The Tarot Cafe 1 (edition 2005)

Pamela is an attractive young clairvoyant who uses tarot card readings to counsel supernatural creatures - from vampires, to fairies, to wish-fulfilling cats. The volume is broken up into four separate short stories, all use the tarot card reading as a framing device to illustrate the plot.

In the first story, 'A Wish-Fulfilling Cat,' Pamela's first customer appears to be a teenage boy with cat ears and a tail. Later, the reader understands that is only his soul and how Pamela can see him, whereas to his pretty young owner he looks like an ordinary black cat. The story and art are very reminiscent of Matsuri Akino's Pet Shop of Horrors manga.

The second story, 'Eternal Beauty,' is a vampire romance, brimming with tragedy. The vampire's story stretches back to the opulent, decadent French courts of the seventeenth century, where he fell in love with a lovely human girl, but lost her after murdering her sister. In the present era, the vampire is a famous model, using his beauty to lure in new victims, all the while searching for the reincarnation of his lost love. The story does a good job of keeping the monstrous predatory side of the vampire in line with the beautiful, seductive side, and makes for a surprisingly beautiful tragedy.

'A Fairy' takes a break from the tragic with a humorous tale involving a five-hundred year old pixie trapped in the body of a child. Her task is to help a dowdy young woman capture the man of her dreams - the story is hilarious and has a good twist.

The final story, 'A Heartless Princess, an Alchemist, and a Jester' moves on to much darker themes, twisting a few fairy tale tropes on their heads and creating an intriguing story, only to cut it short. Presumably the story will be continued in the next volume?

The artwork is what really draws the reader into the world of The Tarot Cafe - Sang-Sun Park's characters have a lush, androgynous, gothic beauty to them with heavily made up, luminous eyes framed by thick dark lashes, long flowing hair, and elaborate costumes. The art is reminiscent in style of Ko Ya Seong's Under the Glass Moon or So-Young Lee's Model.

Recommended to fans of Pet Shop of Horrors, Under the Glass Moon, Model, and CLAMP's xxxholic. To fans of supernatural manga with a Gothic flavour and lots of androgynous, beautiful people. ( )

Tarot Cafe was a very charming and very very fast read. It had three small stories that were told in relation to the tarot card reading (the back story). When the last card was pulled the reading would be finished and we would see the end of their tale (not always a traditional happy ending). I dabble in Tarot cards myself and I really enjoyed that the tarot cards (with the artist's story related imagery) were shown and the meaning were given in side notes as well as hearing Pamela (the tarot card reader's) impression. I can't wait to read more- I'm hoping to pick up something useful as well as enjoy the tales. Thus far the paranormal characters have included a wishing cat, a vampire and a pixie (I think it was). Reccomended
Three and a half stars ( )

Pamela the tarot card reader does four readings for extraordinary clients and each of their stories is told through the card reading. The androgynous depiction of the characters bothered me while reading, although I've since learned that this is a graphic novel aimed at teenage girls (and teenage girls like pretty, doll-like men?). The stories were interesting and there was good play between the text and the drawings. The characters occasionally had uncharacteristic, cartoon responses that I didn't understand, but the female characters having realistic, human, features was nice. Fine to recommend to girls 9-12, although I'd take into consideration that this one is for graphic novel fans and fans of the occult. ( )

Pamela runs the Tarot Café, where she uses her Tarot deck to help guide those who seek her counsel. Her clients include vampires and fairies, and other fantastical creatures, such as a Wish-fulfilling Cat. Each comes to Pamela for help, with Pamela’s cards assisting to prompt more information, and to reveal hidden truths and wisdom.

There’s beautiful artwork here, with lots of gorgeously drawn characters, and detailed attention to costumes and backgrounds. The first volume has four episodes, each self-contained, though with Pamela’s continuing story linking them. The tarot cards are lovely, and are accompanied by little snippets of explanation so their relevance to the story is transparent.

A fun, dramatic and romantic manga series, with wonderful artwork. ( )

I have reservations about The Tarot Cafe 1. I liked the stories, but...

First, the main character, Pamela, is a tarot reader who can see into the future. She also sees non-human clients, which is cool. Her clients come in very interesting varieties including (but not limited to) a tibit, a vampire, and a faerie.

So, these odd people come to Pamela and have their fortunes read. They sit, she turns over tarot cards and tells them about their own pasts. The tarot cards are shown with asterisks and a translator's concept of what the card means. (Personally, I disagree with several of the interpretations, but I cannot say whether interpretations were in the original version at all.) The client's past is all seen in brief 'flashback' format. Then, Pamela gives advice from the cards and the client goes away. The reader is shown the client's concluding decision and we go on to the next client. It's a very staid set-up and delivery story arrangement and frankly, it's boring.

While I am intrigued by Pamela's varied clients, the story format is regrettable. There are no deviations and there is little surprise. It is a case of telling what happened rather than showing what is happening. Written work does not survive this and for a medium which depends upon visual cues, it is a kiss of death.

The artwork is similar to that of "Under the Glass Moon" or "Doll". It is heavily reliant on thick black lines to emphasize eyes in a gothic look. 'Pretty' seems to be dependant upon curly-cue-everywhere-hair in ringlets. Everyone looks heavily made-up (yes, men, too) and they are dressed as if they stepped out of a goth club. I prefer softer art styles which rely less on heavy outlining.

The clients and the clients' stories might be interesting enough to buy another volume but I'm going to pass. ( )