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After looking at the cover pictures of this manga it will not be surprising to hear that you assume this is just a lovey dovey manga with no real story and flick to another page to try your luck somewhere else. But I beg you to give this what I think is a very under-rated manga a chance. Here's why:

Artwork (7):
Let's be honest here, the artwork (to me) is not the best. I have seen better but I have definitely seen worse so for me I think this art style is 'safe'. I especially had problems in the first few chapters because the mangaka seemed ... to be having problems drawing the correct facial expressions for the main characters but also keep their appearance as they should for their age group. So overall, there are inconsistencies with how all the characters look and body structure. Action scenes are OK but at least not confusing. However, being an absolute sucker for historical settings, I adore the clothes and the background layouts and not to mention, the cover pages for each chapter/volume are very well done - hence the 7 overall.

Character (8):
Aki - a forgotten princess and literally gets shoved one place to another.
Hakusei - an outcast because of his Caucasian heritage but a loyal servant to Aki/love interest.
Queen Do - power hungry Queen from a powerful country

These are more or less the absolute 'must have' characters for any historical/drama manga. We have an intelligent, strong witted female lead who is fighting very hard circumstances forced onto her just because of who she was born to. A thoughtful male partner who not only needs to battle his own problems of being a minority race wise but is also merely a servant/slave who is unconventionally having a very friendly relationship with his master (Aki). And icing on the cake is the evil Queen who will do whatever she can to prevent Aki getting what she wants.

Themes of loyalty, conspiracy, love and political battles is the major backbone to this manga (sprinkled with a touch of racial and hierarchy issues) but it takes a great deal of time exploring what the emotional states of it's characters too. This effectively makes the plot quite slow moving but you get to really understand the characters more which I think is a big plus.

Enjoyment (9):
The plot is quite slow moving but how the mangaka develops the characters makes it very enjoyable. Aki for example is bent on getting revenge and rise in power so that she can take down Queen Do, BUT she does 'collapse' from time to time to a crying mess and get embraced by Hakusei. I usually hate crying female characters but with this manga I always understand and empathise Aki's feelings when she does break down - this manga is very good with playing your heartstrings so you feel each characters emotions.

Politics wise, the manga uses very basic detail so it is not hard to lose the plot. It makes reading it simpler and therefore for me more enjoyable (because I won't have to pause for ages trying to decipher what IS going on myself).

Story (8):
Aki is the shunned princess and is sent away as a hostage from her kingdom after her mother is poisoned by Queen Do. Hakusei, having grew up with the princess, follows her through and through. Through Aki's wits and courage along with Hakusei's loyalty and bravey, the couple battle against the odds to return to their kingdom and regain what was robbed from them. This is all set in the backdrop of politics/country-to-country relationships where tensions between the four countries are to boiling point.

The themes are more or less what you expect for a historical drama manga and I can't think of any outside the norm. The pacing of the story can be slow for some but I personally feel it is going at the correct pace so that we can understand and grow emotionally attached to characters whilst still have story development in each chapter.

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To conclude, I would recommend this manga to anyone who is a sucker for historical drama manga or likes a strong female lead (and no sparkling helpless male bishies following around). So far, I have not found any other historical manga that I have enjoyed as much as this one so I am pretty surprised this is not as famous as I think it should be. Give it a try - I am quite certain it will not let you down. :)

Ok, here goes my first ever review! ;)

This manga has been a very enjoyable read so far even though it has barely begun. The characters are well designed and there's a good balance of the characters you need for this kind of sports manga.

Story: This is rather unique to the sports mangas I've read. Unlike other sporting mangas where the main character is a natural and very skilled, the main character of Kurogane, Hiroto, is a very (and I seriously do mean VERY) weak person and because of it he is stopped from playing sports. By a slight twist of fate and his determination ... to gain a place in school as a sporting hero, he manages to join the Kendo club of his school and by then he has made various friends or rivals who nudges Hiroto back to the right place when he needs it. There is always a meaning behind fights which make it more 'realistic' in a sense that it isn't like Bleach, where a fight continues for so long you'll think to yourself "so, why are they fighting again?!". So far in the story, we see them competing against other schools to raise their ranks (a typical sports manga scenario) but the matches itself are painless to read as there's so much variety in how the competitors play and the matches (so far) are fairly short; this makes this manga even more enjoable to read. 7/10

I personally like how the story develops really quickly - it does have scenes where they need to explain the rules etc but they are mostly fairly swift and gets back to the main plot quickly. The storyline also brings a strong resemblence to Hikaru no Go with all the fantasy and the determined attitude the main character gives to succeed in his sport/game. The mangaka has also smartly addresses issues as well which is often experience by sports members, like jelously, left out of the team or not accepted, rivalry, injury set backs and simply being heavily protected or unwanted because you're 'weak'. This makes this manga way more realistic than mangas like Prince of Tennis where that main character fits in nearly immediately - in Kurogane, Hiroto needs to fight and show he has a place in the team. For all the sports players in the real world (including myself), reading this manga has allowed me to reflect on what has happened during MY time as a athlete and we can learn some good morals from this manga.

Characters: Although the female lead is annoying me slightly at the moment, other characters have really grown on me even though I just started reading this manga. They are uniquely designed and very well thought out. I really like the friend and rival relationship Shidou, a very skilled player, and Hiroto shares as it feels really real in a sporting club. Yes, as a sporting manga, a prodigy of the sport needs to pop up sooner or later but at least he doesn't brag about it too much and does the justice of nudging Hiroto down the right path when he needs to. (This is also another factor why I think this manga is very close to Hikaru no Go, their relationship here is really similar to Hikaru and Touya) The team spirit the kendo members share in the school is very sweet but does us all a favour and doesn't go all fairy tale like which I very much enjoy. Aoharu is the comical relief of the manga for me and provides a bit of the rebellious character all of us can like. His character greatly contrasts with Shidou's serious attitude but this is where are the fun comes from! For me, their frequent brawls are very enjoyable, and once again very real to teamates in a club. The best thing is that we acutally see that Hiroto is actually not as pathetic as he seems and he can make himself be heard when he wants to which gives me a lot of respect for this character as his determination to succeed, even though he is weak, is very inspiring. 8/10

Artwork: Although the fighting scenes may get slightly confusing at times, the artwork is the norm of modern century manga so it isn't bad but I can't say it is amazing either - there's not much unique style unlike artists like Akizuki Sorata (Akagami no Shirayuki hime) which is just full of it's own character. But hey, at least you don't need to worry about the artwork being an eyesore because it is still clear and understandable in the end! 7/10

Overall: This manga so far have been very enjoyable. The aspects of sporting is covered very evenly and no extreme skills of sports are portrayed (that's if you don't include the ghost who pops up every so often) - what I mean with extreme is like when Prince of Tennis just turns tennis into this superskilled/superpower game where the moves are simply out of this world and just not lifelike whatsoever. The characters are very likable and the artwork is basic but very clear in showing what it wants readers to feel. 9/10

You will definitely like this manga if you've enjoyed Hikaru no Go or other sporting mangas like Prince of Tennis - just minus the awesome powers it has, or Aoizaka High School Baseball Club.