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| Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image. |
TAIL OF THE MOON, VOL. 7
VIZ MEDIA
CARTOONIST: Rinko Ueda
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
ISBN: 978-1-4215-1028-6; paperback; Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
200 pp., B&W, $8.99
Historical fiction, shojo romance, and ninja manga come together beautifully in the manga, Tail of the Moon, by Rinki Ueda. It is the story of Usagi, the granddaughter of the leader of a prestigious ninja village. Sandayu, frustrated by his granddaughter’s lack of progress in learning to be a ninja, sends Usagi off to young Lord Hattori Hanzo, in hopes that he will take her as his wife and make lots of ninja babies. However, Lord Hanzo doesn’t want babies; he wants a wife who is a ninja.
Tail of the Moon, Vol. 7 opens with Hanzo rejecting Usagi and sending her back to her grandfather. However, Usagi is good at one thing – making exceptionally delicious tea. That earns her an audience with Lord Oda Nobunaga, the ninja-hating ruler of Azuchi, and avid tea drinker. Sandayu decides to use Usagi’s audience with Nobunaga as a mission to discover what his plans are regarding their village. Hanzo suddenly arrives and insists on accompanying Usagi on her trip to Azuchi, and tells Usagi they will travel under the guise of husband and wife. As happy as she is, Usagi wonders if pretending is the closest she’ll ever get to the stoic young ninja lord.
THE LOWDOWN: Tail of the Moon is a romantic ninja adventure. While the mood of love and romance certainly permeate the story, the manga-ka (author, creator) certainly intends on spinning a suspenseful yarn of political intrigue in which the winds of war blow strongly. In a way, that makes Tail of the Moon historical fiction (the union of romance and period drama). Ueda’s pretty art and knack for drawing a broad range of emotionally evocative faces for her characters give what could have been a pedestrian shojo title a lot of flavor.
POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Tail of the Moon is part of VIZ Media’s “Shojo Beat” line of manga aimed at teenage female readers. I won’t say that if you like ninja manga, you’ll automatically like this, but if you like ninja manga and shojo, you may find this an engaging read.
B+
