God Child

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Godchild is a manga gothic mystery series set in Victorian London. This emotionally driven story focuses on a nobleman Cain Hargreaves, who only recently becomes an heir under suspicious circumstances after his father, the previous lord’s “death”. He solves various mysterious crimes that suddenly seems to happen whenever he is around.

To the public, Cain Hargreaves is a playboy and carefree lord with a lot of women trying to woo him. But behind this carefree mask, lies a sad, dark brooding and somewhat tragic figure. The newly minted Lord Hargreaves is the illegitimate spawn of a nobleman and his sister. He was abused by family ... members as a child and this has left him emotionally stunted and suspicious. The only person close to him is his butler Riff. His bizarre fascination with poison makes him an eccentric to the posh nobility around him.

There is a lot of interesting character dynamics and interactions between Cain Hargreaves and Riff. Riff takes very good care of Cain and the two share a special bond. Cain is extremely reliant on Riff and he is the only one sees Cain’s scars and can touch them. Riff on the other hand has nothing but respect and kindness for his eternal master.

Another notable relationship in the story is Cain’s overprotective relationship with his alleged half sister Mary Weather. She feels that his love is genuine but despite this, Cain’s overprotectiveness makes her feel suffocated. Her carefree spirit contrasts a lot with the sheltered nature of a noblewoman in Victorian London.

All of the characters are deeply flawed in their own personal ways for both good and evil. Cain is clearly no hero as he sometimes does things that would be considered immoral at times. He is obsessed with protecting his half-sister and this causes some friction in their relationship but Cain has the best intentions. Overall, the main characters are generally likable and well written.

Each story is part of an overarching narrative of Cain Hargreaves finding out more about how these series of bizarre murders and other kinds of strange cases are connected to a mysterious organization called “Delilah”, that is focused on necromancy. Cain also learns more about his father’s involvement with Delilah and secrets hidden from Cain’s own past as well. The motive behind each crime is different but appears to be all part of the same end goal.

Symbolism is another aspect notable in the story. A lot of references from the bible is shown throughout the story. Cain for example, is named after the alleged first murderer Cain. Many lullabies and nursery rhymes are used in their actual meaning instead of what they are normally portrayed as such as “Black Sheep”. There are many different themes covered with the narrative from suicide, incest and the darker side of how love affects anybody. In addition, the manga takes a psychological look into how abuse negatively effects the victim and how it drives them into becoming a darker version of themselves.

The story is very immersive from start to finish and plot twists can occur from one panel to the next. Characters have complicated back stories but these all form part of the mysterious nature of Godchild. As the story progresses, you learn more about the motivations of characters and their pasts. However, the story becomes more complicated as well. Characters could be killed at any moment and no one is safe. No one can be trusted and betrayal is a recurring theme in the story. Violence and mature themes are ever present as well.

The gothic art style for the manga is highly detailed and each backdrop for the location is highly faithful to Victorian London. The character designs were distinct with Cain Hargreaves being the standout. The story atmosphere is very disturbing and grim and it works well with the overall storyline. The action is secondary and the story telling and mystery are what drives the plot. Humor is not really that common in this manga and would be out if place given the dark tone of the story.

There are a few drawbacks in this manga. As much as I like the highly detailed art style, it makes the pages look unorganized and messy. The story meanders sometimes and murder mysteries can become predictable at times.

Overall, I really enjoyed Godchild and highly recommend it. Fans of Gothic Victorian London, murder mysteries and even Black Butler fans could find this series very enjoyable.

Before sharing my considerations about the series, let me just say what motivated me to write this review. While reading other people’s point of view, I created some expectations that weren’t fulfilled. This might be a personal experience, but I thought about expressing my 2 cents.

I want to first contextualize the story. At the moment I’m writing this review, it’s been 20 years from its first release and almost 30 years from the prequel (The Cain Saga). Kaori Yuki is a veteran mangaka, who acquired a broad recognition and made justice to the “Queen of Gothic Manga” title. Godchild was the first work I read ... from her and, basing my analysis only on that, I see why she was a big influence on many shoujo and manga that followed her, also being a pioneer (or at least one of the most prominent names) exploring elements such as mystery, horror and the Victorian setting on a “girl’s magazine” in the nineties. And I believe that’s enough to set her name apart on this field.

Now, about my experience reading it. I didn’t read the prequel first and I don’t think it was necessary to understand the story. After I finished it, I decided to check The Cain Saga more as an “extra” source where I could see the backstory of characters I was interested and maybe having another perspective looking at the previous events after knowing the “secrets” unveiled in Godchild.

Godchild’s story is structured in “arcs” and some of them don’t add too much on the main story aside of knowing more about Cain and his relationships. We are presented to many characters whose roles are restricted to that specific arc and for some time it felt “which murder case are we going to solve now?” CSI type of episode. Nevertheless, it kept me going forward to know about Cain’s past and all the intrigue he was put through, the reasons behind it. When we finally reach that… everything happens in a fast speed and it seems too much to handle in little space and time. Although some events were foreshadowed and hints were given here and there, new characters were presented arc after arc and we couldn’t know more about their story in an organic way, making them spill those informations in a few balloons later on, because otherwise we wouldn’t even know that. It made me wonder why not exploring or having them in mind since the beginning instead of those “episodic” arcs, or maybe making the series longer?

Another thing I’d like to point is the “twisted” or “human nature” people like to mention in her work. I don’t deny it, we can find them, but most of the time it felt scattered to me. There were too many things to cover: the main character, the construction of the relationship between characters, the motifs behind the villains, the hidden goal of Cain’s father and not forgetting about the “victim(s)” of the arc and how Cain got involved with them. It made the arc cases solved too fast sometimes, lacking the “mysterious” and “thriller” impact. Kaori Yuki uses all elements necessary for these genres, but the final result and experience weren’t delivered as such, only serving as cheap distractions for me until I can finally put my hands on the answers I was waiting for. [Might have SPOILERS until the end of the paragraph, not major ones, though] I will make an exception for Castrato arc, not because it doesn’t have the aspects that I’ve just mentioned, but I believe they were delivered in a better way and I could use it as an example: we have Cain getting closer to Delilah’s organization plans, a Delilah agent having a more active role, family issues being raised, historic and societal issues explored together with the post effect on the “unfortunate character who got involved with Cain” and an ending that clearly hinted the plot moving forward. And it didn’t feel convoluted from my perspective [SPOILER END].

Something I wanted to praise is the usage of religious and Mother Goose tales symbolic references, it helped setting the mood and I enjoyed it very much in the beginning. However, because of the fast pace ending, the explanations and reasons behind everything didn’t sit right with me. It felt rushed and lost the impact it could have, religion and convenience coming together sometimes and feeling more like an excuse than a proper explanation. Especially knowing that Kaori Yuki had the ending on her mind since the beginning, it made me think why not construct a more focused and linear narrative instead of trying to distract us on arcs and having characters repeating the same actions before we get into the core of the story?

In addition, I found weird how the “villains” only goes towards religion discourse when it comes to the “evil”. And how “occultism” is mixed as a fashion. God is mentioned here and there as a “divine force”, but we don’t see neither Cain nor his nobility family with “Christian habits”, even if only to keep up appearances. It gave me the impression of being used only as props, so we could have metaphorical “sins”. Well, maybe the characters were all mad/twisted/degenarated indeed and used these symbologies as a foundation for their wicked actions, but that’s not for my taste, it lacks the ambivality I seek when it comes to what it’s usually called as “human nature”. Delilah agents (people connected to Cain’s father) may have had being portrayed in a better light regarding to that, but they didn’t have enough exposure and focus most of the time.

Saying all that, I still liked to see Cain’s relationship with the ones close to him. I was emotional invested on that and when I finished reading the series, I was satisfied. This probably is the most common shoujo element (not implying it’s an exclusive shoujo thing), but I enjoyed seeing where the main character stands when it comes to his family, comrades, “enemies”, girls, noble people and commoners, as well as his “social status”. And as time went by, I also grew found of some characters, especially Cain’s allies. Overall, Cain is portrayed as a martyr, but whose noble pride and irreverence won't allow him to be pitied or looked down on, leading to some interesting developments and exchanges.

I personally like the art, although I can see it fits in a certain frame in time, what were common back then. Kaori Yuki’s improvement it's noticeable after The Cain Series and the details drawn added its flavor. It isn’t the goriest thing I’ve ever seen, but bloody nonetheless. The mangaka didn’t shy out to depict some scary and horror/shocking scenes, without being too graphic at the same time. I don’t know if it was a type of censorship, but I appreciated the balance.

In summary, I believe it’s an entertaining series even 20 years after its release (particularly when we contextualize it). However, after reading it, I must say that my experience was pretty different from the other reviews I found. That’s why I give it a 7, considering both what I believe it did and didn’t work.

God Child (9/10)
Oh my gosh. WOAH. This is the manga that had the ending that KEPT ME up for 2 hours last night. I couldn’t help but think over and over in my head: “How did I not see that coming? Did that just happen?”

Trust me. This never happened to me before with other manga.

It was so obvious that the ending would happen this way, yet it wasn’t. There was so much foreshadowing, but for some reason, I didn’t even pay attention to the warning signs. I was basically too emotionally attached to the characters that I didn’t have the courage to think about ... whether or not that certain phrases meant something.

If you’re expecting a romantic comedy that will help you de-stress, run away from this manga. Run like you're being chased by a serial killer, because that is what it is full of.

Or stay if you want breathtaking crazily-thought of murder mysteries and love that has so much depth that you forget that it is romance or shounen-ai you’re reading.

Main characters are crazy. Supporting characters are crazy. ALL OF THE THE CHARACTERS ARE OUT OF THEIR MIND.

But that only makes things better because you would naturally want to know why they turned out that way. And of course, you always get the answers in the manga (which I’m really thankful for because sometimes stories lack explanation. This manga definitely is not one of those stories!!).

All the mysteries kept me on the edge of my seat. Some of them I remember very well, like the case with the bunny-masked serial killer and the case where beautiful women had their eyes stolen. Those I referenced weren't even among the craziest.

Wanna read shounen-ai and a story involving a secret organization filled with dangerous people that the main character has to go against? You might like this.
I was so surprised that this manga was in the shoujo genre. In fact, this manga could seriously be its own genre. The story is a gem! I can’t even explain the whole story in one word.
PLEASE give this one a try!