As one of the premier series in Viz Media's "Shojo Beat" anthology, "Kaze Hikaru" has been getting a lot of attention. It's not turning heads in a major money-making way, but it's in a magazine, normally taking place next to either "Nana" or "Absolute Boyfriend" (two very popular series right now), which means people have been reading it at the very least. The question is, is it any good? Well, depends on what you are looking for. The story revolves around a girl named...ah, ah, AAHHHH!!! If you think I'm going to say Hikaru you are dead wrong, as the main character is actually named Kamiya Seizaburo. Weird huh? Anyway, as stated above the story of "Kaze Hikaru" revolves around Kamiya, a girl who's father and brother were killed by a samurai named Hotogi Toshiro (the mother died from some "strange sickness" earlier on in Kamiya's life). Since there is no family left, Kamiya dresses as a boy, joins a samurai dojo, and vows to learn the skills needed to kill Hotogi. Oh, and just for the record, I'm really NOT spoiling the fact that Kamiya is a girl, as the book summery gives that particular twist away (and you find out in the first chapter anyways)! This is the story of "Kaze Hikaru."

From the sound of things, you'd expect this to be an epic revenge drama right? Well, you'd be wrong about that too. For a series that is about revenge, the series is jarringly optimistic and upbeat. Most of the series revolves around Kamiya attempting (and failing) to do basic training exercises, humorless high jinks when her gender is almost discovered a few times, and the fact that Kamiya has a crush on pretty boy samurai Okita Soji (who is one of the few people at the dojo that actually knows Kamiya is a girl). In fact, for pretty much the whole first book the storyline and what actually happens in the series seems to be at odds with each other. The storyline is supposed to be serious, but you'd have no idea of this fact if you were actually reading the book. At some point down the road, there is a scene where Kamiya meets her families killer. Before she can kill him though, she learns about his personal life, and ends up choking when it comes time to deliver the killing blow. She is devastated, and Okita has to assure her that she couldn't kill the man because she simply wasn't ready to. This is a powerful scene, the only one I read. The problem with "Kaze Hikaru" is that it feels like the author - Taeko Watanabe - would rather be working on something else. We have comedy, a love interest, lots of sexual tension, and tons of high jinks.

But very little of this is important to the main story or the developing of the characters. In fact, in terms of character development, the author completely misfires. Most of these characters feel like they would be right at home in a romantic comedy, but seeing these guys as adventurous samurai makes me laugh because it just doesn't look right or make sense. There's even one samurai who looks as though he's waiting for his paycheck or something, and his facial expressions never. Ever. Change. As you can probably tell, the artwork doesn't help much. Most characters don't have very detailed or varied facial expressions, and most of the artwork is simply too...bright. I'm serious, there are almost no shades of grey or anything. The comic is strictly black and white, with white being the dominant color, and almost no detailed backgrounds are to be found. I'm almost tempted to color the backgrounds blue, and find the characters acting in front of a blue screen reacting to things that aren't there (hey, it explained the horrible acting in "Star Wars Episodes I-III"). Like the tone of the storyline and dialog, the artwork is just too sunny and cheerful for what the series is supposed to be about, and the character designs are pretty uninspired, and look rather simplistic and are instantly forgettable.

Looking evil and pretty at the same time.

Looking at my manga collection, I'm rather shocked to discover that I don't have all that many series about samurai. In fact, I only have one really: "Rurouni Kenshin." And come to think about it, "Rurouni Kenshin" is a much better series than "Kaze Hikaru" is. Not because it depicts more violence then "Kaze Hikaru" does, but because the author knew exactly what "Rurouni Kenshin" was about and how to execute it. Yes "Rurouni Kenshin" has humor and lighthearted moments, but the overall tone is serious because...well, because the story of a wandering rurouni trying to right the sins of his past requires it to be so. "Kaze Hikaru" fails not only because the tone of the story doesn't match the seriousness of the story, but because the author seems to put no effort into making the story memorable or good. It's standard fluff, with nothing in it that's particularly memorable or good. The good thing about "Kaze Hikaru" is that it IS in "Shojo Beat," which means that everyone, more or less, has gotten to read it in the magazine, and has basically been warned to not buy the books. I applaud Viz for this, because they have so many other series that are worthy of buying, that it makes perfect sense to let the subscribers read this series without having to pay for the books. Of course, by that same token, I usually skip over this series and head straight to "Nana." I recommend everyone do that too.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -