is the world's most. painful. manga. EVER.

I mean, even I'm reduced to sobbing at my laptop screen.

The premise from wiki or whatever is generally not very encompassing, so let me try briefly. The story takes place in late 15th century Italy, a world of corrupt clergymen, Renaissance culture, and constant intrigue.

Cesare is one of the many illegitimate children of a cardinal, but what makes him special is: the cardinal already sold Cesare's soul to the devil before birth, so that the cardinal himself can become pope. Cesare grows up in a world where only two people love him--his stepmother, who is later sent away, and his younger sister Lucrezia. After learning he's the product of a devil's bargain, he tries to kill himself and is saved by the young man trying to assassinate him. The assassin is named Chiaro, and is mostly a fairly normal, likable young man who Cesare says is an angel. Chiaro is the only person besides Cesare's stepmother who can drive away the demons swirling around Cesare. However, to heal from the suicide attempt, Cesare's body makes good its pact with the devil, leaving Cesare to try to control his literal inner demons. Chiaro considers killing Cesare to save him from the demons, but reconsiders, and ends up staying by Cesare's side to try to stem the plunge into darkness.

Unfortunately, of the 10 released volumes, only 7 are scanlated, and I have no idea where to find a bookstore that carries the other 3 volumes. ALSO, the author has put the project on hiatus after she finished volume 10, wherein Cesare seems to be about to succumb completely to the demons, or so the publishing company indicates.

It's not meant to be a Romeo and Juliet, though, make no mistake. Chiaro spends most of the series enamoured of someone who is NOT Cesare, even if the audience (and Cesare too) wants to see the shounen-ai promised in the genre. But, in a way, other than being dark and gory and full of manipulation and lies and attempted rape and other horrible corrupt things, it's also painful. Cesare desperately needs something to hold on to that he slowly begins to understand isn't his to hold on to, and the feeling is conveyed absolutely BRILLIANTLY.


Of course, I'm not a huge fan of the...what...4 or 5 attempted rapes that have occurred so far. I mean, the one of Cesare I kind of got, and I even let the first Lucrezia one pass. But after the 3rd time someone tries (and fails) to rape Lucrezia, it's started to get REALLY old.

Also, about Lucrezia. I saw a bunch of people who were complaining about how much they disliked Lucrezia, and I thought maybe this was just fangirling or some such. No, no, really, Lucrezia is getting to be REALLY annoying. She's just always so innocent and sweet and teary ALL THE DAMN TIME, and then she does her teenage angst thing over discovering she has a crush on her brother (like this wasn't obvious from page 2), and later on when she magically jumps into liking Chiaro and pretty much forgetting all about Cesare.

Also, the fact that she's ALWAYS being abducted/threatened/raped/assaulted and just sits/stands/lies there looking teary and victimized and SO F-ING WEAK. After so many times of this, you stop feeling at all bad. It's just like, oh, look, someone's trying to rape Lucrezia for the millionth time, maybe this time the rapist will actually manage to go all the way. At first she was ok, because Cesare liked her, and she WAS a spoiled noble girl, and her character wasn't my favorite, but whatever, I could handle it. But at this point she's MONOPOLIZING the story and acting like a TOTAL MARY SUE, and I want to hit her. I fully admit this IS, obviously, influenced by my love for the Cesare/Chiaro pairing, but, well...I generally prefer to ship pairings in which the relationship is interesting and original and involves mature, often painful decisions. NOT the sickly sweet angst-filled romances that are completely and totally contrived and cliche.



However...don't let my rant about Lucrezia (and her innumerable, dull rape scenes) put you off this manga. Cantarella is a great series, and the first that has made me cry quite so much, if only for Cesare, the scared little boy who has lost the only person that can make him human.