Count Cain

I read this series 2 years ago (I believe, and yet again, didn’t finish it *sigh*) with its sequel, Godchild, which I thought to be a single work. I was quite enthralled with it. Below is some information.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Historical, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Supernatural, Tragedy

Author: Yuki Kaori

Illustrator: Yuki Kaori

Year: 1992-1994(Count Cain) –  2001-2004 (Godchild)

Serialized in: Hana to Yume

Licensed by: Viz Media

Site: The Cain Saga; Godchild

Read Online: Onemanga – Cain Saga; Godchild

Notes: Count/Earl Cain, The Cain Saga or Hakushaku Cain Series it’s the name for the initial series. After, it appeared its sequel, that was named Godchild.

Summary: The story follows Count Cain in London, 19th Century, the young noble head of the Hargreaves family, who solves murders behind the curse of his name accompanied by his servant, Riff.

*Contains information that may be consider spoilers from the prequel Count Cain about Cain’s childhood (not that big of a deal since the action starts in Godchild to be honest)

Born from an incestuous relation between Alexis Hargreaves and his sister Augusta, Cain’s existence was already a sin. Cain passed his childhood being  neglected and abused by his father while trying to convince himself such actions were made out of love.
Cain eventually meets Riff, who becomes his personal servant after seeing the Cain’s bruises.  Riff is shocked with Alexis behaviour towards his son and clearly sees his pleasure by doing it. Concerned with his master health, Riff discusses this with Cain, who’s desperately holding solely in that one belief. When Cain acknowledges his father’s actions were made only out of despite towards him, Cain turns the tables and slowly begins to poison him with arsenic.
In the meantime, he goes visiting his aunt (who’s actually his mother), secretly, at a psychiatric hospital,  but she mistakes him for his father Alexis and jumps out of the window. After recognising her son, she tells Cain she’s his mother and warns him to escape from Alexis before dying. Cain returns home but before Alexis could do any harm, the effects of the poisoning show up. Alexis curses his son to have a miserable life of solitude and jumps to the sea.

*Start again here*

Now 17-year-old, Cain, with Riff by his side, wanders the aristocracy’s crime but as he adventures in the underground more resemblance he finds. What else will happen to someone’s future if it’s already doomed?

×××

Initially I took a look at this manga because it was gothic (generally speaking) and I’m going to explain why gothic mangas are most likely great reads.
First, all gothic is historical, as obvious. And historical manga has a lot of requirements for being so; you have a specific type of clothing, a certain type of buildings and a different type of society with its morals and ideals. The consequences for this are that they’ll most likely should have good graphic (even more for a thing such as the Victorian period) work and propitious setting. The other aspect is that gothic is deeply connected to Romanticism and this basically resumes what kind of story/plot the manga will have; therefore gothic manga will follow Romanticism characteristics:

Romanticism – An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.
Taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/

Therefore from gothic manga you can expect great emotional charge, twists and supernatural affairs.

Concluding, for such a thing as a gothic manga that requires creativity but also a lot of meticulousity implies work and dedication and so gothic manga will most likely be great pieces of work (and of course this also applies to other works that not mangas. Hopefully it does).

And Yuki Kaori wasn’t an exception. I like her mangaka style both concerning the writing and the visual. One of the details that I was surprised with and fond of was the start of each chapter with a bedtime story or fairytale.

*Warning * Count Cain prequel & sequel both deal with fairly mature themes such as incest, negligence, domestic violence and murders. Although they are not very explicit graphically, you’ll see a very good work of  horror’s expressionism.

Reasons to read it:

• it has an enthralling twisted plot with a well portrayed Victorian setting and consistent storyline.
• it has a beautiful and rather unique art, Yuki Kaori characteristic, with good detail work, with a highlight on the Victorian’s  many characteristics, and splendid expressionism.
• the characters show complex personalities and Yuki Kaori is not shy (she likes) in showing the filth in their hearts.
• it has a gothic abused bishie as protagonist with a very devoted servant plus a cute lolita that’s his young half-sister (to please all tastes).

I had a great time reading this gothic series and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for an enthralling plot with lots of secrets, twists and murders, set in the Victorian Period. If you fancied Yuki Kaori’s Angel Sanctuary you’ll probably enjoy this too.

Previews (taken from Onemanga, GodChild sequel):

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Tags: cain saga, count cain, earl cain, godchild, Manga, Yuki Kaori

• April 7, 2010
• Manga
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