Education
Kei Toume studied at the Tama Art University in Tokyo.
(Kazuna, a teenager whose past is shrouded in mystery, con...)
Kazuna, a teenager whose past is shrouded in mystery, continues to struggle with his strange new disease - a violent and irrepressible craving for blood. His violent attacks draw him closer to Chizuna, his long-estranged sister, who suffers from the same scourge, one that has ravaged their family for generations. As Chizuna reveals to Kazuna the secrets of his past, she finds herself connected to him intimately as their destinies intertwine. This complicates her relationship with Minase, her young doctor long in love with her. Kazuna and Chizuna are each other's best hope and reason for survival, enough such that he leaves his home, so the two can forever be together. The struggle rages within Yaegashi, Kazuna's girlfriend, as well as she tries to come to grips with his terrifying illness, Kazuna's sudden alienation from her and how, in the midst of this confusion, she can bring herself to express to the boy how much she really loves him.
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(Minase and Chizuna urge Kazuna to go back to school. Resu...)
Minase and Chizuna urge Kazuna to go back to school. Resuming a normal life may help gain greater control over his illness, they say. But, Kazuna adamantly refuses. Minase wonders if Yaegashi might be the reason for his unwillingness. Meanwhile, Yaegashi worries about Kazuna, she's upset that his attempts to avoid her. Kazuna's friend, Kinoshita, asks Yaegashi to take Kazuna's report card to him - that would be an excuse to see him. Kinoshita runs into Kazuna in the hallway. A student tries to befriend Chizuna, but Chizuna tells her she has no need for friends. Friends, thinks Chizuna, are just a burden when you've so much to keep to yourself. Meanwhile, torn between secrecy, and his need to confide in a friend, Kazuna decides not to divulge anything of his illness to Kinoshita. Kinoshita, vexed, leaves him. Eager and anxious to seek Kazuna out, Yaegashi goes to the Eda's place to deliver Kazuna's report card. But, she's greeted only by a reticent Aunt Natsuko. Natsuko does not divulge Kazuna's new address, afraid that Yaegashi will discover too much. She takes the report card off Yaegashi's hands, and says she'll give it to Kazuna next time she sees him. Yaegashi, walking away, becomes deeply upset at being cut off from Kazuna, at the prospect of never seeing him again when she runs into Chizuna. Chizuna bluntly asks Yaegashi about his connection to Kazuna. She tells her to stay away from him, saying that Kazuna's disease makes him dangerous. Yaegashi pleads to help him, but Chizuna says that only she herself is capable of helping him. At home, Chizuna tells Kazuna that she's been dreaming a lot about Mother, a woman about whom she remembers very little. That night, Chizuna succumbs to her increasing weakness, a result of the medicine. Chizuna, gasping, tells Kazuna that she needs to feel needed by him; it's what keeps her going. She also tells him about her conversation with Yaegashi and prods him jealously about her. Suddenly, she grabs and kisses him. Despairing, Chizuna confesses to Kazuna that he is indeed her replacement for Father, that she is trying to assert control over him, emotionally and physically. Kazuna tells Chizuna that he'll never abandon her, the way their father did. Later, Minase tells Kazuna that the medicine that she takes to control her attacks could be the cause of her weakened state. Minase says that Chizuna's longing for her father is so great that no one's else blood will satisfy her cravings should she suffer another attack; the medicine is her last defense against her vampiric illness taking a lethal turn. Minase explains the delicate and complex relationship Chizuna had with her father: she both loved and needed him to survive while, at the same time, resenting that it was only because of her resemblance to his dead wife that garnered Father's affection. Kazuna offers up his blood, saying that he reminds Chizuna of Father, but Minase rejects that solution. Her attachment to her father is too intense for Kazuna to intervene. Back at home, Kazuna reflects on his own helplessness and wonders if he doing any good by perpetuating his sister's father delusion. Chizuna comes to him and, in a tender, moonlit moment, they kiss again. At that instant, Kazuna doubles over, gripped by another attack. Chizuna offers her blood to him. Kazuna, instead, lunges at her ravenously.
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(Yaegashi rushes Kazuna to the hospital after he collapses...)
Yaegashi rushes Kazuna to the hospital after he collapses in the throes of another attack. Luckily, it's the hospital where Minase works. After Kazuna recovers his senses, Minase advises him to avoid Yaegashi if he hopes to control his symptoms. Natsuko and Shin arrive in Kazuna's hospital room to find him with Chizuna. They are shocked to learn that, upon his release from the hospital, Kazuna plans to move in with Chizuna. Chizuna tells them that they are no longer responsible for Kazuna and that she and Kazuna will cope with their mutual fate. Later, at Chizuna's home, Kazuna has a dream in which he is murdering Chizuna. She tells him that such dreams are normal, that they represent only his anxieties, and that she often used to have dreams about killing Father. She also reveals how guilty and angry she felt over Father's death, and confesses that, while Father loved her, he was ultimately unable to cope with the loss of his wife and with the demands of caring for Chizuna. Chizuna felt abandoned after his death. But, rather than follow in Father's suicidal footsteps, she resolved to keep living, if only to spite him who left her alone in a strange, unfriendly world. Kazuna, the next day, goes to pick up his things at Natsuko and Shin's place. There, he and Natsuko have a wrenching argument in which she vents her frustration over Kazuna's secretive behavior and how she feels her efforts to snuff out the past and form a family came to waste. Kazuna retaliates by telling her how false their "family" felt: how he felt obliged to return their good graces but never felt that the affection shown to him was sincere. To him, it was a torturous affectation that they all sustained for the sake of appearances. He's fed up, he tells her, and wants out. Still nursing his rage, Kazuna next confronts Chizuna. What, he demands to know, is the real reason she decided to take responsibility for him? Was she planning on tormenting him just so she could have her revenge on Father, or to simply replace him in her eyes? What was the point in living anyway, he asks, when there was no cure and no hope for one? Chizuna admits that, at first, she thought of Kazuna as Father's replacement but she has since come to genuinely care about him. To prove the point that Kazuna is not bound to her will, she hands him a pill, the kind Father used to kill himself. If life ever becomes too painful, he is free to take the pill. Kazuna goes to bed, still distraught and unconvinced that life and, for that matter, living with his mysterious sister is a sane answer to his problems.
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(STEEL RESOLVE Inside samurai Jintetsu’s robot body beats...)
STEEL RESOLVE Inside samurai Jintetsu’s robot body beats a broken heart. Although he has avenged his father’s death, Jintetsu is fated to live life as a lonely drifter–a man with no home, no title, and no peace. But then he runs into fellow assassin Renji the Firewalker, whose fate seems to be intertwined with his own. Jintetsu and Renji have worked together in the past, and share an unspoken bond of understanding and respect–that is, until Ryujiro, Jintetsu’s childhood friend, hires the cyborg samurai to assassinate Renji. Now Jintetsu must choose between his friends–and whichever side he takes will lead him into grave danger.
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(BLACK STEEL Avenging his father’s murder is a matter of ...)
BLACK STEEL Avenging his father’s murder is a matter of honor for the young samurai Jintetsu. But it turns out that the killer is a corrupt government official–and now the powers that be are determined to hunt Jintetsu down like an animal. There’s only one problem: Jintetsu is already dead. Torn to pieces by a pack of dogs, Jintetsu’s ravaged body has been found by Genkichi, outcast and master inventor. Genkichi gives the dead boy a new, indestructible steel body and a talking sword–just what he’ll need to face down the gang that’s terrorizing his hometown and the mobster who ordered his father’s hit. But what about Otsuki, the beautiful girl he left behind? Steel armor is defense against any sword, but it can’t save Jintetsu from the pain in his heart.
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(Shinobu, one of Dr. Takashiro's nurses, appears at the ho...)
Shinobu, one of Dr. Takashiro's nurses, appears at the house. She's heard about his suicide and wants to know why he did it. Chizuna turns her away brusquely, saying she doesn't know anything. Kazuna wonders privately why Chizuna is behaving so quick-tempered, what happened between her and Minase. Shinobu continues her search at the Buddhist cemetery where Chizuna told her their father was buried. The priest points out a grave marked "Shizuna" (Takashiro's first name). Shinobu wonders if that's the correct grave, then where is his wife buried? Next, Shinobu gets in touch with Aunt Natsuko and asks what she knows about Dr. Takashiro's death. Shinobu explains how he rushed her to shut down the clinic before he killed himself. Natsuko guesses that Shinobu was in love with Dr. Takashiro, but she tells nothing of his family secret. She says his suicide came as a shock and that Kazuna, his son, had lived with them till recently. Natsuko lets on that Shizuna's wife was ailing without mentioning a word about the family's vampire-like illness. Unsatisfied with Natsuko's answers, Shinobu goes to the Takashiro Clinic, now closed and presumably abandoned. She rummages through a bunch of confidential files when Minase barges in. She gathers up files secretly and quickly leaves. Later that night, Shinobu leafs through the reports sneaked out from the clinic. The papers describe the pathology of the Takashiro disease. Shinobu wonders why Dr. Takashiro would've been studying such an odd disease. At the school library, Yaegashi runs into Kinoshita. They wonder what's going on with Kazuna. Yaegashi refrains from telling him what she knows intimately regarding Kazuna's illness. The two express grave concern and distress over Kazuna's disappearance. Shinobu questions a doctor about the vampiric disease mentioned in the confidential reports. The doctor tells her what little he knows, but Shinobu remains confused as to why Dr. Takashiro kept his research so secret. She suspects that his daughter, Chizuna, may be suffering from the disease. Apologizing yet again for her meddlesome ways, Shinobu questions one of Chizuna's neighbors for information. She slows puts the pieces together about the Takashiro family's decline and the disease within. Determined to regain her strength and not follow in the footsteps of her deceased mother, Chizuna ventures back to school. Kazuna consents to go too. There, Chizuna almost collapses, attracting the attention of her classmates while Kazuna reluctantly tells Kinoshita the truth about his illness, why he left the Eda's home, how Yaegashi brings on his worst attacks, etc. Kazuna says he hopes to control his attacks from now. Chizuna's classmate, Sasaki, helps her to the school nurse where Chizuna rests after her attack. Chizuna contemplates how much more she'll last and finds solace in Kazuna's chances for a full recovery. Sasaki tells Chizuna that she suffered from asthma as a child-it kept her out of school, but she's felt better since and revitalized her health through sports. Chizuna enjoys her company. Kazuna resumes his school year and finds himself amazingly suited to his old life. The only obstacle that he must overcome is his relationship with Yaegashi. He avoids Yaegashi at school, something that hurts her but which she tries to come to terms with. Chizuna, meanwhile, strikes up a friendship with the bubbly, sociable Sasaki who doesn't seem fazed by her strange illness. Chizuna, for the first time, actually feels relaxed in the company of a classmate. Minase arrives at the Takashiro house and tells Chizuna about that Shinobu's investigation. He fears she may have discovered confidential data from notes locked up at the clinic. Chizuna tells Minase that she's been having disturbing dreams about Mother-a woman she hardly remembers but whose fate she feels trapped into following. She's frightened about the possibility that the dreams end with something unspeakably horrible.
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(Chizuna is hit with another attack in her new friend, Sas...)
Chizuna is hit with another attack in her new friend, Sasaki's, presence. The school nurse recommends that she stay away from school 'til she feels better. Meanwhile, Kazuna and Kinoshita strike up their friendship again, as the sullen Yaegashi feels increasingly alienated from Kazuna. But, while at school, Kazuna falls prey to another attack. He dashes away, but Yaegashi, wanting to make sure he isn't discovered, goes after him. During their encounter, Kazuna lashes out Yaegashi. As terrified as he is of this attack, he rails at Yaegashi for even attempting to get involved in his troubles. He feels guilty about hurting her, but he insists she distance herself. Yaegashi responds by confessing to Kazuna how strongly she feels about him, and it grieves her to know that he only wants to distance himself from her. On the contrary, Kazuna finally breaks down, remembering how much he's grown to pine for Yaegashi over the years. He grabs and devours her blood. She wants it. Kazuna goes home, repentant of his act, but accepting that Yaegashi's blood calmed his attack. Chizuna, in the meantime, has tracked down Shinobi (Kazami), and asks what she knows about her family. Shinobi reveals her knowledge of the Takeshiro illness, but can't understand how it could've led Chizuna's father to kill himself. Chizuna tells him it was the disease itself - its draining demands - that finally weakened and overpowered him. That and his yearning for his dead wife did him in. Chizuna explains that the disease that Shinobi researched was similar to their family illness except for one detail: the Takeshiro illness causes violent urges, and a potential for victims to harm others. She lets Shinobi in on the dark secret behind her father's delusions and his overwhelming love for his dead wife. Shinobi asks why Chizuna's mother is not buried at the Takashiro gravesite. Chizuna concedes she does not know. Thoughts of Mother stir up deep and troubling memories for Chizuna, enough so that Shinobi must help quell another of her attacks. As Chizuna walks home, she wonders why memories of her mother's death arouse her symptoms. why does she feel terrified and doubtful of what she remembers? Could Mother really be alive? Later that night, Chizuna collapses and is taken to the hospital where, under sedation, she experiences flashbacks to a moment when her mother tried to kill Chizuna and, hence, keep from suffering her own fate. What actually happened was that Chizuna, in a bizarre act of self-defense, killed her mother. Her father then convinced the traumatized child that her mother had actually committed suicide. Eventually, her father - broken and demoralized by his daughter's illness - committed suicide himself. In the hospital, the truth of her mother's death comes raging back to the surface of Chizuna's mind. Eventually, Chizuna demands Minase to release her from the hospital. She wants to make her peace with the home where so much of her hellish past took place. He grudgingly agrees. Back at home, Chizuna's health slips rapidly. She's made her peace with death, though Kazuna is confused and unsure of where life will lead him after her sister's passing. He determines to follow in her footsteps and, upon her death, he takes the suicide tablet that Chizuna had once given him. When the year-end exams finish and the school year ends, The Eda's, Yaegashi and Kinoshito wonder what's happened to Chizuna - they're all in the dark. Kazuna, luckily, survives the effects of the suicide tablet, but he's hospitalized under intense observation. Meanwhile, the new school year has started for Yaegashi and Kinoshito. Yaegashi goes to see Kazuna in the hospital. Kazuna's memories of his terrifying past year have been wiped clean from the effects of the tablet. In a conversation with Aunt Natsuko, Yaegashi learns that Eda's wish to stave off those ugly memories as long as they can so Kazuna can live a healthy life. Yaegashi picks up Kazuna from the hospital. Kazuna is primed for a new year at an all-boys' academy where he'll make up his lost school year and for being officially adopted by the Eda's. A new name, a new school and a new girlfriend. It's a fresh start for Kazuna, vampire-disease survivor and happy-go-lucky amnesiac.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595320067/?tag=2022091-20
(HEART OF STEEL Jintetsu left the world of the living beh...)
HEART OF STEEL Jintetsu left the world of the living behind . . . until he was resurrected in a new steel body. Now his only future seems to be as an aimless drifter, an assassin for hire. It’s a hard and lonely life, because beneath this samurai’s cold steel armor beats an all-too-human heart. Jintetsu is lost in the mountains when a man offers him shelter. But the quaint house is actually a house of horrors, haunted by lost love and madness. There Jintetsu meets O-en, a beautiful, intelligent woman who has lived for years with a burning hatred and is now obsessed with vengeance. And she’s hell-bent on sweeping Jintetsu into her drama of revenge!
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(Ever since his mother died, Kazuna Takashiro has been liv...)
Ever since his mother died, Kazuna Takashiro has been living with his kindly "Uncle" Shin Eda and his Aunt Natsuko. The Eda couple were friends with Kazuna's estranged father. Kazuna can't escape the pain of his past. He misses his mother, and he wishes he could be reunited with his older sister. His one source of comfort and relaxation is the art club. Oddly, Kazuna never draws. Rather, he seems drawn to Yaegashi, an attractive female classmate. Kazuna desires Yaegashi, but when he thinks her splatterings of red paint are blood, his feelings of lust and desire become dark and twisted...causing him to nearly pass out. Nightmares plague Kazuna, and he decides to confront his past head-on. He searches and finds his childhood home, and what he discovers there rattles him to the bone. Living in his old house is none other than Chizuna, his long-lost sister. Chizuna regrettably informs Kazuna that their father died over a year ago. Angered that no one told him of his father's death, Kazuna bitterly expresses his anger towards his father. All these years, Kazuna felt abandoned, tossed aside, disowned by his family. Chizuna than explains why their mother died, and why their father sent Kazuna away. Their mother's family is cursed with a disease of the blood-a disease that makes them vampires! Incredulous and disturbed, Kazuna leaves. Yaegashi asks the increasingly withdrawn Kazuna if he'd like to be her art model. While posing, his eyes linger on her neck...her pale, beautiful skin...His thoughts become disturbing, as he longs for her body...and her blood. A fearful Kazuna returns to Chizuna and reveals his frightening urges. Chizuna explains that their mother was driven insane by the vampiric disease. She gives him a small vial that she claims is some sort of medicine, capable of holding his bloodlust at bay. When Kazuna next sees Yaegashi, he begins to shudder and convulse. He wants to taste her flesh...her blood. Afraid of the danger he poses, he flees. At a nearby stream, Kazuna is met by his sister. Chizuna takes a broken piece of glass and slashes her arm. Her blood gushes down her arm in a red stream. Chizuna urges Kazuna to taste the precious, crimson liquid. She tells him that struggling is useless. There is nothing they can do to prevent the disease. Nothing.
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(Kazuna satisfies his craving by drinking Chizuna's blood....)
Kazuna satisfies his craving by drinking Chizuna's blood. Chizuna welcomes it and wants to merge with his flesh and blood. Kazuna, however, feels inadequate; he wants to be for Chizuna what she is to him. But Chizuna refuses to drink Kazuna's blood because that would associate him with her father. Minase withholds any further medication from Chizuna, fearing its dangerous effects on her. He tells Kazuna to exercise some influence on her and help control her symptoms. Minase, meanwhile, reflects on his long-standing and unshakeable attachment to Chizuna and his knowledge that she will never accept him as one of her own. Just then, he notices Yaegashi at the clinic inquiring about Kazuna's address. He tells her that Kazuna's moved in with her ailing sister, far away, and that she should stop looking for him Yaegashi reveals to Minase that she knows that Kazuna suffers from the same illness. Minase tells her to stay away from him, that it would only prolong her misery if she continued her efforts to find Kazuna. Nevertheless, out of love and loyalty, Yaegashi says she will persist. Minase relents and gives her Kazuna's address. Chizuna, having stopped her dosage of the powerful medicine, is anxious about what will happen should her symptoms arise again. Just then, Aunt Natsuko shows up with a proposition for them. She and Uncle Eda want to adopt both of them. She tells them that they can still stay together in their family home and, together, they'll fight their illness. Chizuna rejects her proposition. She says that she cannot bring anyone outside the Takeshiro family into the fold of this horrible illness. Her fate is sealed and to accept Aunt Natsuko's notions of a "happy little family" would be illusory and tragic. Kazuna agrees. Dejected, Aunt Natsuko leaves. Chizuna, still reeling from her medicine withdrawal, is stricken with fever and in the grip of a vampiric attack. Kazuna willingly offers his blood to her, but she refuses, not wanting to re-create with him the relationship she had with her father. Chizuna then collapses. Minase-san rushes in and whisks her off, accompanied by Kazuna, to recover at an old clinic once run by Chizuna's father. Minase leaves her there for observation and tells Kazuna he must keep away while she's ailing. Later that day, Kazuna gets a shock when he's approached by Yaegashi. Again, Kazuna pleads with her to forget about him, that a life together would be terrible. Yaegashi, in turn, admits that the days since he went away have been unbearable for her. Kazuna runs off, but the thought of the possessive Chizuna keeps Yaegashi from following him. Back at the house, Kazuna contemplates the futility of his helping Chizuna. He feels overwhelmed by her illness and diminished by his powerlessness. Back at the clinic, Minase orders Chizuna never to return to her old house. The advanced state of her disease, combined with Kazuna's presence, could be fatally dangerous, he says. He insists that Chizuna make herself at home at the clinic. But, after he leaves, she attempts to escape and hitch a ride back to the family home in Tokyo. She passes out on the road and is brought back by a local. Minase is anxious about her declining health. But Chizuna tells him that her situation is hopeless: with or without treatment, she's going to weaken. Her days are numbered. All she wants now is to return to Tokyo. Chizuna tells Minase that, no matter what, she will never drink Kazuna's blood and bind him to her fate, a fate that only she bears the burden of. By resisting Kazuna's blood, she is also freeing herself of the emotional grip exerted by her father. Minase refuses to give over the medicine, and he breaks down, expressing resentment that Kazuna took his place and regret because he wasn't the one to save Chizuna. Minase regrets that Chizuna never returned the passionate feelings that he's always had for her. Chizuna realizes that, for far too long, she's strung Minase's heart along, that he looks upon her that same way she obsessed over her father before he died. The next day, Minase finds that Chizuna is gone and that she's left a note. It's a parting note, expressing her lifelong gratitude to him and the inevitability of her decision to continue her deadly treatment if only to spend her last days with Kazuna. Minase despairs, but he does not regret his devotion to this woman.
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冬目 景
Kei Toume studied at the Tama Art University in Tokyo.
Her first manga, Rokujō gekijō, was published in Comic Burger magazine in 1992. She started the series in Comic Burger in 1996. After the disappearance of this magazine, the manga was continued in Comic Birz.
This series ran for six years and was adapted into a radio play, an anime and a live action film.
In 1999, she began, a manga inspired by a song of the Japanese rock group Remote Control Succession. In addition, Toume contributes to a lot of fanzines and specialized magazines, and is also active in video games and films.
Her manga and have been translated into English by Delegate Rey Manga and Tokyopop respectively.
(Kazuna, a teenager whose past is shrouded in mystery, con...)
(Ever since his mother died, Kazuna Takashiro has been liv...)
(BLACK STEEL Avenging his father’s murder is a matter of ...)
(Yaegashi rushes Kazuna to the hospital after he collapses...)
(Chizuna is hit with another attack in her new friend, Sas...)
(STEEL RESOLVE Inside samurai Jintetsu’s robot body beats...)
(HEART OF STEEL Jintetsu left the world of the living beh...)
(Kazuna satisfies his craving by drinking Chizuna's blood....)
(Minase and Chizuna urge Kazuna to go back to school. Resu...)
(Lament of the Lamb Volumes 1-7)
(Shinobu, one of Dr. Takashiro's nurses, appears at the ho...)