Tasogare no Himegimi
Cathedral
Introduction

The story of Tasogare no Himegimi, The Twilight Princess, came about when shoujo mangaka Mamahara Ellie decided to make a manga adaptation of the '80's fantasy movie Ladyhawke. Because she was unable to obtain the necessary rights, her story evolved into its current form. The characters are easy to parallel - a knight and a noblewoman that are cursed, a clergyman scheming to drive them apart, a young man who assists the benighted couple. All we're missing is the wolf. However, the motivations driving the characters are often very different, as a read through the script will attest. I'll leave that up to you.

Tasogare no Himegimi is unusual among shoujo manga in that it is not basically a love story. Rather, it quickly establishes that the central characters are in love and concentrates on good ol' fashioned princess saving action. ^_^ It also has elements reminiscent of Japanese console RPGs (which were almost the only kind of console RPGs at the time it was written,) such as magical beings, and epic, long-forgotten battles of good versus evil, which allow the story to work up to a sort of 'save the world' climax. It is still shoujo manga, though, and maintains a personal, human feel throughout, mostly through the character of the Archbishop. His fall from grace is what (in my estimation) makes this story stand out.

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