Castle of Dreams: Stories From the Kare Kano Creator

senbei Brilliant insightful work, a must have for any fan of Kare Kano (彼氏彼女の事情）. Through a handful of short standalone stories that feature exotic locales and time periods, Tsuda eloquently connects all of human history in a web of suffering. Though her intentions were definitely not Buddhist in nature, most of these stories do focus on struggling to survive (or die trying) and making a name for oneself. Of course, they all share the patented Masami Tsuda shoujo romance (though not all the stories feature women) ethic. The art is breathtaking; it's obvious to me that Tsuda-sensei really did her homework with on the locale and history that each story takes place in. The characters may be fictional, but the stories are history and folk lore. My only regret is a lack of color, but that's typical (and sad) for TokyoPop. Trans was good (amazingly), but it's always hard to tell how they've managed to corrupt it if I don't have the original tankoubon in my hand.