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Reviewed by David Rasmussen (Based on the Original Harlequin Romance novel of the same title.) This line of books, in my personal opinion, is not for the diehard manga reader. I feel that this is one of the attempts here and there to draw non-manga readers into the manga genre, in this case an attempt to reach out and appeal to fans of the prose-style romance novel (and thus Harlequin Romance readers, once of the best known of the genre) and turn them on to romance, manga style. Of course, these days you don't need Harlequin Romance to do that, which is something they probably should have told Dark Horse when they got ahold of this old 1999 manga revision of a 1984 Harlequin Romance novel. What with creators like Amy Kim Ganter (Sorcerers and Secretaries), Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon), and so forth, the AmeriManga/OELManga genre has more than enough powerful romance to draw even the most skeptical prose fiction writer to the genre. Still, you have to give Dark Horse credit for coming up with this idea. Still, love the idea, hate the execution, as I'll go into shortly. As for the novel itself? Split into two "genres", a Pink version for T for Teen 13+ readers, and a more adult OT for Older Teen 16+ series (with a small amount of sexuality in the manga) each story is a stand alone "abridged" version of the original, edited down to the base emotion of a few-hundred-page-romance-novel-turned-120-or-so-page romance manga. The result is a beautifully done though not very imaginative manga of a niche audience romance that could have done better if it didn't chase readers away with sticker shock. In this story we find our heroine to be Sienna; her dad just passed away, and she's gone and moved to the big city of London (talked into it by her big brother, a photojournalist) to start her life anew. Working out of a temp agency, she is about to be assigned to work with this handsome manly-man/godlike person named Alexis. However, as much of a runaway romance it may seem for her, once she actually gets herself talked into kissing, then hugging, then a roll in the hay/bed with him, everything goes horribly wrong. Seems he blames HER brother for raping HIS beloved sister, and this was his idea of revenge against her brother. Turns out the only person he needs to hate seems to be… mostly himself. He finds himself the chance to confront the evil brother, only for the sister to finally admit that she was raped by Alexis' friend (now quite dead from an accident) which kinda bums out Alexis. Doesn't help that he's talking with Sienna when she runs away from him into traffic where she's run over by a taxi. Next thing you know he's all guilt-ridden and marrying her, whisking her off (amnesia and all) to his private island to help her recover. Sure, she may recover and heal… though maybe it's not just her who needs to be healing, and maybe learning something from this whole experience. In the end, as any good romance should, love conquers all and there's going to be a happy ending… aww… and no I'm not mocking the book, I like it when there are happy endings. Really. Unfortunately this is more of a book you'd get your prose-reading significant other (one who reads all the romance novels they stack on supermarket bookracks near the entrance of the store) to turn her on to the wide world of manga. The reverse, however, is not true. With better reads out there like Sorcerers and Secretaries and so forth, I can't help but feeling this is a read to make new conversions (NOT to please the already-converted). It's nice and all, but at times runs slowly and lacks any of the real spice and kick of a well-written manga romance book. The worst thing, however, is the price. This thing's "color" is a gimmicky premise of coloring all the pages in the age-specific color code (pink pages if this is a T for Teen title, violet pages if this is the OT for Older Teen title). This means Dark Horse is asking you to drop $10 per read, but since this book would only appeal to the as-yet uninitiated in the ways of manga, I don't see any diehards dropping $10 for only a so-so read with a rather modest amount of appeal. The gimmick should have been dropped, and the book made more along the line of TOKYOPOP's $6 line, or perhaps Papercutz' two-stories-a-book-for-$8 fare. Either way, the price is more in line with what I'd expect to pay for a 100-or-so page book (a bit more if it's Papercutz format), and not this $10 drop for a title that will only rate a so-so score for its content. Anyway, this whole topic may be moot, since nobody seems to know whether or not Dark Horse is still doing this line or not. A so-so read that is only slightly appealing… that should rate a C if I guess correctly, so that's the score I'm giving this one: a C for effort, but not much in the way of real tempting power. Comment on this review of Harlequin Ginger Blossom Violet: Response on the Manga Life Forums. |
7 May 2008
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