Fairy Cube

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Fairy Cube


ja_name = 妖精標本
ja_name_trans = Yousei Hyouhon – Feari Kyuubu
genre = FantasyInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Kaori Yuki
publisher = flagicon|Japan Hakusensha
publisher_other = flagicon|USA Viz Media
flagicon|France Editions Tonkam
flagicon|Germany Carlsen Comics
flagicon|Italy Planet Manga
flagicon|Singapore Chuang Yi
flagicon|South Korea Daiwon C.I.
demographic = Shōjo
magazine = Hana to Yume
first = February 19 2005
last = 2006
volumes = 3

nihongo|"Fairy Cube"|妖精標本 フェアリー キューブ|Yousei Hyouhon – Feari Kyuubu is a fantasy shōjo manga created by Kaori Yuki in 2005. This short series, originally serialised in "Hana to Yume", is composed of 3 volumes published between October 2005 and July 2006. The author took inspiration from Celtic mythology and especially Gaelic mythology to set the world, plot and characters of her story. Viz Media has licensed this manga, and the first volume has been released in English.citeweb|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2007/comic-con-international/viz-media|title=Comic-Con International 2007 - Viz Media|publisher=Anime News Network|date=2007-07-26|accessdate=2007-07-29] A preview of it was included in the April 2008 issue of Shojo Beat.

tory

Ian is a special boy - he can see fairies. He has a spirit twin called Tokage who can only be seen by him. Tokage hates Ian and will do anything to get him into trouble. Ian also has a pair of wing marks on his back that his father burns off to prevent him from 'flying away' as his wife, Ian's mother, did. In the city he is in, a number of grisly murders occur. These murders are known as the Faery Murders as the victims have backs slit open, with blood spurting out in the shape of a faery's wings. Ian's childhood friend Rin returns back to the city, their childhood home, and slowly Ian begins to unravel the past and realise who he is, and solve the Fairy Murders.

Characters

;nihongo|Ian Hasumi|羽住衣杏|Hasumi Ian: A boy, one of the protagonists of the story. From very early on, he has been able to see fairies and similar beings. After his mother Kureha, who he remembers to have looked just like a fairy with green hair and red eyes, left his father, Ian has to endure a lot of pain. There are marks of a pair of butterfly-like wings on his back. He loves Rin because she is the only one who believes in the existence of the fairy world, only with her can he show others the fairy world. Ian has constantly been followed by his other self, Tokage, until he dies and Tokage takes over Ian's body. Ian confronts Kaito, and after angering Ainsel, he is sent to the Fairy Realm with her. After surviving a near-death encounter and winning Ainsel's favour, he returns to the human world and Kaito gives him a body to use. The identity of the boy he is using, Eriya, is still in elementary and thus able to make a lot of fairy references without facing the mockery Ian used to face.

;nihongo|Tokage|トカゲ|Tokage: A boy with green hair and red eyes, named after the green lizard ("tokage" means "lizard") Ian once saw as a small boy. He hates Ian and does everything he can to hurt him and cause him trouble. He can fly and appears and disappears whenever and wherever he wants to. After Ian gets a Fairy Cube from Kaito, a strange mark stretches from his right cheek across his right eye to his forehead, the same mark the lizard in Ian's Fairy Cube is bearing. When Ian dies, Tokage takes over Ian's body and life, his green hair and red eyes invisible to human beings. Unlike the timid Ian, Tokage quickly starts to pick fights and create a gang of sorts. This is partly due to his past, he grew up loved by a fairy named Dorsey, but when the village they were in decided he was to be sacrificed to their god, Tokage slaughters them in a fit of anger and despair. Dorsey died apologizing to him, shocking him back to sanity, while the sealed god escapes. After that Tokage has killed thousands to escape the fairy realm and return to the human world, where he then focuses on tormenting Ian until he made a pact with Kaito and seizes Ian's body. He is later revealed to be Ian's twin brother who died in the womb. When he died Kureha, their mother, left him in the Fairy world where spirits can live. His real name is Isaiah. He also appears in the short story Psycho Knocker.

;nihongo|Rin Ishinagi|石椛鈴|Ishinagi Rin: A black-haired girl. Her father is a workaholic, who seldom comes home when her family still lived together. He tried to protect Rin from her mother who constantly beat her, but failed. Childhood friend of Ian's, he showed her the fairy world and the butterfly marks on his back. When Rin's mother found them, they were separated. Ian's father fired Rin's father, who was his editor, so Rin's family had to move. Only recently, Rin moved back and transferred to Ian's school. Her parents got divorced in the meantime, so Rin's surname changed from 灰田/Haida to Ishinagi. Her mother still beats her a lot. She feels bitter about her parents and adults in general, as a man once tried to force himself on her. With her powers, Ian can show her the world of fairies. Because her real life holds so much sadness and violence, she wants to go and search the entrance to the world of fairies.

;nihongo|Ainsel|エインセル|Ainsel: A cute fairy who Kaito saved from being chained to the Demon Door. He told her he'd fallen in love with her beautiful wings, and so she fell in love with him and would do anything for him, even kill the person who poses a threat to Kaito. She looks frail and pretty but is rather unpleasant and ready to use her Glamour when someone wants to hurt her master, Kaito. The only problem is she can't really control her powers so, as Ian soon finds out, it's quite dangerous to be around her when she's angry. She can't use her powers at all, or they all come lashing out of her, resulting quite often in overkill. In the fairy world, she is careful and senses danger much earlier than Ian. After their visit to the Other World, Ainsel is impressed by Ian's determination and decides to help him.She and Kaito sacrifice themselves to seal the door from monsters. They are together forever and are in bliss. Her name means "oneself".

;nihongo|Kaito|界外|Kaito: The antique shop owner who appeared on the scene of one of the "fairy murders" and takes a cube from the dead body, so Ian first suspects him to be the murderer. In reality he is trying to find a body strong enough to accept Ainsel. Handsome and mysterious, Kaito has long light hair which usually hides his right eye that's also covered by a patch. It's later revealed it was slashed out by a monster after he was expelled from Knockma Castle, for the 'crime' of seducing the queen. Raven was the only one who defended him, saying that Kaito never wanted it. The two were abandoned, and in the desert Kaito broke down and begged Raven not to leave him. Shortly after, they were attacked and Kaito lost his eye. After returning to Raven's home village, it appeared that Kaito seduced Raven's fiancee, Canary, who died of heartbreak. Before that, the villagers begged Kaito to go to her, and he replied he would if Raven replaced the eye he lost. Without hesitating, Raven did so, shocking Kaito greatly. Kaito was the one who gave Ian a Fairy Cube with a lizard inside, triggering a series of events. He transports Ian and Ainsel to the Fairyland. Kaito calls himself a Death Merchant, but even uses the corpses of those who weren't adapted to a fairy living inside them for experimentation.

;nihongo|Kazumi Hasumi|羽住一巳| Hasumi Kazumi: Ian's father. Has an aura of coldness and slight madness around him, though he genuinely loves his family. Once a famous writer and the favourite son of the literary world, he now works as a Japanese teacher at Ian's and Rin's school. When his wife, Kureha, left him his inspiration for writing disappeared. He told his son Ian that she looked just like a fairy. He fears that his son is too similar to Kureha; so he burned Ian's wings with a candle, claiming that he can't flee like his mother did.

;nihongo|Kureha|呉葉|Kureha: Ian's mother who disappeared when he was still a baby. Ian's father told him she looked just like a fairy. And Ian remembers how she held him and that she had green hair and red eyes, just like him. Later, it's revealed that she wasn't holding him, but Tokage. She was a leannan-sidhe, otherwise known as a "muse". They seduce human men, and breath in the "foison". In exchange they inspire the man's art. This was the reason Kazumi was such a great novelist. However, doing this would eventually have killed the man. Kureha actually fell in love with her husband, and so left before she could kill him.

;nihongo|Shira Gotoh|Shira Gotoh: The young charismatic chairman of Gotoh company, a multi-millionaire land development company, Shira first appears as an arrogant boy dressed in a sleek black suit. In reality not only is Shira into the punk style, but is actually a girl. She is in charge of the Elysium Project, to the public a perservation attempt of nature, but actually meant to unleash malicious spirits to devour humans and allow fairies to reign superior. Shira has a faithful bodyguard named Reify, actually Raven, who she often orders to kill other fairies who object to her goals. Her past was full of trama, her father refused to acknowledge her and locked her and her mother in a room. Shira's mother went insane and attempted black magic by killing a cat, but Shira interfered and her mother ended up injuring herself. Through her blood, Shira summoned a demon god, who promised her power if she would help him. The demon took over Shira's father and has been using it to substain a form in the human world, but because it is dying the demon was forced to simply give orders to Shira and let her do the work. Because he still couldn't ease her loneliness, Shira turned to the captured Kureha, who treated her like her own child. Because Kureha misses her son, Shira often cross dresses so that Kureha would believe she is her lost child, Ian.

;nihongo|Raven|Raven: Also known as Reify, Raven is the emotionless bodyguard of Shira. Despite his modern suit, he often uses a sword as his weapon. Like Kaito his right eye is covered by an eyepatch, but it is soon revealed that unlike Kaito he really is missing his right eye. Raven used to be a slave in the Knockma palace, his eyes sealed due to their power, and Kaito often mocks him. When Kaito was discovered sleeping with the queen, Raven was the only one who spoke the truth, saying it was the Queen who seduced Kaito and not the other way around. Raven and Kaito were thrown into the desert, and when they were attacked by a monster the seal over his eyes were broken. In fact, the eyes could transport things to other dimensions, and is a sign of the proud clan of Gyprons who guard the Demon Door. His fiancee, Canary, was seduced by Kaito and quickly fell to her deathbed, in an attempt to save her Raven gave Kaito one of his eyes, as the latter demanded, but Kaito quickly fled with it. Afterwards, Raven fell under the control of Shira Gotoh and has been with her ever since.

;nihongo|Lise|Lise: Ian's aunt, she bears a striking resemblance to her sister Kureha, enough that her father could confuse them. Her real name is Lucifera, and like Kureha she is of the Leannan-sidhe. Unlike Kureha, she was a customer of Kaito's shop, and now no one - not even Ian - could tell she is a fairy. Further unlike her sister is her rather wild attitude, she has no problems with breaking into houses and disabling security systems. She quickly senses Ainsel's power, and asks Kaito whether he is planning to destroy the world. It is implied that she has feelings for Hasumi, though nothing comes out of it.

Reception

Anime News Network's review of the first volume said "the sheer variety of action and locale is deliciously diverse but never too confusing" and called the cover "the most beautiful of any yet to be published under Viz Media's Shojo Beat imprint". However, the review criticized the art, calling it "much less satisfying" and saying that "it looks like the product of half a dozen artists, not one". ANN's review ended with giving "Fairy Cube" an overall rating of "A-". [citeweb|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/fairy-cube/gn-1|title=Fairy Cube GN1-Review-|author=Casey Brienza|publisher=Anime News Network|date=2008-06-17|accessdate=2008-09-01]

References

External links

*ann manga|id=5048|title=Fairy Cube