Sasra 1 written by Unit Vanilla and illustrated by Enjin Yamimaru

Sasra (link to book 1 amazon japan listing here) is a four-novel "epic romance" written by Unit Vanilla (made up of Izumi Katsura, Iwamoto Kaoru, Konohara Narise, and Hichiwa Yuka) and illustrated by Enjin Yamimaru. According to the afterward in book 1 it was written in round-robin style...I'd love to know who wrote what, because some parts just bored me to tears while others tickled me to death. Overall I enjoyed the series, thanks mainly to the lovely art and the fact that the current lifetime turned out to be very fun to read.

The premise is that long ago two lovers committed a great sin and were cursed by the gods to reincarnate, meet, fall in love, and then come to not so fabulous ends. It starts with a prologue in modern-day Japan, but that storyline is interrupted and we are thrown back to ancient Egypt where everything began. The story then moves onto ancient China, then to ancient Rome and Europe in the Middle Ages in book 2. Book 3 is set in the Inca Empire and Tokugawa Japan. Book 4 is set in pre-WWII Japan, and then the very end loops back to the modern-day lifetime. Several elements consistently turn up in each life-time: birthmarks on each lover, a beautiful lapis lazuli stone, and a mute boy. These all have roots from that first life-time.

My biggest gripe with the series is that each lifetime doesn't build on the earlier ones. The stories are discrete and have very little in common with each other. And the conclusion of the series totally continues the trend, providing no effective build-up to the climax or much of a sense of epic scale. Like I said earlier, I enjoyed the current lifetime story so I'm not too miffed, but I guess I expected something a bit more...grand? Also, each lifetime didn't really feel tragic to me. Some of them definitely were, but others...weren't fairy tale fluff stories, but didn't make me think they were particularly tragic. They lived in tumultuous times and/or led singular lives. It'd be odd if things worked out beautifully and peacefully for those people.

( Modern Japan and Ancient Egypt )

( Ancient China )

( Some comments. )