I totally love the beginning because it was special and unique. I love kikutsune from the very moment he was introduced in the manga. Thought that the oiran was going to fall in love with him bc I did. He was the most fit to end up with her I say because he did everything and so much for her.

Thanks to me reading similar historical theme series before this one, I understood the flow easier. Oiran was a string minded character and I actually enjoyed her up until she fill in love with Sangetsu: starting from here everything started going down hill. Oiran started of in love with and had strong feelings for Aoto, but then she grew feelings for a new man as soon as she meets him. After finishing the series, I conclude with the oiran being a woman that falls in and out of love way too much and too fast due to her being young and she especially seeks for feelings I return from males due to growing up without knowing here father the shogun. The last volume was just messed up. So many things were introduced and everything were rushed and unclear. I did however like the love scenes between oiran and Sangetsu, which was the only thing that was good in the last volume.

Again I loved Kikutsune. He was beautiful and was the strongest character. It was just really disappointing at the end for him and for every other characters besides for oiran and Sangetsu.

There's a reason no one raves about this manga. I found it accidentally, and thinking it might have been a rare gem I picked it up. For the sake of my opinion on the manga, I finished to completion (but easily would have dropped it half way through).

It's messy. The characters are poorly written, for starters. The main character, within the first few chapters, says something like "I vowed I'd never cry after my mother died" while crying. She pretty much ends up crying every single chapter. So much for that strong female character.
Then she leads on minimum five different men (she's and oiran, so I guess that could be understandable). But she contradicts herself all the time. In love with one at one moment, another the next. And she ends up with the attempted murder/rapist! What??!

The others are just as awfully constructed.

The story, well, I lost count of the plot holes and contradictions.

The only neat thing about this story is the historic effect. It does go into a lot of the history of that time period, which was probably its saving grace.

This is a good manga. The plot is interesting, the ending feels very natural (which is something I love!) and the art is also good. The only reason that I didn't give it a higher rating is that a lot happens so fast that I had problems with understanding why things happened and keep up with what was happening at the moment. It becomes better throughout the manga as you will understand the important events. Although, this can be frustrating at times it is important to not give up and continue reeding.

The story had so much potential that it was surprising how far off-course it ended up. Ultimately, it was dragged down by a poorly written story that didn't capitalize on a setting and characters that could've made this a ripping good read. I can't really decide what the mangaka had wanted to do with this, because it started off as the tale of an oiran who's trying to discover her origins, then became a doomed love story which transitioned to an adventure story that ended with a huge anti-climax. It was compelling enough that I kept reading, but it was so confusing and schizophrenic that I was tempted to drop it multiple times. Even the romance between Usugumo and the assassin, which started off being quite moving, ended up falling flat with a disappointing final stretch. The art also left much to be desired, with strangely drawn eyes and proportions that are slightly off. Overall I wouldn't recommend it, although if you're truly interested, don't let this deter you. Give it a try past the second volume, where it improves significantly, but try not to expect too much.

Well, I read it all today because at first I thought it would be one of those really cool manga that I would remember all my life... but as the plot continued, everything became extremely confusing and rushed. All of a sudden, the mangaka pulled in so many different twists that surprised me so much that I couldn't help but scream annoyingly at this. The mangaka seemed to be rushing and extremely liked Usugumo so much that she wanted to make every character fall in love with her... She seemed to forget about this by the third volume and rushed by the fourth and fifth volume to make more people fall in love with her, which is fine and all, but why would they suddenly say "I love you." so quickly without any warning for the reader... This unrealistic side of the characters really gave me a little nudge to stop reading, but I kept reading and it seemed as if I am extremely disappointed... It should have just ended when she revealed her identity and Sangetsu disappeared... but they had to pull in another story as if trying to lengthen it for the cash.

Overall... horribly unorganized. Brilliant in the beginning. Cheap at the end. And I just love Sangetsu. And Usugumo does not deserve to be the pretty most popular oiran in Yoshiwara since Sangetsu and Kinnosuke easily beat her when crossdressing... this fact annoyed me very much. *SMILE*

Don't let those comments bother you, this one is really good actually !!!
The plot, the drawing are awesome ! And there're so many amazing scenes too !
You have to read it now !

I thought the manga started off brilliantly.
Compelling, unpredictable, very interesting ;]!
But then it got awfully confusing and such a strange love interest!
Sadly, this story got lost :[

This story started out interesting, but gradually got worse and more confusing. There is really no purpose to the main character being an oiran, and her 'true identity' was a pretty lame plot device. The character development is very poor and the ending is difficult to understand.

There were parts which bothered me to no end... like the randomness of some of the story... and the unrealistic behaviour of characters...
There were many loopholes and unexplained phenomena and there was hardly anything about eleki...
The story was predictable, the characters were alright, development is minimal though... the art was okay... I did like the attention to background and small details like that

As much as I have to complain about the manga... I still liked it overall... though I must say the ending is kinda really weird.. and inconclusive...

I love this manga!Art and story are very good.