Dec 9, 2014
Hakushaku to Yousei is a very creative and heartwarming novel series written by Tani Mizue. It tells the stories of a fairy doctor, Lydia Carlton, her employer Edgar, and his friend and servant, the mysterious Raven. Every book tells a different story, focusing on the mysteries involving many kinds of fairies and magic.
They are all unique, and our protagonists encounters a lot of interesting characters along the way.
HakuYou is set in the victorian England, making it even more interesting. It's described very beautifully, and I can always see a picture in my head of how the scene looks like, imagining Lydia's beautiful dress and Edgar's
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elegant suit. With earls, princes and castles, HakuYou paints up a beautiful picture of an amazing way of living. This, combined with the heart-tickling stories about fairies and fogmen, makes a very unique shoujo novel series.
Lydia makes a great heroine, being quite level-headed with no intention of getting deceived. This is brought up repeatedly because of our hero, Edgar's, flirtatious manners. Holding on to the thought of him only being a liar, Lydia is able to keep her distance to him despite all his statements of being fond of her.
Edgar himself is hard not to like, however, and it's hard to understand what he's thinking. He's almost as big a mystery as the many events taking place in this fairytale, and makes the story amusing in many ways. Girls easily fall for his gentleman facade, if not for his handsome face. I can't even count all the times where people have been enchanted by his blonde hair and ash mauve eyes. Lydia seems to be the only one who's not really that impressed by Edgar, and that might just be what caught his interest in the first place.
The third protagonist, Raven, brings a lot to the story as well. He's a "kuudere", and keeps a very cool attitude throughout the series. Like most of the characters in HakuYou, he's a very interesting character and has a lot more to him than what meets the eye.
Lydia's companion is just as charming, as he happens to be a tea drinking fairy cat with a suit, appearing as quite a gentleman although he can have quite a bad mouth. His suspicions about Edgar are just as bad as Lydia's, and he won't trust him in the very least. Despite this, he will sometimes realize that the earl can do better than anticipated.
Other characters are introduced in every book, and many of them are great, but these four are the ones writing the story. It's impossible not to like them, as the split personalities makes a great team when it really comes to it.
The amazing illustrations are all drawn by Takaboshi Asako, and the elegant style fits the theme perfectly. Every picture is remarkably beautiful, with many details while still keeping the "fairytale-ish" feeling. The faces of Edgar and Lydia will be etched inside your head while reading the story, as will the cool Raven and the tea-drinking Nico. Takaboshi's artwork is just as enchanting as the story itself.
This was my first light novel series, and how I love it. There's that little something about Hakushaku no Yousei that I find so very attracting, and that is probably the enchanting, mysterious, fairytale-like storytelling with unique characters in a beautiful setting.
Whenever I read this story I can feel how my heart's warming up, it's like gaining new friends in every chapter.
If this was convincing enough, then I would like for you as well to share the adventures of the clever fairy doctor and the deceiving earl!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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