Ludwig Kakumei

A re-imagination of some of the Grimm Brother's classic fairy tales. First of all, the art is some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of encountering. The character drawings are a real pleasure for the eye, highly detailed and expressive. Her well-defined traces give a strong, attractive image of the characters, and yet still she is able to maintain a full background without it detracting from the foreground. While I am not fully familiarized with Kaori-sensei's work, I believe well enough that this form of character design, clearly one of her strong points, is also one of her weak points, as I shall attemptto explain. What happens, when a character is detailed to the extreme is that, to some readers (I would not dare to speak for all of us), the art becomes so visually intense, that it begins to distract somewhat from the remainder of the work, and generally becomes tiring to the eyes.Another example of this, although a bit better balanced off when compared to what happens in Ludwig Kakumei, is the works of Masakazu Katsura, in which the art, while maintaining a certain level of detail, is softened by a less 'sharp' character design and shadowing, that blends naturally into the background. As for the story, short and sweet. It may seem, at first, to be of a rather episodic nature, but the author quickly picks up on the small strings and hints through the story, to quilt them together in a wonderfully open-ended conclusion. How this can be considered 'good', is very easily felt by the reader, upon seeing Prince Ludwig mature as a character. As Kaori-sensei wrote in her final notes on the series, the Lui-sama at the beginning of the story is much different from the one in the beginning, leaving the open "Happy Ever After" a satisfying one. His companions also receive a good amount of background and personality development, and one of them participates strongly towards the final plot-twist, something remarkable, in particular for a short story, a style that tends to ignore the backing characters. The darker view on the Grimm brother's tales, proposed by the author, ends up sitting with a good degree of comfort and stability on the border between parody and drama: The introspection into the dark motifs and motivations behind each of the fairy tale princesses is finely peppered with the occasional pun or light-hearted event, without ever detracting from a firm continuity. All in all, Ludwig Kakumei's rich artwork and interesting, alternative story make for a very enjoying read, and the darker overtones to the classic fairy tales are well balanced, as to please to, what I would tend to expect, a wider audience. A definite must for those who enjoy gothic imagery and selfish, narcissistic male leads.

Ludwig Revolution is amongst one of the more odd mangas I've read. I did enjoy the spin-offs of many a beloved Grimm fairytale characters (Blanche and Sleeping Beauty were particularly interesting). The 'dashing' prince bit is amusing, and the plot twists are fun to follow. Now an amazing story, but if you have time to kill on something that's a bit of a light hearted twisted tale Ludwig's adventures isn't too bad a choice.

We all read fairy tales sometime in our life, right? However, did you ever get the thought that evil witches might have a reason for being evil or the good isn't all what the seem? In this manga, it gives a different variation of some of the most beloved fairytales in our life from Cinderella to Snow White. Story-9 Typical beginning, pretty boy must find a girlfriend, or in this case, a wife for some reason. The main character, Ludwig (Lui) must find a wife to be able to succeed his father's throne. So, he sets off with his gullible servant, Wilhelm. The two of themtry to find a suitable (which means one who has a nice body and big-breasted in Lui's point of view) wife for the prince. Throughout the story, they meet many princesses/girls who ironically are from fairytales. However, like I said before, things are not all what the seem in this manga. Each fairytale has their own twist. Yuki Kaori did a fine job at changing some things that seem little which actually cause significant changes to the story. The twists are often disturbing, humorous, or maybe both. This was part of the reason why I liked this manga so much. Art-8 After reading some of Yuki Kaori's other manga, I come to appreciate her art. Her art is truly beautiful. Lui's appearance suited his personality well. She also drew the princesses very well as if she was drawing from Lui's point of view. Haha. Death, passion, shock, and humor is displayed well throughout the story. Character-8 Ludwig Revolution has an odd set of characters. Our main character, Prince Ludwig, is a perverted, arrogant, beautiful corpse collector. Then, there's the servant. Wilhelm is a careful, kind-hearted, gullible servant who ends causing up trouble rather than helping unintentionally. Unfortunately, he is treated like crap by Lui. There are many other characters but in order not to spoil it, I'll let you read it. However, I will tell you one thing, each princess is NOT like the ones you see in the book. This is also another reason why I like the manga. Enjoyment-9 I enjoyed this manga very much. While at first Lui's personality can annoy you, it can also make you laugh sometimes. There will be times where you bite your nails in anticipation wondering what's going to happen next. There will be times where you laugh at the characters' stupidity or sarcastic comments. There will also be times where you go "WTF, how did that happen?" That could happen if something in the story happens unexpected and surprises you like that time about how Cinderella's prince actually-Oops, shouldn't spoil it for you? Overall-9 This is a definite must-read. You will laugh, be shocked, or maybe both while reading this story. This is definitely worth your time.

Kaori Yuki gets a cookie for creating such a funny and creepy mess out of our maidens of fairytale. I love this manga and finished it in 3 days. I kept on wondering which maiden she would use next, and how she would play with the original story! Ludwig was an amazing character that I couldn't help but adore, despite being a pervert, selfish, and insensitive. An amazing series that will leave you wanting more after it finishes! Very entertaining if you know the original stories of the maidens :)