Fairy Cube # 3, by Kaori Yuki

[rachelmanija]

I tachiyomi'd this, so I nothing to refer back to. However, I don't think that would have made much of a difference.

This wins the prize as the single most incoherent manga I have ever read, even beating The World Exists For Me. And volume three may have been the least comprehensible volume of the bunch. Not only could I not follow the story in general, I usually couldn't tell what was happening on any given page. (I read the whole thing out of sheer amazement.)

Upon consulting oyceter, I discovered that part of my confusion was caused by two misapprehensions. I had thought that there was only one long-haired man with an eye-patch. There are two. Also, I thought that Tokage had vanished from the story and some random guy named Isaiah had appeared. What actually happens is that Tokage turns out to be named Isaiah.

There is a dead fairy God on an oxygen mask, a door into Faerie, and people crawling in and out of other people's bodies. Ian gets full-sized wings, or maybe that's an illusion. Faerie and Earth merge, unless that's an illusion too. Oh, and Rin enters a beauty pageant in order to rescue Ian. I forget why she thought that would help.

There's a long side-story that made more sense, but reminded me of the duller and more obvious stand-alone stories in Godchild.

So, does anyone have any idea what happened?

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I am fairly certain that my posts on the last two volumes were nothing but attempting to explain what happened. I'm not sure, as it's entirely possible my brain hasn't recovered yet.

I do remember that how Rin is no longer spontaneously combustible is never actually explained.

[oyceter]

Wait, there was a point in time in which Rin was spontaneously combustible?! How did I forget about that?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think it was in v2? Tokage cursed her so she'd burst into flames if she touched anyone she felt strongly about, so she grabbed him figuring that he'd get burned since she hated him, but he was all, "Bwahaha, it only works with positive emotions and now you and Ian can never touch on noes!"

[oyceter]

Bwahaha! I am still amused that I thought the manga was already insane and cracktastic before knowing about the threat of spontaneous combustion!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Did you read the new comments here? Please help settle the disagreement between Mely and me over whether or not Faerie and Earth collided, whether fairies were released into the world, and/or whether Ian distributed his ability to see the ones that were already there.

[oyceter]

I did, but I sadly can't settle anything because I can't remember! Or, uh, I do vaguely remember, but I have no idea if I am remembering correctly at all.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think it's all true. Faerie and Earth (I almost said Heaven and Hell, but that's the wrong Kaori Yuki manga) were colliding and then Ian (Actually, I think it was more the blond one eyed guy, not to be confused with Raven, the dark-haired one-eyed guy, but let's not nitpick.) stopped it, but faeries escaped to Earth AND more people can see them now.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But it worked on Raven! I think. At least surprised him.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes. I think it was Tokage's fault, as part of the whole "make Ian suffer" thing. It as made so that, when she got emotional, anything she touched caught fire. Except, you know, her clothes. I remember this because her response to this was to think about how pissed off she was and grab Raven so Ian could escape.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You understood a lot more of that than I did!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Also, there is a little girl who is really Ian's mother. I think the happy ending is that Faerie and Earth are *prevented* from merging, but I could be wrong.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

There was also a girl who was brought up as a boy. Unless that was Ian's mother.

I think there was an evil plot to merge Faerie and Earth that was averted, but at the end Ian gave humanity the ability see the fairies among them. Maybe.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

No, I think lots of fairies escaped into the world, setting up the spin-off/sequel story, but ... huh. I don't remember anything about the visibility issues.

The Mafia princess who went around dressed as a boy wasn't Ian's mother, no. She was helping a fairy masquerading as her father with his evil plans for world-merging/world domination for reasons I forget but feel fairly certain had something to do with her parents.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think it was both people could see fairies and fairies escaped into the world, because at the end, people were talking about how they could see them now.

*runs to find her copy*

Ok, as near as I can tell, everyone saw the big averted merge, and at least some are able to see fairies, because there are two girls talking about it and one is all "nope, mass hallucination" and then they both see one.

[oyceter]

Oh, I thought the ability to see fairies was temporary? Maybe?

And yes, I was extremely confused about Ian's mother, who was dead then a little girl then back to her normal age then possibly dead again. Maybe.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

She got pregnant in Faerie, right? And Tokage was born as a bodiless spirit, and Ian only aged one year despite her being gone for ten? Or maybe that was someone else.

[oyceter]

Um. Yes, I think? Although I have no idea about Ian aging because I am completely confused, and I have no idea why she de-aged and re-aged. Also, I can't remember if she was abusive and/or evil!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's Yuki Kaori: of course she was abusive and evil.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

No, she was actually good! Tokage hated her because he thought she'd abandoned him in Faerie, but it turned out she was forced to do so for his own good so he wouldn't be found by powers who were hunting her for some reason or another. I can't remember if she turned into a little girl to hide from the people hunting her or if they caught her and turned her into a little girl as punishment.

Ian's abusive dad was supposed to be redeemed by the power of his remorse and/or having been partially tricked into being abusive by fairies, but I so did not care about his inner pain.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Shiro's mother was pregnant when she went into Faerie and was gone for 5 years, but was either still pregnant or Shiro was a newborn when she returned, so Shiro's father thought she was part fairie, but she was really his, time just passed differently.

Isaiah was stillborn, so Kureha (mom) took his soul to Faerie where he could still live.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

...who was Shiro?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Crossdressing girl with the pacemaker, whose father is the one the Faerie god was possessing. I think she and Isaiah randomly had a thing for 2 seconds in the last volume.

Editted to fix typo that would make things even more confusing.

[weirdquark]

Shiro is the girl who was pretending to be a boy in order to make Ian's mom think that she was Ian.

[oyceter]

Wait, why did she want Ian's mom to think she was Ian? And how on earth did she end up the caretaker of the Fairy King in an oxygen mask?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The Fairie god was possessing the body of Shiro's father. I forget if the body gave out because of the possession, or soon after. *looks because she still has vol 3 sitting beside her*

Ok, Ian's mom was there to be a hostage against Ian and Tokage or something. Apparently she was super powerful, but passed all her power on to her sons.

And it doesn't say when he ended up on an oxygen mask.

Hey, what is it with Kaori Yuki and Significant Stuffed Bunnies, anyway? There was Metatron's bunny that Sandalphon kept possessing in Angel Sanctuary and Kureha has a stuffed bunny that she seems to be using as a substitute for Ian and Tokage.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I had thought that there was only one long-haired man with an eye-patch.

You know, I get confused if there are two men of the same basic look (two Asian men with dark hair, two white men with brown hair, maybe even a mixed race man and a white man if they both had brown hair, I'm a little better with redheads or blondes but I think there aren't usually a lot of them at once). I feel strangely reassured that you get confused if there are TWO long-haired men with an eye patch.

The really embarrassing thing is that this happens to me in real life too, that I can get people (OK, men) confused if they have anything like the same look; my coworker tried to tell me that right, those two guys in our office were both kind of short young looking doctors (with brown hair), she understood, even though really, everyone else could tell them apart right away.