Title: Legend of Chun Hyang Volume(s): 1 Author(s): CLAMP Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Tokyopop MSRP: $9.99 Genre(s): Fantasy Rated: Teen (13+)

CLAMP's single volume fantasy adventure "Legend of Chun Hyang" wound up being a major disapointment for me, although not for the reasons you might be thinking. This book wasn't disapointing because I didn't like. Quite the opposite, it was disapointing because I DID like it! Don't worry, I'll explain later. In the meantime though, "Legend of Chun Hyang" revolves around the legend of a Korean girl named (you guessed it) Chun Hyang. The legend goes that Chun Hyang was a beautiful maiden who was faithful to her husbend, despite being seperated from him for the rest of her life and thrown in jail for many years because she refused to move onto other suiters. The book opens up with this legend and a beautiful, elegant women in a beautiful dress standing in the middle of the page, and then when you turn the page you see a hyper, sword wielding Hyang with the text "this Chun Hyang is a little bit different" written on the bottom of the page.

Instead of being the Chun Hyang described in the Korean legend, THIS Chun Hyang is a skilled martial artist, who uses her skills to stand up to the evil Yang Ban government, who treats the villagers like bugs and does whatever they want to. The rule is either you do exactly what the king says, or you die, and everyone else gets some sort of punishment too. It's because of this rule that no one ever dares to defy the king and his spoiled brat of a son. Chun is the only girl brave enough to stick up to the corrupt government, as she waits for the day the Am-Hang-Osa comes to her town and help her free the town from the king and his son. The only problem witt the whole Am-Hang-Osa thing is that Chun isn't one hundred percent sure he's real, which means there's no telling if he's even coming to the rescue or not. While there are lots of CLAMP stories that I harp on for being unoriginal and tacky, this story isn't one of them. "Legend of Chun Hyang" is actually the kind of entertainment that CLAMP is best known for. It has a solid cast of characters, a good story, and excellent art. Many people who are new to manga may not even realize that the artwork is from the 80's, which is a testiment to how well drawn this series is. Chun Hyang is the character who truly makes this series work, as she is a tough-as-nails, take no crap warrior, but she also has the heart of a child, and these trates combined make her one of the most likable protagonists in a CLAMP series to date.

For once in my life, I wanted CLAMP to make one of their series longer.

Action sequences are also very stylistic and vibrant, making them a joy to read through. What makes this series such a collasol dispointment is that it is simply too short. We get to like these characters, we get into the story, and the end of chapter two suggests that this will be an on-going series, but chapter three ends up being a elaborated flashback sequence. And then the series ends. While we do enjoy what we get in the end, we are left with a feeling that there should be more to the story then this. Much more. It feels like kind of a cheat to leave Chun Hyang just when she's starting her journeys accross Korea. The thing about this is, it FEELS like CLAMP wanted to make this an on-going series, but for some reason it isn't! Maybe the reason it didn't continue was due to a lack of popularity and recognition, but whatever the reason, it seems like a wasted oppertunity to me. While the short length and lack of a decent ending hinders this book a bit, it is still an easy recomendation. I would hope that one day CLAMP would decide to come back to Chun Hyangs adventures and finish the story, but if they can't find the time to finish "X/1999" (which is one of their most popular series to date) then I doubt they would take the time to finish this series. Oh well, guess I should be happy with what was writen rather then what won't be written.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -