What are the holidays without Santa Claus and reindeer?
In the first volume of Sakura Tsukuba’s SWEET REIN, protagonist Kurumi is about to spend Christmas alone – with no Santa or reindeer – when she bumps into Kaito, who suddenly tells her she’s his master. Kurumi is shocked to discover that she’s a Santa Claus with Kaito as her reindeer, and her initial reluctance (and general sensation of being weirded out) soon give way to the kindness driving her to bring happiness to children on Christmas Eve and beyond.
YOROSHIKU・MASTER © Sakura Tsukuba 2005/HAKUSENSHA, Inc.
Admittedly, I laughed a little when I read the cover copy for SWEET REIN. A shoujo manga about a boy who turns into a reindeer and a girl who’s his Santa? That seemed a little too Hallmark-movie for my tastes. That expectation led to pleasant surprise when I discovered not only was SWEET REIN not in the Hallmark-movie genre, but it also left out some shoujo tropes that can be especially annoying and troublesome.
One particular trope that’s always kind of annoying in shoujo series is possessiveness, and when I started reading, I was a little concerned about possessiveness in this series. SWEET REIN was originally published in Japanese as YOROSHIKU MASTER, which could be totally creepy – but one thing I liked about the story was that Kurumi herself acknowledged that it was creepy, and even though Kaito isn’t weirded out or creeped out at all, she’s still reluctant to use her ability to order him around because she’s uncomfortable forcing him to do things.
On a much lighter note, the romantic aspect of SWEET REIN is handled very well, and the development of Kurumi and Kaito’s relationship both as Santa and reindeer and romantically is interesting and, as most shoujo aims for, very cute. I can totally appreciate how open and sweet Kaito is, and the reason he’s head-over-heels for Kurumi is adorable and believable, especially through the course of the story.
This volume of SWEET REIN also includes a one-shot short story featuring a peculiar sort of vampire who opens the door one day to find a girl claiming to be his daughter on his doorstep.
SWEET REIN is a perfectly lighthearted holiday story you’d want to come back to next holiday season. I would recommend this manga for older high school students and college students, especially as a cute gift or a fun winter holiday read.
Story: 3.5 out of 5 stars Art: 3.5 out of 5 stars Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Feliza Casano founded Girls in Capes in 2013 and serves as editor in chief of the magazine. She writes for all sections of the site. Follow her on Twitter @FelizaCasano.
Fruits Basket and Fushigi Yugi were always my favorites!
However, I have been known to slip into some less plot-driven shoujo, like Black Bird and Mars…
Fruits Basket is incredible.