Manga Series Review: Pandora Hearts

    

Summary: PANDORA HEARTS shows us a world filled with fate, friendship, surreal and struggle. PANDORA HEARTS begins with the 15-year-old Oz Vessalius as he undergoes a coming-of-age ceremony as the heir to a prestigious family. One day, however, he's attacked by a group of mysterious people in red cloaks, and they tell him that his very existence is a sin and for that he must be cast into the prison of the Abyss.

Thoughts: Maybe this ought to be titled explanation. At any rate, the summary is in fact only for the very beginning of this dark Alice-in-Wonderland-like series. First off though, for those of you unfamiliar with the term 'manga' it is a form of Japanese comic book. So yes, it's a story told with dialogue and pictures, each so close together it's almost like watching a movie in slow motion. Now, to be honest, I've only read from Vol. 8 and onwards. My reason is that I've seen the show that covers up until then and is nearly word for word and can easily compare it's key frames to the manga panels and I wasn't overly interested in the extras at the time (though I might go back for them now).
 Now, onto the review! I dearly love this series. The artwork is amazing and so wonderfully detailed and the story is intriguing and confusing (like any manga/anime), but what is most amazing is the characters. Their depth, growth, thoughts, actions, past, dreams, are unbelievably riveting and tear jerking. But this is a story from Japan and I've found that most Japanese manga authors have some sort of grudge against feel-good or happy endings for most if not all of their characters. So when I wasn't laughing hysterically or sitting on the edge of my seat in suspense, I was crying and screaming "NO!" as someone was brutally killed off. And the ending was definitely less than hoped for but what most people started to expect (and fear)!Despite this I really loved this series that has ended recently at 22 volumes and left me heart broken!

Content:While being fairly clean for a manga, there are always things as manga is rarely intended for children in Japan. First off there's language, D*** and B****** are the most common and probably the worst (though they're thankfully not used too often!). Next we have a few rather skimpily clothed girls in weird outfits on occasion and then there's the whole ordeal with Lacie. SPOILER--- It is implied that Alice and her twin are the illegitimate children of Glen Baskerville (Levi at the time) and Lacie---END SPOILER. Also one character appears to have a creepy brother complex at first but this is shown to be simply extreme protectiveness at a later point. Same character was also obsessed (he has mental issues...but most of the cast does) with 'defiling' a certain girl but this never amounted to much as she proceeded to freak him out ten seconds later. And there is a lot of violence...and blood...and death....a lot. There are a few strange religious themes such as the main character's existence being called a 'sin' and villains carrying around the occasional cross; but it's small, has little to do with the story, and is easy to ignore.