"Rasen no Kakera"
(Spiral Fragments)
By Kaimu TACHIBANA
ISBN# 4-403-61284-9
Wings Comics, 1992
Summary by Rurichan!
In a way Rasen no Kakera, by Kaimu Tachibana, can be in the same category as Please Save My Earth. Where Rin, Alice, and the other characters are reincarnations of people from space observing Earth. Rasen no Kakera (which I keep referring to Kaken no Rasera ^^;) follows the same story line of dealing with your past life and the consequences of finding the people who were involved. The story starts out with three incarnations, Sakuya, Wakyou, who are upset at Hijirou who they consider as their mentor and their guide in ancient magical Japan.
Kazuki wakes up from his dream about
Sakuya, Wakyou, and Hijirou. He wonders if its a dream or if
its something else. He doesn't have much time to ponder about
it and gets ready for school. Of course this day is different
from the others...
Luckily, the story doesn't go through the
torturous process of trying to find the other reincarnations.
Right away in volume one we meet them. In comes Makoto who
had flown all over Japan (he literally floats to Kazuki) and
introduces himself as Wakyou. Present day Kazuki finds out
that he is the reincarnation of Sakuya and Makoto is
the reincarnation of Wakyou, and luckily they were also
reincarnated with their past lives' powers.
Scenes later, Makoto transfers to Kazuki's
school and both are slowly becoming friends, just like their
reincarnations were in the past. It seems as though Makoto
wants to find Hijirou more than Kazuki does. They meet
Masayuki who Kazuki believes is the reincarnation of Hijirou.
It seems as though they aren't the only ones looking for
Hijirou's reincarnation. Before they can tell Masayuki (who
seems to be clueless about his past life) Masayuki gets taken
to another dimension! Makoto goes after him leaving Kazuki in
present day Japan!
What will happen to Makoto? Who is Ruki and
who does she know that Makoto has powers? And who is the
furry eared demon that took Masayuki away? Is he on their
side or does he have is own selfish reasons to find Hijirou's
reincarnation.
I picked this one up randomly at the
bookstore because the cover art was pretty and it made me
stop and go "ooo." The color art inside are just as
good as the covers. Also the transitions between scenes are
seamless, one minute you see a present day scene then an
image of the main characters as their former selves and the
next image is the start of another scene. Kaimu Tachibana
does great transitions and adds nice little touches such as
Kazuki and Makoto calling each other by their former names
while responding to their present day names. (It gets a bit
confusing. ^^)
A warning to those who would like to find
Rasen no Kakera, the series is a ten volume series using the
chinese number system, but some numbers are replaced with
kanji. For later volumes I would suggest asking the store to
open the wrapped manga and looking under the dust jacket. On
the cover of the manga itself is the volume number in
english. (1, 2, 3, etc.) I accidentally picked up vol two
instead of volume one and then I had to wait a month or two
before the store restocked so I could find volume one and
figure out what the heck is going on in the story. This is
also the kind of manga that has furigana on the names and
then it drops the furigana on the sides of the kanji, but its
worth the effort!
ISBN: Vol 1: 4-403-61284-9
Vol 2: 4-403-61301-2 (505 yen)
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