Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Moonlight Act 3

I've mentioned Kazuhito Fujita a few times before. The creator of Ushio and Tora and Le Cirque de Karakuri, he is one of the few remaining true shonen greats who have yet to have a single work translated. I can only hope that Viz's new Shonen Sunday line will finally rectify that oversight by bringing over his insanely awesome new book, Moonlight Act.
The central idea is that once in a blue moon, all the fairy tales go INSANE. An ordinary human being is given the powers to turn them back. Not all fairy tale characters snap, but those that do tend to wreak havoc in their world and ours. I've regaled many here with the epic tale of the sole surviving member of the three little pigs making a heroic last stand against the big bad wolf armed only with a traffic cone, and was significantly more silent on the second volume, which revolved around Issun Boshi, a story I did not exactly grow up with.
Volume three involves Cinderella.

While initially introduced on a Utena car driven by one of the mice, slicing the Prince's men to ribbons with her deadly glass slippers, it is not long before her rampage takes us to our world...and into the fast and furious world of Tokyo Drifting.

She's using the more traditional Cinderella pumpkin coach on the grounds that it is more sporting.
Meanwhile, since the stories cease to exist if the central characters are absent for five days, the female lead winds up attempting to impersonate Cinderella...a feat complicated by her not knowing the story, and by similarities in the Japanese words for 'ball' and 'martial arts tournament.' Needless to say, the results are gleefully retarded.

2 comments:

  1. This really looks terrific. I read one part of Ushio to Tora on your recommendation (I coudn't find all of it), and it was excellent, at moments very dark work, especially for children. So I am looking eagerly for this. And Karakuri Circus, too.

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  2. Been a fan of his stuff since his Ushio and Tora days. Only wish my Japanese was better so I wouldn't have to wait for the Chinese version of Gekkou Jourei.

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