Manga A Day: King of Cards Vol 01

Amazon.com: King of Cards: Volume 1 (King of Cards): Books: Makoto Tateno ISBN: 140121312X ISBN-13: 9781401213121

Main character Minami decided to start playing "Chaos," a collectible card game similar to Magic or Yugioh. By pure chance the beginner's set she picks out has the rarest card in the game, "Sahgan the Sorcerer." Now any player who's anyone is itching to engage her in a match to get it from her. Reading the back of this book didn't elicit too much interest, but I gave it a chance because it was brought out by CMX. CMX has a pretty good track record for putting our some quirky interesting releases. I didn't think I'd like Omukae Desu or Recipe for Gertrude either.

I found this a pretty bizarre choice, even for CMX. This book seems dated. The artwork looks old, older then 1998 when it was first published in Japan. The story line seems to try to capitalize on the now dead CCG craze of that same time by making up a game to base the story around. The story is about as interesting as watching someone play magic or the pokemon card game. In other words, not very interesting. But without the artwork or story to save it wonder why they brought this title over. I'm also trying to figure out if this Makoto Tateno is the same Makoto Takeno of Duex/Aurora's Hate to Love You and DPM's Yellow, both Yaoi titles.

The author admits that the first chapter was meant as a short story, but readers at the time responded to it. As a short story I like the concept fine, the following chapters don't do as well. They are very formulaic, Minami is challenged by a strong player. They usually make a snide comment about a technique or worthless card. Her cousin Tamotsu, who she looks up to, coaches her on how to play. The night before the game she has a dream that Sahgan appears in. The next day she wins the game using whatever card or technique the strong player dissed.  Plus, it's revealed after the fact that the card/technique was also in the dream.

The blurb for the next book indicates this title is going into a more fantasy realm with Minami entering the world of the Chaos cards. This might break it out of the rut the stories are in. I'll give it another couple of books to see if it develops into something interesting.

The book also include a short story based on Sudoku (though they just call it Magic Square in the story). It's a murder mystery. I wonder what she'll write about next? Crossword puzzles? Deathmatch over Rubix Cubes?

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