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Reviews

Manga

Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for Count Cain

Story & Characters

Count Cain is quite the unusual series, started before Kaori Yuki's major work, Agnel Sanctuary, then finished in a different series afterwards.
Its eight-volume continuation, currently being liscenced by Tokyopop as a shoujo manga, is called Godchild. Before reading Godchild, I read the previous stories of Count Cain, so I wasn't so confused when I read the whole series and enjoyed the series very much, but thinking technically about the plot setup, I can't give it a high mark.

Cain Hargreaves is the sole heir to the Hargreaves fortune. Being 17 years old and having attractive features with immense wealth, he is sought after by many young women. Count Cain has had quite the dark life, however, and his hobbies include observing poisons and chasing after his supposed-to-be-dead father, Alexis Hargreaves, with his trusty butler, Riff. Later in the early Cain series, the two are joined by Cain's half sister, Merryweather, who has been orphaned because of the death of her mother (which is related to Alexis's new secret organization, Delilah). Matters get more complicated as Cain is chased by a psychologically damaged doctor under the hire of Alexis who wants to kill him, all while Cain goes around Britain trying to solve all the bloody murders caused by Delilah and kill his father once and for all.
Also during the first series, it is explained that Cain is the result of an inscestous relationship, thus making him cursed.

Keep in mind that all this background information is all given in the first arc, therefore only partly explained to the rest of the new-generation fans and foreign fans who have only heard of all that in a little panel on the first page in the new series. Some critisize Tokyopop for only releasing Godchild, but the original Count Cain has a few problems with being liscenced now, as it has a poor setup and different looks for the characters (also with the problem that before Godchild, Cain's face constantly changes).

Therefore, overall the story can't be well understood, and even with the full explanation from the previous Count Cain, the plot is confusing by itself, constantly turning to different problems of the acquantances of Cain. However, its plot is very interesting and kept me entertained for the whole time I was reading it.

Rating

6 (average)

Art

For Count Cain one would have to consider art styles for Godchild and all the other Count Cain volumes in this set, because before the hiatus, the manga was confusingly inconsistent with the drawing style.
The characters in the original manga are rather old-fashioned looking, and quite different from the Godchild versions. Cain often sports different hairstyles, and one can notice different changes in his face that make it hard to distinguish him. Riff is also quite different, and his character in the beginning is so unnoticeable that he is just considered "Cain's butler" before their relationship is deepened with more emphasis in Godchild.
Expressing the age of the characters can also be baffling, as all the characters' looks keep changing in one major way or another.
In Godchild, the muddled and unproffesional looking manga takes a major turn, the author obviously having gained more experience with the 20-volume Angel Sanctuary project. Most of the main characters' hairstyles before straight and their wardrobe gets a Victorian-style makeover, especially for Merryweather, who is given particular attention with various Lolita fashion dresses. The faces also become different, in a bishounen style for Cain and Riff. The manga is now considerably cleaner, with better toning and more sophisticated illusts.
Gory scenes with lots of blood are quite similar, but the individuality of the side characters are made better, whereas in the previous series, the girls mainly lookes the same. Now, different hair styles, interesting hair ornaments, and interesting weapons are used. The setting also improves, with the re-making of Cain's mansion and overal mood of the background.
With this turnaround in art, the Cound Cain genre shifts slightly, going from Murder, Horror, Mystery, and Shoujo to Horror, Shonen-ai, Shoujo, and borrowing somewhat from the Fantasy genre. The series also developes a more defined sense of feel and genre.

Rating

7 (above average)

Sound

(No Sound is used)

-Section is substituted to Characters-

After the hiatus, Godchild becomes almost like a new series, as the characters are developed in different ways while Kaori Yuki abandons old traits for new ones.
Count Cain's hobby with poison is seldom shown unless to emphasize on how he is smarter than is enemies. Godchild focuses considerably instead on how he is mentally scarred from the hatred of his family members, showing flashbacks of him and Riff, and also his possessiveness on both Riff and Merryweather. Cain is also shown more as a womanizer, although most of the girls that he has a fling with die in the end. He is generally not so much of a confusing character, considering the plot and his background story.
Riff is Cain's most precious person, and Kaori Yuki uses him to create the most major conflicts in the series, which makes it generally confusing to who he really is. His past is hard to grasp, and understanding him is difficult. There is too little on his supposed "dark" personality to really know what's going on when he's really in action.
Merryweather is the main girl in the series, and she is the least conflicted in the series. She is the bright flower in the dark and cold Hargreaves mansion, and while she is the main focus of Cain's rescue adventures, she isn't very interesting. She is, however, necessary, and brings out a lot of Cain's personality. However, one can't relate to her very well, as her past is never told in the Godchild manga. Most (or only) of her defining traits, such as fortuntelling, is almost discarded except for two or three events in the new series.
The side characters are given a slight bit of spotlight in each chapter, but because they die, we can't sympathize with them or understand them very well. Count Cain doesn't, unfortunately, seem to pay attention to characteristics very well, as it is too busy in describing the many action scenes to bring down Delilah. However, there are many interesting views from mentally damaged characters in the manga, from killers' reasons to childhood scars. These are some things that make the characters interesting, but sometimes, these causes for deadly personalities seem to repeat themselves, making them somewhat unoriginal and shallow.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

For the presentation of this manga, I owuld have to repeat what I've been saying for the whole review - the hiatus of Count Cain makes a huge effect on how successful it could of been. The plot gap expands for over a decade, and there are some important information in the original series that make the new series baffling and hard to grasp. The real and definite concept is never really clear, and although Godchild is throughly enjoyable and has a solid ending, it doesn't have a good start, nor much of a good backstory to most of the characters' actions.
Count Cain has good stories to tell, but endless problems surface before the real good parts of the manga, so the presentation, in this case, is conflict-ridden.
If Kaori Yuki had taken more time to retell the past in more than just simple flashbacks, it Godchild, in my view, could have flourished more as a better and understandable series.
As the first part was published a decade ago, not much of the first fanbase would be waiting for the new series, so Godchild, unfortunately would have to be one of the could-have-been manga series.

Rating

5 (moderate)

Final Verdict

6.00 (average)

Reviewed by Rosegirl18, 2y 2wk ago