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phantomthiefjeanne · 7 years ago

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My Top 5 Arina Tanemura Series

This is a rather loaded question, so get ready for A List that Massively Overcomplicates What Should Have Been a Simple, One-and-done Affair! Ft. extensive reviews of all the series named.

This is a very subjective list, but I do try and work in what is objectively high quality vs. what I simply Like (which imo is just as important in a genre that’s all about fluttery hearts and feeeelings!). Mild spoilers for Tanemura’s work ahead.

#5: Full Moon O Sagashite

Cue gasps from the peanut gallery for what some (especially international audiences) might consider Tanemura’s magnum opus being ranked so low. Here’s the thing: if this list had been about objective quality, I would concede that this series is too good for just spot five. But since this is about personal favourites, FMoS still straddles the bottom of my own list of bests only because I read it in a time in my life when the themes of cancer! and death! just didn’t sit well when I had to confront those demons in real life as well as on the page. Such personal biases might have also explained why I never fully connected with the characters: Mitsuki, sweet child she is, felt too idealistic for a girl who’d been my age and going through similar struggles, like a distant fairytale princess. I loved and admired her but never fully stepped into her shoes, creating a disconnect the rest of the equally lovable cast could never overcome.

The “She Knew!!” Twist was a game changer in my perception of Mitsuki and the series, however, and the series remains a showcase of what Tanemura does best: classic-literature-worthy monologues, true-to-life humour (because no real life tragedy is all gloom and doom!), and breathlessly emotive art. It’s a love letter to and deconstruction of a tropey genre in equal measure; Full Moon takes the Pierrot idols by STORM in showing that transforming into a new body can mean more than just surface-level wish fulfillment for some in our society. Its shinigami mythology deftly communicates heavy themes without getting bogged down by irrelevant details, and the pacing balances its diverse plot lines without tonal whiplash—not an easy task to do so seamlessly when you really consider how ambitious and complex the series’ premise is.

For one, it definitely runs the Tragic Back Story Gamut in a more organic manner than SHK, letting the past actually affect the present in a satisfyingly circular way. And the romance! If you squint past some of the more forceful scenes and the Takuto-age-debacle, it’s got one of the most wholly original main pairings around, swoony and engrossing because of the tragedy edging in on the sides and the Found Family aspect, but also because you’re never quiiiite sure until the very end if you’re getting the happy ending less creative shoujo setups promise. And, confession: even though FMoS is #5 here, I actually like its anime adaption better than my precious KKJ’s. It had music worthy of its source material and changes that didn’t completely uproot what the illusively elaborate manga stood for.

#4: Time Stranger Kyoko

TSK could have been good. Like, really, really good. It’s an exercise in What Could Have Been, if only the editorial staff had given the series a chance to settle into its voice, yes, but also if Tanemura had exercised more focus and constraint in her execution of this weird, weird tale’s starting chapters. I’ve heard reviewers call it confusing on a worldbuilding level, and I’d be inclined to agree, but the logistical ramifications of its admittedly scattered lore are captivating. The details of the Earth Kingdom’s technology and governing system might be questionable, but the details Arina embeds in the relationships between the central love triangle, the intersections of the twelve strangers’ side stories with that of the main one (the witch story in SDC, actually Yume’s story upon conception, is proof of how lovely even the stories we never got to see were D:), and the heroine’s unconventional personality (they say they cut the series short because of her?! every complaint about Tanemura’s heroines being too heroic, too candy-like should be addressed to the editors that shut down Kyoko—the girl who struggles to connect with the tragedies in her friends’ lives because she’s never experienced strife like that and can’t will tragedy upon herself or anything! That’s. So. Relatable. To readers! And relevant to the very tropes Tanemura plays with! AUGHHHH!) elevate the manga waaaay above your standard MacGuffin Hunt, which could have been interesting in itself when you have all of time as well as space to explore. The fact that the rushed ending not only makes story-sense but feels emotionally satisfying, like you wouldn’t even have guessed there was that much behind-the-scenes drama to what’s presented, proves Tanemura’s talent as a storyteller.

Still, you can’t give an award to the imagined greatness of What Could Have Been, and Tanemura’s storytelling wasn’t entirely faultless in inciting what was essentially the series’ cancellation. As entertaining as they were, characters like the thieves and Chocola detracted from the story’s forward momentum and frankly made the series strange in ways that weren’t creative but rather just uncomfortable. The inexplicably incessant focus on the harassment of the teenaged girl characters unsettled me—odd for a series that contains one of the sweetest, most consensual pairings in Arina’s career.

Kyoko and Sakataki, as a couple but also as separate characters, saved so much else about the series for me. The brash, lazy princess and her stoic, loyal knight...They’re such well-established characters that even with the mounds of untold chapters, you can sort of fill in the blanks on what their love line and separate characters arcs Could Have Been.

And also, since this is a list of my self-indulgent personal favourites, I just really love elementalists and twins, y’all. TSK has BOTH elementalists AND twins, PLUS angsty brothers and secret royalty trying to blend in in high school (it was only the first chapter, but whatever). TSK checks so many of my boxes. That’s why it ranks so high despite its flaws.

#3: Sakura Hime Kaden / Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura

Full disclosure: I grew up with Asian period dramas, with its stunning sets and sweeping costumes. Sometimes they had demons and magic swords. Sometimes they just dealt with the cutthroat machinations of palace politics. Either way, I loved them, and so how could I not love Tanemura’s take on the genre with a series that deals with BOTH?!

SHK’s pacing gets so muddled later in its run you can see the boom mike and stunt wires trying to very mechanically drive the once-promising series to an abrupt end, and the lack of very distinct features in the main character’s personality made it hard to sympathize with her as her destructive fate came into fruition…

but Y’ALL. As a period fantasy and romance and showcase of East Asian myths and even as a shounen manga, something the series is technically not, it is a MASTER CLASS. Tanemura excels in taking what you expect and not so much as stomping on those expectations as much as perfecting them and filtering out the impurities holding them back. Tanemura’s art is also at the top of its game here; the drama and dynamism her detailed style and heavy screen tones deliver fit the series like a glove. The perfunctory bumps along the way to the expansive legend Arina is trying to tell are disregardable in light of how epic and original this series is. With its massive cast of demons and royalty and everything in between, it tries to do a LOT, and for everything it does wrong, it does twenty other things right—and most of the time, it’s the first to do it, in what might be the only period-magical girl series out there.

Its strengths are especially evident in the first three volumes, before the story is bogged down by the Princess Rescue arc, which caused a halt in forward momentum that the series never really recovers from. These starting chapters are perfectly paced, with gorgeous worldbuilding (the soul symbols! what a clever character device!) and deliciously dark stakes that seem to get higher and higher without running out of steam—and we haven’t even met our main villain yet!

As interesting as the main villain is, though (I absolutely despise him but understand where he’s coming from—finally, Arina has broken the Weak Villains curse she and the MCU had both been cursed by), the introduction of him and his demon posse bloats the series to the point where, like TSK, we get sad about What Could Have Been because a lot of what these beginning chapters achingly builds up to, like the xenophobic tension between the emperor and the demons, or Asagiri’s character arc regarding personal sacrifices, falls to the wayside in favour of later, less promising developments.

BUT STILL. Those beautiful transformations. The unconventional way Sakura and Aoba’s swoony romance unfolds (even if the Yuri arc was misplaced). The lush costumes and backdrops. The breathless revelations Tanemura doles out with ease throughout...SHK is severely underrated in the overseas fandom, in my opinion, and I highly implore everyone to at least give the 12-volume series a try, especially now that the series is complete and you won’t wreck your heart agonizing at the cliffhangers between the chapters. If you think you’ve grown out of Tanemura, SHK might just change your mind. It’s dark without being cynical, with a heroine who proudly exclaims that she loves the sensation of just BEING ALIVE even as the world collapses around her. Maron and Mitsuki would be proud.

#2: The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross / Shinshi Doumei Cross

In the grand tradition of Hana Yori Dango, and the Heirs and Gossip Girl-types that followed, GAC is a story about the dramatic lives of rich kids at a rich school, with Cinderella imagery to boot.

But this is an Arina Tanemura series, so YOU KNOW it’s going to take the outdated, melodramatic clichés that plague such seemingly unintellectual stories, like birth secrets and arranged marriages, and turn them into something new and deeply meaningful…just like how the Fairy Godmother makes magic happen with Cinderella’s old rags.

The junk-food quality of other (to borrow a word from Korean dramas) “makjang” Cinderella stories is still there, to ensure maximum entertainment and enthralment, but with SDC and the surprisingly deep themes it has to convey, we discover that it was never the genre itself or even its well-worn tropes that was lazy—it was the previous writers, who could never quite pace character arcs or plant plot twists in the masterful manner Arina does. Ouran takes standard shoujo tropes and parodies them. SDC makes a convincing argument defending them by showing how, in the right hands, these devices can work and work well without irony.

Is the series unrealistic? Sure, but instead of treating it like the simplistic slice-of-life it was never meant to be, read it from the lens you’d use for a lore-heavy fantasy novel or palace drama, and you’ll see the genius in Arina’s intricate storytelling, ambitious themes, and breathtaking academy politics. It’s got surprisingly nuanced messages to convey about relationships of all kinds (not just romance!) and enough self-respect to never repeat a plot line, never let a character remain a stereotype, never let the story be as simple as “plucky girl falls in love with cold heir”… The situations the characters are thrown in may not be familiar to us, but their emotions always are. These emotions bounce off the page and speak volumes even when we’re reading between the lines—even when they’re so heart wrenchingly, humanly complex only one of Tanemura’s transcendent analogies could do them justice.

SDC is shoujo at its best: fluffy and fun, but even when your heart gets on its rollercoaster to sink and fly per a wave of Fairy Godmother Tanemura’s magic pen, your brain comes along for the ride. You get as much out of SDC intellectually as you would emotionally—and that’s a whole lot.

(Now if only I could get that live action adaption!)

(Also, btw for those who haven’t read it, SDC is a little funky with its LGBTQ+ representation. It’s there (I saw my bi daughter Ushio’s cameo in idol dreams the other day, and CRIED), and it’s mostly positive, but definitely a lil tone-deaf and misguided. Just a forewarning. This is also partially why this series isn’t #1.)

#1: Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne / Phantom Thief Jeanne

I don’t really need to write a blurb on why I love KKJ, do I? This whole blog, despite it being my personal, already feels like a 7-year-old shrine to the series. I’ve talked a bit about my relationship with the series here and here. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever divulged on Tumblr how important this series is to my very core, however: at a time when I was having the darkest of thoughts and my family came tumbling down around me, I took solace in reading and re-reading KKJ. I looked up to Maron but connected with her as well; at a time when I felt abandoned, she showed me how to survive...because it’s ok not to thrive 100% of the time. You can see in Arina’s freetalks, for better and for worst, she really put her truest self into the pages of the manga. It remains to be one of the rawest works of fiction I’ve ever read–and thanks to KKJ itself, I was able to move on from that dark period and later interact with Pretentiously Serious Fiction in my academic career, but nothing’s ever quite hit the genuineness and vulnerability Tanemura expresses within KKJ’s 7 volumes.

Even when Maron’s lessons ended, the series introduced me to an online community that I can honestly say saved my life. The debt I owe to KKJ as a reader, a creator, and a living human being is immense.

And that’s not even getting into how good it genuinely is, you guys. Even if you aren’t big on Tanemura’s nuanced approach to human feelings and sweeping universal truths about the human connection, you gotta admire the genius of her pacing. The series is so fluid, with no moving parts missing nor extraneous–a rarity in this genre. KKJ’s plot twists and character arcs unspool organically, with unmatched grace. Looking at some of the male characters’ actions, I’ll admit it’s not perfect, but the experience it provides very well may be. Dear reader, even if KKJ is not your #1, I hope your #1 book, song, film, whatever provides you with the same kind of sanctuary that KKJ was for me, way back when.

As if this list wasn’t long enough, some honourable mentions:

Almost made the cut: (Absolute awakening angels) Mistress Fortune It’s so cute! And does what it sets out to do so well! It’s a short, sweet romcom starring a magical girl duo...what more could you want? I used to agonize over how the side story left their feelings (Arina had promised to go back to them! She’d PROMISED!) but after having lived, loved, and learned past the duo’s age bracket, I totally get it now, Kisaki. I do.

Now if only Giniro hadn’t been quite so forceful, and if the weight loss plot lines could have been dropped entirely...

Favourite oneshot: The Short-Tempered Melancholic I love both parts of this duology! Even if it’s straightup silly in what I think is supposed to be feminism, the romance is adorable and it’s ultimately inoffensive. Like with Kyoko, the well-crafted heroine and hero carry this one home, and I wouldn’t have minded an entire series just about them and those ninja hijinks. Runner-up for oneshots would be Shoujo Eve: 24 Hours.

Favourite *new* Arina series: Idol Dreams/ 31 idream The pacing’s a little messy and the story’s logistics don’t quite click as well as, say, FMoS, but of the smaller projects Arina has taken on since SHK, this one’s definitely my favourite. Even with all of its cameos and references, it stands alone well enough as a good josei series, rather than a TanemuraTM series. As with KKJ, here she tackles subjects that feel personal to her, and the authenticity works.

Phew! That was probably more than you asked for, which is why I left this post until Reading Week to write. As well as a Top 5 list, I think this doubles as a Top Recommendations list–so feel free to message me if you’re interested in anything I listed! ;)

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