Shinshoku Kiss 2

Honestly, I got about 3/4 of the way through this book, all the way to the last chapter in fact, before I realized that this series is only 2 volumes long.  I can’t figure out if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  It really seemed like the type of story that would stretch out over 4 or 5 volumes at least, but it honestly wasn’t that interesting, so it’s probably better that it ended here.

I can’t say that the ending was rushed, it just suddenly… answered all the questions it had set up in the story.  There were no loose ends.  When I realized that the biggest mystery, the one about the Star doll, was in the process of being answered, that’s when I realized that this really WAS the last volume. The last chapter may also be called “last chapter” or something like that too, but I don’t normally read chapter titles or numbers in series I don’t particularly care for, so that didn’t really give it away in this case.

The actual plot, while interesting, never really made sense to me.  It’s eventually explained what the plant business is, but I never really understood why it was that the girl needed to steal people’s beauty to make dolls other than the reason given at the very end… which didn’t really satisfy me, but satisfied the story all right.  I also didn’t quite understand how it was the girl was given this gift… and lots of other people can do the same thing, but they don’t necessarily steal beauty.  Or something.  But she HAS to, or Fool will age her.  Yeah.  I’m sure it would make sense if I read both volumes again back to back, but the characters never got really good, and the mini-plots involving the people whose beauty got stolen were also never all that good.  Stealing beauty to make ball joint dolls sounds like an awesome idea, and it is, but it was just… not well executed.

Hm.  Would it have gotten better if it was longer?  Possibly, but only if the characters got significantly more interesting.  It’s probably better off as two volumes.

I do have to give it credit, it did drag in the “Robe of Feathers” legend (it might not be called this, but that’s what the Phoenix story based on the same myth was based on).  I’m a sucker for things based in myth and legend, especially when I’m not expecting them.