After eight years and 18 volumes, Sai Yukinowill end The Story of Saiunkoku (Saiunkoku Monogatari) light novel series on Thursday. In this fantasy set in Saiunkoku (an empire inspired by ancient China), a poor yet noble family’s daughter named Shuurei rises through the ranks of the imperial palace.
Summary from Baka-Updates:
“Dahlia is the only female dressmaker in Galleria. She kidnapped and commissioned by the infamous “Honeybee Earl”, who is known to jump from woman to woman like a capricious bee jumps from flower to flower, to make the ultimate wedding dress for his fiancee. Can Dahlia complete the dress without getting stung by the Honeybee Earl?”
Sorry for spamming you today. (￣_￣ i)
I am not watching anime nor reading manga anything right now. Instead, I’m glued in watching JE concerts (
), Japanese drama, and playing games on my DS. 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxNWNFPRwys]
Peacock, a famous showbiz company, has a ranking system. Boys with star capacity are ranked according to their selling points and are numbered. Ryo Katsuragi belongs to the class of penguins, the lowest class. Yukari can see wings on the back of a person with star potential. She recognized that their Student Council Vice President has wings but only a pair of small wings.
Much to her surprise, she discovered the Vice President’s disguise! She is none other than Ryo. Another Peacock’s rule is to disguise themselves so no one could discover their real identity. Knowing his secret, Ryo asked Yukari to be his manager. Now, the two of them will do anything to make Ryo Peacock’s No.1!
Mere curiosity got me into reading this manga. The good thing is, it did not fail me. I immediately love the series.
Takami dresses, acts and speaks like a boy. Her mother was afraid that she will be a tomboy so she enrolled Takami to a piano lesson. There she met a beautiful boy named Akira. He is three years younger than Takami but already a good pianist. all this time, she thinks of him as her cute little sister. Then suddenly, he kissed her and tells Takami that he likes her.
There are lots of vampire stories in the manga world. One example would be Midnight Secretary. Compared to other popular vampire stories, it is more inclined to reality as it deals with the conflicts and relationship between humans and vampires. No magical stuff. No showing off of powers. No fight scenes. Just the struggle of a couple to defy the norm.
I’m not a fan of yaoi yet I love this series. Haha! *everyone raises eyebrows*
Warning: This is a smutty story.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the very first smut manga that I’ve read. I, at that time, still do not know what smut is nor have been introduced to the other works of Shinjo Mayu like Kaikan Phrase. I thought that this is so vulgar and that I would be wasting a lot of time reading this. What surprised me more is that it definitely has a story.
It is already the 20th century. Yuuri is enjoying her date with her boyfriend. As she steps on wet soil, something grabs her and take her to the time of the Hittite Empire. Later, she learns that she is transported there to be a living sacrifice by the Queen. Fortunately for her, Prince Kail saves her and take her as his concubine. Caught between political intrigues and wars, how could Yuuri go back to modern Japan? Also, what will happen to her relationship with Prince Kail when the two of them are slowly developing strong feelings for each other?
From the present Anatolia (Turkey), let us go back to the ancient time as the story’s heroine, Yuri is transported from 20th century Japan to Anatolia. We are introduced to the era where the rulers in the Middle East are the Hittites. There is also Egypt ruled (at the start of the story) by Tutankhamen. Chie Shinohara did a good job in making a connection of history and fiction.
Surely, Minami Maki came up with a quite unique title. It really caught my attention. Just a random fact about S.A: ZA Hana to Yume is a sister magazine to Hana to Yume. The ZA is just the Japanese transcription of “THE” (since the “th” sound doesn’t exist in Japanese and one of closest sounds that can be used to substitute it is “z”).
ZA Hana to Yume has a less frequent publishing schedule – issues appear something like four times a year, I think. S.A was first serialized in ZA Hana to Yume (before moving to the regular Hana to Yume), which is why the first four chapters kept reintroducing Hikari, Kei, and everyone else and why the art between chapter 1 and 2 looks rather different. This is all thanks to Kaeyko from S.A LJ page.
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