Shadow Lady

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Shadow Lady


caption =
ja_name = シャドウレディ
ja_name_trans = Shadō Redi
genre = Magical girlInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Masakazu Katsura
publisher = Shueisha
publisher_other = flagicon|France Editions Tonkam
flagicon|Italy Star Comics
flagicon|Mexico Grupo Editorial Vid
flagicon|Spain Norma Editorial, Planeta DeAgostini
flagicon|United States Dark Horse Comics
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = Weekly Shōnen Jump
first = 1995
last = 1996
volumes = 3

nihongo|"Shadow Lady"|シャドウレディ|Shadō Redi is a manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was canceled partway through its run, resulting in the severe compression of a new story arc and a finale.

Plot

"Shadow Lady" takes place in the fictional city of Gray City, around a girl named Aimi Komori. She leads an ordinary, unassuming life as a waitress in a cafe until a small oni (De-mo) attacks her in an alley. Oddly, it brushes eyeshadow on her, transforming her into the daring, flirtatious cat burglar "Shadow Lady". To remain on Earth undetected, De-mo takes a human form and they pass him off as her little brother.

Shadow Lady's crimes befuddle the Gray City police, and a detective named Bright Honda takes it upon himself to discover Shadow Lady's true identity. Bright is also an inventor, and uses his inventions to try and apprehend Shadow Lady, but she is too crafty, and escapes him numerous times.

Characters

Aimi/Shadow Lady: The title character/protagonist of the series. Aimi is a mild-mannered, quiet, and shy girl who works as a waitress in Gray City. She also has a crush on Bright Honda. At night, however, Aimi puts on magic eyeshadow and becomes Shadow Lady, an energetic, flirtatious, and flamboyant cat burglar, and wreaks havoc on Gray City through various acts of burglary, as well as thwarting the police department's attempts to capture her.

De-Mo: A being from the Demon World who created the magic eyeshadow, the source of Shadow Lady's powers. De-Mo left the Demon World on an impulse to see if a human could find any use for the magic eyeshadow that he makes, which had become very unpopular in the Demon World. His reason for giving it to Aimi was that she was the first human he came into contact with after arriving on in the Human World. He also is very knowledgeable about the Demon World, and fairly inventive. He also is mildly perverted. He lives with Aimi, fulfilling the role of a sidekick, and disguises himself as her younger brother.

Bright Honda: A detective with the Gray City Police Department. He has a knack for invention, and tries to incorporate his inventions into his police work (albeit fairly ineptly on most occasions). He also is obsessed with discovering Shadow Lady's secret identity, though his reasons for doing so change throughout the course of the series. At first, it appears that his intention in doing is purely to reform her (and use her powers for just causes, as opposed to mischief-making), but in a confrontation in the finale story arc, he alleges that he pursues her because he is in love with her. Before his obsession with Shadow Lady, however, Bright pursued inventing for recreation, and even put on demonstration shows for local children with Lime as a partner and fellow inventor.

Lime Hosokawa/Spark Girl: Bright's former partner in their demonstration shows for their inventions. During their time together, she also developed a crush on him that he did not reciprocate. An inventor herself, she invents a costume and various gadgets in order to become Spark Girl. As Spark Girl, she attempts to reveal Shadow Lady's secret identity as part of a plot to steal her powers to use them for good. Unfortunately, she is thwarted. How she came into knowledge about how to reverse Shadow Lady's transformation is mildly unclear, however.

Inspector Dory: An Inspector at the Gray City Police Department. Throughout the series, he actively pursues Shadow Lady, but never succeeds in catching her.

Another World (Alternate Universe)

Though the story's canon alleges that Aimi first became Shadow Lady when De-Mo cornered her and put the magic eyeshadow on her, Katsura also published a one-shot comic offering an alternate story as to how Aimi first became Shadow Lady. This alternate story is comparable to stereotypical "magical girl" plots like Sailor Moon.

In "Another World", Aimi is an eighteen year old, shy, and physically inept high school student with low self-esteem, who also has a crush on Bright Honda, a transfer student. In order to give her a confidence boost (and to let her have some fun), Aimi's grandmother gives her the magic eyeshadow (which was a family heirloom), and Aimi transforms into Shadow Lady. To keep an eye on her, Aimi's grandmother also sprinkles some magic dust on one of Aimi's stuffed dolls and temporarily brings it to life as De-Mo, who acts as her sidekick in her brief misadventures. Though at first she is interested in mischief-making, Aimi/Shadow Lady eventually thwarts a jewel thief, which causes Bright to fall in love with Shadow Lady (much to Aimi's dismay) by the end of the comic.

External links