"Wings" is a poignant story about life and death, and how
important it feels to be remembered.
As the snow falls softly, there is a small forgotten wisp of a girl of
ailing health. She is homeless
and weak, and she knows Death is near. Her thoughts are plagued with
anguish, not for her
Death, but for anyone remembering that she had in fact, lived.
A loud noise provokes her curiosity and she follows it to see some young
boys huddled together,
looking at something. As they complain about the growing chill, they
leave as they revel in their
own sense of power. And for what reason?
As they leave, the young girl sees what the boys were glorying over.
A small bird lies on the ground, pins embedded into its body, a body that
is still alive and left to
die. Heart torn over the sight, the young girl carefully slips the pins
out of the bird. The cruelty of
the situation staggers her, as the sentiment that the bird would die
unnoticed echoes through her.
That no one would have known that it have even lived, much less have
died.
This story reminds me of Oscar Wilde's "The Happy
Prince". To be brief, it is a story about the
friendship and love between a small swallow and a golden statue of a
Prince who had once only
known happiness, before he had died. The Prince, whose spirit is now in
the statue, sees the
beggars of his city and becomes mournful. Wanting to help the people, the
Prince sends the
swallow to take the jewels and gold leafs on his statue and give it to
the poor. The swallow does
so but this delays his return to Egypt, where he must vacation to stay
warm and alive. Yet,
because of the goodness of both their hearts, the swallow refuses to
leave the Prince and stays as
long as he could in the Winter. Until one day, he knows he is about to
die. Requesting to kiss the
Prince on the hand, the Prince says no - he must kiss him upon the lips,
for he loves the swallow.
The swallow does and dies the instant after, at the Prince's feet.
And upon that moment, a loud
crack was heard, for the Prince's lead heart had cracked into two.
It was a dreadfully cold winter that night...
In " Wings", the bond the young girl had shared with the
tortured bird seems very similar to me as
that of the swallow and the Prince - one living through the other.
They only had one another and the long, cold nights.
I very much enjoyed this story. The drawings are lovely, and I feel
Ashura's style has solidified -
the drawings seem to have more of a self-assured presence. Just to note,
I thought the hands on
the first page were beautiful, so tapered and slender.
I'm not sure if saying this makes me odd but in the end of reading
this story, all I really want to do
is help this girl.
Wings: Contact-I have to get this out first....excuse me while I squeal like the Shoujo
addict that I am.
Here I go.
Oh, the characters are so cute! Chubby-cheeked cuties! I want to take
Azure and stick him in my pocket! ^_^
Ok, done.
A ball of light falls from the sky, unnoticed to all but the only one who
can see it. As a young boy, Lance, an
inhabitant of a mysterious world investigates, a small bruised, body
comes to consciousness. Azure, a young boy
with white, feathery wings, looks around in confusion. He is in an
unfamiliar land and is beginning to get his
bearings when approached by Lance. Alarmed, Azure pleads with Lance not
to reveal his existence or
whereabouts. Lance marvels at the other boys beauty and heals
Azure's bruises with a warm, gentle touch on his
snowy wings.
Lance gallantly offers to protect Azure and to keep him a secret, to
Azure's gratitude. Lance questions Azure
about his wings because they were different from his own. To prove his
point, Lance summons his own leathery
bat-like wings and Azure is alarmed at the contrast.
Now, I'm sure there will be future repercussions in future stories
between Lance and Azure, but this is just plain
cute! The drawing style is adorable, the characters speak in a
child-like way - it's Kawaii with a capital K!
My quibble is that I happened to notice that there was an empty speech
bubble for Lance at one point and a
misspelled word at another point. Picky me, I know.
On the whole however, I think this doujinshi is simply delightful and
outright adorable...
So, can I have Azure now?
~Owari~
--reviewed by
Tracy
ANTHOLOGY 00
