|| Nanatsu no Umi, Nanatsu no Sora ||

Seven Seas, Seven Skies
2 volumes (or 1 volume bunko edition), finished
Shoujo, period fiction, sea adventure
Publisher: Princess Comics
ISBNs: 4088540735, 4088540743
Bunko: 4-253-17485-X
Mangaka: AOIKE Yasuko

Other manga on this site by Yasuko Aoike: El Halcon, Eroica

Plot:
Tyrian's stepfather (a notorious womanizer) decides to remarry, and his victim is a sickeningly sweet and innocent girl named.... Juliet. But the girl is kidnapped off of Tyrian's ship, first by pirates and then by more pirates in the form of our dashing Luminous Red Benedict.

The neatly woven threads of conspiracy which have been supporting Tyrian's life begin to unravel, and he flees to Spain at last. Captain Red redoubles his pursuit.

What I thought:
What the hell?

At first I thought Aoike was on crack, but then I remembered that this was actually drawn/written before El Alcon, so I settled in and read it through.

This is one of her earlier works, and it shows. The humor happens at very inappropriate moments, and though Tyrian is even more of a bastard than ever I didn't feel nearly as gut-wrenched by what he did because of some odd bit of gag-humor that would totally throw the mood.

And then I read the afterward Aoike wrote for the 1986 edition and this series suddenly became much more interesting. It is entitled "Romantic Villains". At first 7 Seas started in the same mold as usual, she tells us, with the young, handsome and long-legged hero and the fresh, sweet heroine. But then Tyrian Persimmon is introduced and she discovers the lure of the romantic villain. Suddenly, whole new horizons of black-haired sadists opened to her. Klaus is one of the characters based off of this new awakening.

....I still want to strangle Juliet. And although I love how Nicholas grew up, there wasn't even a whiff of a whiff of slashiness this time. Except from Captain Black, who's scars are eerily similar to Black Jack's. Nooo~!

Translations: None that I know of.