by AstroNerdBoy on May 16th, 2006, 9:06pm

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User rating of this review - N/A out of 5
Story/Plot - 4 out of 5
Characters - 4 out of 5
Drawing Style - 3 out of 5
Enjoyment - 3.5 out of 5
Overall - 3.5 out of 5

Click here for series information

Plot/Story

The manga, adapted from the original novel(s), starts the story of Pacifica Casull, also known as the Scrapped Princess. She is a teenaged girl on the run with her older (twin?) siblings Raquel and Shannon. Raquel ("Raquel-nee" as Pacifica calls her) is a powerful mage and Shannon ("Shannon-nii" as Pacifica calls her) is a powerful swordsman. Since Pacifica is seen as a curse due to a prophecy about her life, people are constantly trying to kill her and rid the world of the curse. However, with Shannon-nii and Raquel-nee there to protect her, killing her proves difficult as they work quite well together in combat. Indeed, Pacifica states that the only ones allowed to kill her are her older brother and sister.

The manga follows the trio as they encounter different people (and even a bit of ancient technology) and the impact they have on those they encounter.

Characters

Pacifica Casull -- She's the teenaged girl known as the "Scrapped Princess," and the one so many people want to kill. Having been hunted all her life, she has an interesting way of looking at life and death.

Shannon Casull -- "Shannon-nii" as she's called by Pacifica, he's the muscle of the trio and an excellent swordsman.

Raquel Casull -- "Raquel-nee" as she's called by Pacifica, she's the magic of the trio, and a powerful one.

Drawing Style

The art style is OK. I think my main problem is that most panels are drawn of characters closeup. As such, we don't get a lot of background imagery. I don't think it works that well for an action title like this. Compared to the anime, the character designs aren't all that hot. Yabuki-san even apologized for his (or her) inadequacies in the art.

Enjoyment

It was an nice read. I rather enjoyed seeing that the manga played out completely different from the anime. While the theme was the same as the anime, the events that transpired were completely different. I suspect that the manga may have followed the original novel(s) in a closer fashion.

TokyoPop does the translation right here. Despite it being a fantasy (with a bit of sci-fi), the translator Alethea Nibley does an excellent job in keeping the Japanese elements in, including the use of Japanese honorifics when they are used. Too bad that TokyoPop won't do the same thing when they start publishing the original novels.

Overall

At only three volumes, the story is incomplete. That is very frustrating for those wishing to get more information on the story Sakaki-sensei wrote. So I suppose we'll have to make do with whatever novels TP decides to actually translate (or domesticate). Considering how they did the "Slayers" novels, I don't hold much hope.

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