Angry Fairies

Japanese horror stories are full of angry ghosts. Turns out their fairies are pretty torqued off, too.

Fairy Cube is a new manga by Kaori Yuki, the author of Cain Saga and Angel Sanctuary. Which was full of angry angels, now that I think about it. Anyway, Cube is the story of Ian Hasumi, whose body is stolen by the malevolent changeling fairy, Tokage. Ian wrangles another body, and fights to get his revenge and his girl back. The Japanese often have a very different take on things Western, fairies being no exception. In Cube, even the cute ones, like Ian's companion Ainsel, are pretty scary. She may look like a primped up Tinkerbell, but when she considers eating Ian if he isn't useful to her, you believe it.

The story moves very quickly; you think Ian will have a tough time getting his high school girlfriend Rin to believe he is now "in" the body of an elementary school boy, but that seems to get resolved at the end of volume one. Fairy Cube demonstrates for the umpteenth time that in Japan, stories for girls are rich and varied, and often have quite an edge.