Source: TV
Layers: 1
Sketch: 1, stuck
Cel Number: A4
Standard size
I love love LOVE Yumi Tamura’s work. Basara and 7SEEDS are two of my favorite manga series – great shojo epics, with great, sweeping set pieces (both take place in very different takes of post-apocalyptic Japan) but it comes down to relationships. Not just between star-crossed lovers, but in the circle of friends and sometime frenemies that the heroine builds around her. It’s the sort of series that I sit down and re-read once a year. It’s just good.
In Basara, you have Sarasa, twin sister of Tatara, who is believed to be blessed with destiny to overthrow the tyrannical Golden King and his children. However, Tatara is killed and Sarasa cross-dresses and takes over his role – but it turns out that she is the child of destiny. As she builds her resistance army, she makes new friends – like Hayato, a boy who carries an important sword; or Chacha, the beautiful leader of a band of pirates. And Ageha, a great dancer who has spent his life looking for a woman to die for – and he is the best.
When getting away from the pressures of being “Tatara”, she sneaks off to hot springs, where she meets a kind, handsome young man, Shuri. They keep meeting… and it turns to love. Until one day, they learn who the other one actually is… and how strong will their love be in a world torn apart by war?
There was a 13 episode anime, which I have never seen – it never made it to the US. There’s some low-quality clips around, but I prefer to cherish the manga (27 volumes vs 13 episodes!) and see these cels as a wonderful, tangible piece of the series I adore.
