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Amazon.com: Oyayubihime Infinity: Volume 6 (Oyayubihime Infinity): Books: Toru FujiedaHas anyone else read Oyayubihime Infinity? Why not?! Go read it! The final volume, volume six, has just come out so you can get the whole series and read it in one go. CMX has been putting out a lot of great, unusual titles that I feel are being lost among the sea of Tokyopop and Viz titles. Besides Oyayubihime Infinity, I'm enjoying their release of Emma, Cipher, and Recipe For Gertrude. It's getting to the point that when I see it's put out by CMX I'm more willing to give it a chance. I'm sad that Oyayubihime Infinity is over, and I hope it was popular enough to bring some of Fujieda's other titles over.
A friend told me that Oyayubihime means "Thumb Princess," meaning the title translates to "Thumb Princess Infinity." The premise is pretty simple. There are people in this world who are connected by destiny. In previous lives they were unable to fulfill their destiny to be together and are reborn in this life to meet again. To mark these people they have an unusual butterfly birthmark on their thumbs.
In the beginning the main character, Kanoko, is unaware of the significance of her birthmark. She and her sister, Mayu, were both born with it and they use it to make promises on to be together forever. They are daughters of a famous actress, though their fathers are different. Mayu is being raised by her mother to be an actress even though she's shy. Kanoko spends her life coaching and "producing" Mayu, helping her awkward sister live up to her good looks and star power heritage. Kanoko doesn't speak to anyone in class, living in her own little world and txt-ing her sister all day on her phone.
That is until her classmate Tsubame, her class idol, notices her birthmark. He's been having memories of his past life ever since he was little. When he grabs Kanoko's hand and put their marks Kanoko has a vision of her past life. In a past life Tsubame was Sukeroku and he's searching for the reincarnation of Agemaki, the woman he committed a lover's suicide with in the past in the hopes of meeting again the next life. Now that he's found Kanoko, he believes they should immediately start dating and announces it to the whole school.
But it's not that simple. Kanoko doesn't remember her full life, so she's not sure if she is Agemaki. It could be her sister, who also has the butterfly birthmark. Or it could be Mike, Tsubame's middle school ex-boyfriend who also has a birthmark. (They dated until Tsubame realized their memories of the past life didn't match up.) It turns out that there were several people who were born with the birthmark, each with their own baggage from a past life.
The thing I love about Oyayubihime Infinity is there is actually two stories going on at the same time. One is in the present where Kanoko gets increasingly snarled in the search for people marked with the butterflies. Another is the past with Agemaki and Sukeroku and the people who's lives they touched. They reveal the past lives in pieces like a puzzle.
But even if Agemaki and Sukeroku find each other again, are those two people obligated to fulfill their promise to be together? Is it true love if you're loving out of obligation? Can you believe that your lover loves you for who you are now, and not the past you? Is that even love at all?
It's a wonderfully complex story, and plus it's got cute art! Fujieda's character work is really appealing. Sometimes she goes a bit heavy on the screentones and her panels can be a bit crowded. But overall, there is a sweetness to her artwork that really shines through. The characters are all round and soft without looking super deformed. I don't know she manages to make them look high school age when they've all got pudgy cheeks. I especially like her drawings of the past lives of Agemaki and others. Agemaki was a Geisha, and much of her story centers around geisha life. I love Fujieda's Geisha pictures. I wish she would draw a true period drama.
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