MISC. MANGA, *Captive Hearts Of Oz

While there are numerous anime/manga titles based on the works of L.Frank Baum(including Santa Claus' origin), Captive Hearts Of Oz takes a modern day shojo approach to the classic tale, mixing in not only elements from the original Wizard Of Oz book, but others fragments of the Oz novels. Author Ryo Maruya teamed up with artist Mamenosuke Fujimaru who worked on the various Alice In The Country Of Clover and its various spinoffs to create this reverse-harem manga.

Dorothy is a farm girl who has her house blown away by a tornado to the enchanted land of Oz, where it happens to crash on the Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North, Locasta arrives and gives Dorothy the Wicked Witch's magic shoes as she is directed to go to the Emerald City to find the enigmatic Wizard who could send her home. Along the way, Dorothy runs across more human-ish versions of the Scarecrow(here called Haward), Nick Chopper(Tin Woodsman), and "Leon" the Lion. Once all four of them have assembled, they are joined by a joyful but mysterious jester named Zero. The quintet eventually reach the Emerald City, where Dorothy is greeted by Glinda, Good Witch of the South. All while this is going on, it appears that Locasta is working with the other Witches and the Wizard to have Dorothy follow a certain path, indicating that this has been done by Dorothy more than once who kept no memories of her former adventures. This plus the Witch of the East is not only still alive, but a male, as well as the Witch of the West.

The over all story arc seems like a cross between the original Oz story, and The Truman Show where someone's life is being directed by outside forces within a self-contained world. Whether this is all in storybook, a dream, or a pocket universe is yet to be seen. The plot moves along fairly well, although it seems to hide to much which disallows the narrative to know where its all going. The artwork is satisfying, and should appeal to bishonen otaku.