Fairy Cube

Fairy Cube (Japanese: 妖精標本, Hepburn: Yōsei Hyōhon) is a shōjo (targeted towards girls) fantasy manga written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki.

Appearing as a serial in the Japanese manga magazine Hana to Yume from February 2005 to 2006, the Fairy Cube chapters were collected into three bound volumes by Hakusensha and published from October 2005 to July 2006.

Set in a fictional universe in which a fairy-inhabited Otherworld exists alongside present-day Earth, the series focuses on Ian Hasumi, a teenager who can see fairies, and his childhood friend Rin.

After Ian's body is stolen from him, he starts on a journey to reclaim it and soon finds himself in conflict with a group of fairies who hope to capture the Earth by opening a pathway from the Otherworld.

To infiltrate Gotoh Group, Rin allows herself to be captured, and under the pretense of a beauty contest, the company plans to harvest the energy of the fairy cubes and bystanders to open a "demon door" to the Otherworld.

Shira is killed after cutting Balor's life-line, and Raven realizes that his fiancée, whom Kaito had seduced, had actually unsealed the demon door prior to the start of the series, angry with the two for playing with her feelings.

[11] At the 2007 Comic-Con International, a convention held in San Diego, California, Viz Media announced that it had licensed Fairy Cube for an English-language release in North America.

[20] Writing for School Library Journal, Cara von Wrangel Kinsey found Fairy Cube "more accessible than Yuki's previous works," despite covering subjects such as murder and revenge.

[22] Mania Entertainment's Danielle Van Gorder wrote that the story reminded her of the pre-Victorian version of the fairytale "Snow White" or the British Sidhe fairies, in her review of the first volume.

[23] In a follow-up review of the final volume, she wrote that the conclusion of the series was less confusing than that of Yuki's earlier work Angel Sanctuary (1994–2000) and thought the story was "well-executed," though it still had some flaws.

[24] Rating the series 3 out of 4 stars, Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide (2007), wrote that while it reminded him of Angel Sanctuary, it covered "more original subject matter" and had "tighter" plotting.