Title: Godchild

Creator: Kaori Yuki

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: historical fiction, European setting, crime and punishment, murder mysteries, supernatural, incest, romance, horror, fairytales, mad science, and tragedy

Status: Complete and fully translated

Published By: VIZ (North America), Hakusensha (Japan)

LINK

Official Summary:

Deep in the heart of 19th Century London, a young nobleman named Cain walks the shadowy cobblestone streets of the aristocratic society in which he was born. Forced to become an Earl upon the untimely death of his father, Cain assumes the role of head of the Hargreaves, a noble family with a dark past. With Riff, his faithful manservant, and Mary Weather, his 10-year-old adopted sister, Cain investigates the mysterious crimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes.

Thinky Thoughts

The sequel to the original Earl Cain series (first published in 1991), Kaori Yuki’s Godchild is one of the single most formative pieces of media in my life. Honestly, between this and Angel Sanctuary, Kaori Yuki’s body of work has actually shaped a huge portion of my interests and personality. Even my early writing as a tadpole owes to her brilliant worldbuilding, capable writing, and gorgeous art. 

Godchild is set in the Victorian Era and that shows in every kushly rendered page covered in authentic (ish) fashion or architecture. Slang, historical references (not just characters but famous crimes, makeup chemical compositions, literary references, etc) and more help you feel as though you’ve been dropped into the seedy world that Cain inhabits. 

And what a world is it —

Now I’m not one to say nice things about the British — to the point where the hardest part of the Black Butler stories I plan to write is the fact that since they’re modern AUs I have to learn things about modern day Brits beyond “they are really weird about gender and Meghan Markle” and can’t coast on my history degrees — but I really love the dark world that Kaori Yuki unspools in Godchild. I think I even used it as a reference in one of my papers in the history department days — and I should’ve used it in the paper I did about Crimson Peak and The Portrait of Dorian Gray and the historical hierarchy of Gothic horror.  Especially because there’s… a fair amount of taboo relationship dynamics in the series considering that Cain’s younger sister Mary is a bro-con and his older brother Jizabel is uh… concerningly attached to him. (Cain is also the product of incest actually, I keep forgetting about that. This really would’ve been perfect for that paper…)

Godchild owes a lot to previous media. As much as I shout about the influence it has had on other manga, Kaori Yuki did the darn thing when pulling from existing literature (folklore, poetry, mythology, and literature) to shape the plots in her series. The first chapter — one of the best first chapters in manga thus far — pulls from Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland in a way that I found incredibly innovative. There are references to nursery rhymes like “Solomon Grundy” and the story of Cain (which is where the main character gets his name… but also some of his backstory). It’s all just such a delight to read this series and catch an old or obscure reference. 

And at the end of the day, I view Godchild and Earl Cain as inspirations for Yana Toboso’s Black Butler series. There’s a lot of clear comparisons to be made between the queer sub/text (both are present in both series), the specific ways British history are twisted and woven into the narrative, the gothic horror/romance elements, and the backstories. I could honestly probably sit for days and say a bunch of stuff about how these series, in conversation, form an incredible set of work that uses the Victorian era to unpack trauma, fear, gender, and sexuality. Would it be incredibly cringe? Yes. Would I put in a bunch of my personal jokes about Yana Toboso’s habits? Of course. Would I be correct at every point? Hell yes. 

Anyway, you should be reading this fantastic classic series if you enjoyed Moriarty the Patriot, Black Butler, or Undead Girl Murder Farce, this is a series that you’ll get a ton of mileage out of. It’s also really fun to read Godchild and clock the influence it’s had on a lot of other series! That’s been really cool and I wish more people read this series so that I could shout about it with them.