Sakura Hime Kaden

Sakura Hime Kaden
Volume one of the Japanese version, featuring Sakura
桜姫華伝
Genre	Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Manga
Written by	Arina Tanemura
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Ribon
Original run	December 1, 2008 – December 2012
Volumes	12

Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Japanese: 桜姫華伝, Hepburn: Sakura Hime Kaden^?, lit. The Legend of Princess Sakura) is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Arina Tanemura. It began serialization in Ribon magazine on December 1, 2008 and has been compiled into 12 volumes by publisher Shueisha since. The series is licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media under their Shojo Beat imprint, who published the first volume on April 5, 2011.

The story follows Sakura, a 14-year-old princess who'd rather marry for love and make her own choices in life than be married away to someone she's never met. Her best friend is Asagiri, a cute female Mononoke (a tiny spirit) who she once saved from a life of slavery (unbeknownst to her, Asagiri is really a Yuki-Onna). Since birth, she's been engaged to Prince Oura. Not wanting to marry the prince after a precarious argument with Prince Oura's messenger, named Aoba, Sakura runs away but gets lost and accidentally looks at the full moon, which she was warned to never do. A man-eating demon arrives, referring to Sakura as "Princess Kaguya" and nearly wounds her, but Aoba and a priestess that Sakura knows named Byakuya arrive. Priestess Byakuya tells Sakura that she is in fact Princess Kaguya's granddaughter and is the only one able to destroy the demons. By drawing a pair of back-to-back crescent moons on her palm, she is able to summon the mystic sword Chizakura and kill the demon. She also discovers the word “destroy” is actually her Soul Symbol (a symbol each person possesses that best represents his or her true nature). Soon after, Sakura, Asagiri, and Aoba travel to Prince Oura's estate, where it's discovered that Aoba actually is Prince Oura, explaining that he wanted to be mischievous. Of course, the two don't get along from then on, until finally while relaxing under a tree, the two finally seem to come to an understanding, and do appear to be finding the silver lining in their arranged engagement. Unfortunately, she is soon under threat of execution, as Aoba turns on her, as he's afraid that she will eventually become a demon herself, like her mother and grandmother before her. Aoba shoots an arrow through her chest and Sakura falls into a river, only to be found by a cute and sassy young ninja named Kohaku and her childhood friend Hayate, who used to be human but was accidentally turned into a frog by Kohaku (although he regains his human form during the full moon). While with Kohaku, the two form a nice friendship, and Sakura reveals that she is being hunted by Kohaku's master, who just so happens to be Aoba. Kohaku though in return admits already knowing this, and tells that she doesn't wish to harm her, and wants to protect her. The two, along with Asagiri and Hayate, soon encounter Aoba and his men, and Volume 1 ends with Sakura being affected by a youko whistle that Aoba has.