Arata Kangatari is about two boys with the same name that switch worlds. They each have their own difficult situation they are leaving behind. Arata of the Hime clan had to be dressed as a woman and presented to be the next princess. While he was in the ceremony the twelve shinsho attacked the princess. Arata was accused of killing her and ran away into the Kando forest. Arata Hinohara has had the whole school against him at one point. Just when he thinks he has a friend a bully gets that boy to say he was never Arata’s friend. Arata Hinohara switches places with Arata of the Hime Clan and has to deal with the shinsho. Fortunately Arata Hinohara has been chosen by the princess as a shinsho himself and has the power to take then on.
Arata Kangatari shows that Yuu Watase should stick to writing manga that focus on women. She is not the best at writing male characters.
Arata Kangatari is feeling at lot like her old stories. It feels like she needs to find a new theme for her stories besides having a character come into a strange world to save it. She has also done the character coming into the modern era as well, so this has been done by her already in both cases. Also the two Aratas have the same necklace that allows them to communicate with each other. That was used in both her Fuushigi Yuugi stories.
The character designs leave something to be desired as well. In the modern world Arata Hinohara and his enemy both look very similar which can been confusing. Usually artists go out of their way to make the characters easy to identify, but not in Arata Kangatari.
Overall I prefer some of Yuu Watase’s other works that have much the same feel as this one. Only those have girls as the main character instead of guys so she has written them better.
Status: Not Watching
