most part, the plot and the story are balanced.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to Crimson Spell being one of the hottest yaoi manga on the market – it actually isn’t on the market. Crimson Spell was licensed in the United States by an imprint of Kitty Media. Kitty Media has had tremendous financial problems over the past few years, and Crimson Spell, among other manga and anime, has been part of the production halt. You can find volumes one and two on places such as Amazon’s Marketplace, Half.com or eBay, but volume two is very difficult to find at a good price. Additionally, the translation that the Kitty Media imprint did was somewhat off. Hopefully, the license will be passed to a company that can retranslate Crimson Spell and distribute it as widely as possible.

So if you’re a fan of yaoi and can get your hands on a copy of Crimson Spell, I’d encourage you to do so. :)

Reviews Elsewhere:

DearAuthor.com

Mangacast at LiveJournal

Aarinfantasy

One Stop Yaoi Shop

Related posts:

1. StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing the Finder series by Ayano Yamane
2. StrangenessAbound’s 見 (Anime) & 漫 (Manga) Page: Reviewing Akira (film)
3. StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing Vampire Knight (anime/manga)
4. StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing 1001 Nights (manga)
5. StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing Blood+ (anime/manga)