arata kangatari - Watase Yuu

Status: Ongoing

Genre: shounen, fantasy, action, adventure, drama

When I first saw the cover of thing manga a few years ago, I was like, Watase Yuu does shounen manga now??!!! 

Well, I don't think I was being exaggerating or anything. When the name Watase Yuu is mentioned, usually one would think about shoujo mangas like Fushigi Yuugi series... which are focused on romance.. and smut, lol. So I was genuinely surprised to see her writing a shounen manga. On first look, the artwork is very much Watase Yuu-like, everyone is so good looking. lol. But this kind of style isn't unfamiliar in shounen manga, as there are quite a few women mangaka drawing shounen manga (like CLAMP or  Ohtaka Shinobu) already. So let's see what this manga is all about.

The story takes place in a fantasy world named Amawakuni ruled by Himeou Every 30 years, a new Himeou is chosen from the Himezoku to serve the Hayagami. The problem is, there hasn't been a girl born in the Himezoku. So, ARATA, a 15-year-old boy, was disguised as a girl to take the place as princess candidate. However, during the ceremony, the current Himeou got stabbed by her own personal guard, the Junishinsho. ARATA, the sole witness, was framed as the culprit and now the whole royal court was after his life! ARATA ran away to the Kando forest, where he mysteriously got swapped with another boy from Japan called Hinohira Arata.

Hinohara Arata emerged in Amawakuni, where everyone mistook him for the other ARATA. At ARATA's house, he found an old sword, which turns out to be a Hayagami named Tsukuyo, and became a shou (Hayagami wielder). Thus, Arata's adventure in Amawakuni began.

Characters

Hinohara Arata

A shy boy who is very good at sports. Just as he was starting afresh in high school, he met his old school bully, Kadowaki Masato. When he ran away from the bully, he ended up in Amawakuni instead, changing place with ARATA. He wields a Hayagami named Tsukuyo, which is the strongest of all Hayagami,

Kotoha

ARATA's childhoold friend, and a member of Unemezoku, a tribe which serves the Himezoku. As an Unemezoku, she has healing powers. She has a crush on ARATA, and mistook Hinohira Arata for ARATA at first.

Kannagi

One of the Juunishinsho, the Princess' guard, who took part in the Princess' mutiny. Later on he lost his Hayagami, the fire Homura, to Akachi.

Kadowaki Masato

A boy who had a certain grudge against Hinohara Arata and kept bullying him as a result. He followed Arata to Amawakuni by switching place with Harunawa, one of the junishinsho. He wields Orochi, a dark Hayagami.

Hayagami and Shou

Hayagami are gods that take the form of weapons. Each Hayagami has different power which is called Kamui. Only a shou or shinshou can wield a Hayagami. Shou and Hayagami are bonded in a body and soul through a contract which makes them stop aging. A Hayagami can absorb another Hayagami when the shou of the absorbed Hayagami submits to the other shou, or dies. When the shou submits, they will be absorbed along with their Hayagami. The power of the absorbed Hayagami will be added to the surviving Hayagami.

As the wielder of Tsukuyo, Arata is given a task by Himeou to unify all the Hayagamis. In order to do that, he has to defeat all other shous and make them submit to him. I feel that it is quite a cruel task, since the shous who submit will disappear, but I guess that's why only a chosen person can do it.

There's still a lot more I want to write about the world of Amawanokuni and the characters, but if I do this will end up becoming a long essay xD so I'll refrain for now.

What I like:

• The mangaka gives detailed background story of important characters, which makes the readers understand why the characters are who they are. I personally hated quite a few characters in the beginning, but after knowing their stories now I think that even though they do horrible things, ultimately they are also victims of the circumstances.
• As Watase Yuu is originally a shoujo mangaka, she knows how to play with the readers' emotions, and she does it well. There's love, friendship, hatred, betrayal.. all kinds of human dramas in the series, but they are written very well, not cheesy at all. I have to admit that I tear up on quite a few scenes in the manga, lol.
• As always, I like Watase Yuu's art and character designs :3

What I don't like:

The series is on hiatus as of 2013 :'( and just when the struggles for the Hayagamis became more intense too... :'( Watase Sensei, please continue this manga T_T

I really like this series.. I think it's my favorite work of Watase Yuu so far. To be honest I was a bit skeptical about this series at first, but it turns out to be a really good manga, and I really like it. I'll say this ranks quite high on my all-time favorite shounen manga list.

Tell me what you think on the comments :D