Shirahime Syo (Snow Goddess Tales)

Rating:
Summary: Want a manga to read for the holidays? Get this!
Review: "Shirahime-Syo", translated as "Snow Goddess Tales", is probably the one manga I least-expect to buy for myself this year. First off, I'm not really into CLAMP, maybe because I'm just not into this whole Cardcaptor/Chobits/Rayearth/Tsuba-holic kind of stuff. Anyway, what really got me to buy "Shirahime-Syo" is the effort Tokyopop put into this manga.

Much to the company's successful sales on other CLAMP titles, Tokyopop decides to give the special treatment to this winterfest graphic novel created by the four femme 'fan-favoratours'. This manga is an inch longer (in diameter) than the average Tokyopop manga, and there's eight front pages in full color. What's surprising in a big way is that this is the first left-to-right manga, y'know what, the first manga altogether (to my knowledge), to be in hardcover edition with a dust jacket; isn't that book-quality at its best? Okay, enough with production value, let's get to the meat of the manga: the story. I've never expected the story would be this good!

"Shirahime-Syo" is a recycle fairy tale, CLAMP style, about a snow princess who many believed makes the snow fall around her by her tears of sorrow and she also cries her way into making three short winter stories that have a certain connection with her:

'On Wolf Mountain': A female hunter named Fubuki is searching for a man-eating wolf, a wolf the color of night and eyes the color of blood (hey, that's how the book describes it), to kill it in order to avenger her father's death. However, as the two cross paths, she later grew fond of that wolf and the wolf becomes her protector.

The first story is always the best and this is definetly no exception. From beginning to end, it build a strong development between a girl and a wolf, and it works almost perfectly. Very beautiful, very emotional, love it. (5/5)

'The Ice Flower': A man leaves his village, also leaving his woman behind, but that's all right with her. She is willing to wait for him at the spot close to the pond where he told her he must depart, and she'll wait, no matter how long it takes and how cold she must bear, she'll keep waiting for him to come back, and if she dies waiting, she'll become the ice flower still waiting for his arrival.

Poetic...very poetic, and I'm not saying that as a complement. This is my least favorite story right here. For one thing, it's short-winded, and the story ended just too soon. I give it props for the concept on the love that bonds two distant characters, but 'if I die, I'll become a flower'? Come on! (3/5)

'Hiyoku no Tori' (Happily Married Couple): A young archer departs after some battle and decided to heads on home in a terrible blizzard for his love's hand in marriage, in which having a betrothal approved is his reason to fight. He's begins to lose confident that he might not survive his journey back home to be with future wife, and when he later see two herons (stork-looking creatures) together in aspiration, he couldn't take it and kill one of them. As he continue walking in terrible weather, soon his chances for survival began to dwindle.

This is a good straightforward story right here. I don't see any moral values to it, but it's a deep and imaginative story nonetheless. A worthy short. (4/5)

'Prologue and Epilogue': Okay, so I did typed that this manga would have three short stories, but this story goes before and after the shorts, the way 'Tales from the Crypt' begin and end, expect it isn't a narration of the stories, it's a story of its own. The story begins with a villager collecting logs outside until he saws a beautiful 'white' woman standing on the ledge of a snowy cliff. He approach her asking why she's standing there, and she said she waiting for something. He then told her that a snow princess might come and her tears was the reason for the chilling blizzard. This was shocking, and impressively slick. This story not only correlate to the short stories, but the ending of the whole, it surprisingly explains the true purpose behind the snowfall created by the snow princess and how the short stories play a very important key factor to it. I can't tell you what the ending is, but I'll tell you this: it's charming. (5/5)

This is a great manga, but just as I was getting into it, it's over quickly. For 128 pages, Shirahime has the longevity of a TV holiday special than a theatrical holiday movie. It may be a few stories short from perfection, the serious, well-written storytelling, adding to the sweet, artistic CLAMP style by using paint strokes on the characters and the environments, "Shirahime-Syo" is still the best fairy-tale manga to read for winter holidays and whenever. Because this manga's hardcover, its SRP is twice as much as the typical Tokyopop manga, but hey, you get what you pay for, and you'll get plenty of enjoyment out of this.

Rating:
Summary: Want a manga to read for the holidays? Get this!
Review: "Shirahime-Syo", translated as "Snow Goddess Tales", is probably the one manga I least-expect to buy for myself this year. First off, I'm not really into CLAMP, maybe because I'm just not into this whole Cardcaptor/Chobits/Rayearth/Tsuba-holic kind of stuff. Anyway, what really got me to buy "Shirahime-Syo" is the effort Tokyopop put into this manga.

Much to the company's successful sales on other CLAMP titles, Tokyopop decides to give the special treatment to this winterfest graphic novel created by the four femme 'fan-favoratours'. This manga is an inch longer (in diameter) than the average Tokyopop manga, and there's eight front pages in full color. What's surprising in a big way is that this is the first left-to-right manga, y'know what, the first manga altogether (to my knowledge), to be in hardcover edition with a dust jacket; isn't that book-quality at its best? Okay, enough with production value, let's get to the meat of the manga: the story. I've never expected the story would be this good!

"Shirahime-Syo" is a recycle fairy tale, CLAMP style, about a snow princess who many believed makes the snow fall around her by her tears of sorrow and she also cries her way into making three short winter stories that have a certain connection with her:

'On Wolf Mountain': A female hunter named Fubuki is searching for a man-eating wolf, a wolf the color of night and eyes the color of blood (hey, that's how the book describes it), to kill it in order to avenger her father's death. However, as the two cross paths, she later grew fond of that wolf and the wolf becomes her protector.

The first story is always the best and this is definetly no exception. From beginning to end, it build a strong development between a girl and a wolf, and it works almost perfectly. Very beautiful, very emotional, love it. (5/5)

'The Ice Flower': A man leaves his village, also leaving his woman behind, but that's all right with her. She is willing to wait for him at the spot close to the pond where he told her he must depart, and she'll wait, no matter how long it takes and how cold she must bear, she'll keep waiting for him to come back, and if she dies waiting, she'll become the ice flower still waiting for his arrival.

Poetic...very poetic, and I'm not saying that as a complement. This is my least favorite story right here. For one thing, it's short-winded, and the story ended just too soon. I give it props for the concept on the love that bonds two distant characters, but 'if I die, I'll become a flower'? Come on! (3/5)

'Hiyoku no Tori' (Happily Married Couple): A young archer departs after some battle and decided to heads on home in a terrible blizzard for his love's hand in marriage, in which having a betrothal approved is his reason to fight. He's begins to lose confident that he might not survive his journey back home to be with future wife, and when he later see two herons (stork-looking creatures) together in aspiration, he couldn't take it and kill one of them. As he continue walking in terrible weather, soon his chances for survival began to dwindle.

This is a good straightforward story right here. I don't see any moral values to it, but it's a deep and imaginative story nonetheless. A worthy short. (4/5)

'Prologue and Epilogue': Okay, so I did typed that this manga would have three short stories, but this story goes before and after the shorts, the way 'Tales from the Crypt' begin and end, expect it isn't a narration of the stories, it's a story of its own. The story begins with a villager collecting logs outside until he saws a beautiful 'white' woman standing on the ledge of a snowy cliff. He approach her asking why she's standing there, and she said she waiting for something. He then told her that a snow princess might come and her tears was the reason for the chilling blizzard. This was shocking, and impressively slick. This story not only correlate to the short stories, but the ending of the whole, it surprisingly explains the true purpose behind the snowfall created by the snow princess and how the short stories play a very important key factor to it. I can't tell you what the ending is, but I'll tell you this: it's charming. (5/5)

This is a great manga, but just as I was getting into it, it's over quickly. For 128 pages, Shirahime has the longevity of a TV holiday special than a theatrical holiday movie. It may be a few stories short from perfection, the serious, well-written storytelling, adding to the sweet, artistic CLAMP style by using paint strokes on the characters and the environments, "Shirahime-Syo" is still the best fairy-tale manga to read for winter holidays and whenever. Because this manga's hardcover, its SRP is twice as much as the typical Tokyopop manga, but hey, you get what you pay for, and you'll get plenty of enjoyment out of this.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable, melancholy, and superbly beautiful...
Review: 'Shirahime Syo' is a manga beyond description - one of the best works that CLAMP ever produced. I bought an import two years prior to buying the domestic version, and was blown away by its art. CLAMP, instead of sticking with their G-pen nibs and screentones, decided to go back to the traditional Japanese form of brush art. What you get are elegant brushstrokes and ink washes for shading, which gives 'Shirahime Syo' its atmosphere, its mood, and its wintry splendor in which tragedy exists on so many fronts. There is also the added bonus of color pages in the beginning, which opens up the story in a mysterious way, and entices you to read further.

The three stories are quite beautiful and elegant in the old Heian tradition. The first one was heartbreaking, and one must look beyond the superstitions that the villagers believed in. The second one is a tale of unforsaken love even through the years. Unlike the first review above, when the girl describes herself becoming a flower, it's not literal. The girl, in true Japanese sense, wishes to preserve her beauty and youth for her lover - in the sense, being like a delicate ice flower that would never fade. The third story shows that even spirits can be caring, especially for a lost young samurai who pines for his lover.

Tokyopop surprised me with their quick claim to the domestic release, and the hardcover treatment deserves merit. What they had accomplished with 'Clover' by emulating the Japanese versions, they did better with 'Shirahime Sho.' Hardcover books are more durable, and the bigger size looks good on the shelf. The translations are very nice, managing to preserve Nanase's script.

This is a manga that any CLAMP fan should pick up. The difference in style and technique is unique. CLAMP's older works always hold truer to their stories and art. Unlike what Tokyopop claims, 'Shirahime Syo' wasn't published in Japan in 2001; an earlier version was published in 1992.

Rating:
Summary: "They say that reviews are the tears of consumers..."
Review: A stunning, wonderfully-painted, atmospheric collection of short stories all focusing on the all-encompassing snow and a few unlucky people caught in it. This book was a thing of beauty, both the stories and the watercolored art would be fantastic on their own, but together, well, it's magical.

I will not go into the short stories, but I will say this: When you tire of typical manga fare (martial arts/gunplay), come check out Shirahime-Syo. A wonderfully written, enjoyably depressing, mythology-based anthology that almost made me cry, even at 16.

Rating:
Summary: This book almost made me cry
Review: First of all, I'd like to clear up the confusion about this being a book consisting of *five* short stories: its not. there is simply an introduction and a conclusion that link the three short stories together. This is a subtle, and beautiful work by the artistic team CLAMP. Despite prejudices against them, they are capable of wayy more than cutsie manga like card captor sakura, clamp school detectives and others. I admire their adversity, but this particular work earned only 3 of 5 stars...4 stars for manga that i really like, 5 stars for ground breaking manga (like Nausicaa). While this is a refreshingly different work, and the stories are all excellent in themselves, i felt that the brevity and absolute lack of characterization (except in "On Wolf Mountain") annoying. the stories were a bit repetative as well...and they ARE short stories so characterization is not something that is emphasized. Now that i have ranted and raved, i am (strangely enough) going to recommend this to anybody who loves a) traditional japanese storytelling/samurai storylines (this is shojo tho...and i am a huge fan of princess mononoke) b) enjoys tragedy or c) likes to collect mangas that depart from the beaten trail. Overall excellent, but overrated, if that is possible... It is one of the ones that you should probably look for on discount, or wait until the softcover version is released from Tokyopop.

Rating:
Summary: Not as impressive...but dont ignore it its definitely good..
Review: First of all, I'd like to clear up the confusion about this being a book consisting of *five* short stories: its not. there is simply an introduction and a conclusion that link the three short stories together. This is a subtle, and beautiful work by the artistic team CLAMP. Despite prejudices against them, they are capable of wayy more than cutsie manga like card captor sakura, clamp school detectives and others. I admire their adversity, but this particular work earned only 3 of 5 stars...4 stars for manga that i really like, 5 stars for ground breaking manga (like Nausicaa). While this is a refreshingly different work, and the stories are all excellent in themselves, i felt that the brevity and absolute lack of characterization (except in "On Wolf Mountain") annoying. the stories were a bit repetative as well...and they ARE short stories so characterization is not something that is emphasized. Now that i have ranted and raved, i am (strangely enough) going to recommend this to anybody who loves a) traditional japanese storytelling/samurai storylines (this is shojo tho...and i am a huge fan of princess mononoke) b) enjoys tragedy or c) likes to collect mangas that depart from the beaten trail. Overall excellent, but overrated, if that is possible... It is one of the ones that you should probably look for on discount, or wait until the softcover version is released from Tokyopop.

Rating:
Summary: This book almost made me cry
Review: I just got this and I have already read it three times! (Even if it is REALLY depressing.) The artwork is fantastic, especially the watercolour pages, and the stories are wonderfully done. The only problem I had with it, though very trivial, is that this book is advertized to have 5 stories, but actually, the last "story" is a continuation of the first one. I love this book!