Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Ian Hasumi remembers a mother with green hair and red eyes, but his father, noted novelist Kazumi Hasumi, tells his son that it is all in his active imagination.  Ian used to see spirits, and when he was a small boy, he taught his friend, Rin Ishinagi, to also see them.  For that the friends were separated; now reunited, Ian needs Rin to believe him again, and he also wants her to love him.

In Fairy Cube, Vol. 1, Ian must stop the lizard-spirit Tokage, who looks just like Ian, from taking over his life.  Forced into the spirit world (Faerie), Ian fights his way back to the real world, with Ainsel, a belligerent female fairy at his side.

THE LOWDOWN:  As evident in her series, Godchild, manga-ka Kaori Yuki favors dense narratives steeped in mystery and gothic atmosphere.  It’s a narrative structure in which sub-plots abound, and Fairy Cube follows that fashion.  My above summary barely scratches the surface of everything that’s going on here, and there almost certainly will be more storylines to show up in future volumes.  Although it starts off so slowly, readers who enjoy manga and comics that read like involved novels with labyrinthine sub-plots and large casts of characters will like Fairy Cube.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  As part of VIZ Media’s “Shojo Beat” line of manga aimed at teen females, Fairy Cube reads like a title for adults.

B