Arianrhod is a young girl from an island called Erin. She is different from all the other kids her age. All the others in the tribe have blond hair while Arian is the only one with black hair and because of this she was bullied many times. One day a traveler in silver clothing came to Erin and “named” Arian. To be named is very important because it reveals one's true self. After that the Master Drisu takes Arian in as his disciple because she was “named” by the stranger. Balor is the evil leader of Death Valley and one night he murdered all the people in Arian's tribe, and she swears to get vengeance on Balor. 

Kenn's Comment: I'm a bit of a sucker for European mythology, especially the Norse and the ones of the peoples on the British Isles. This one delves into a bit of those, but sadly, not as much as I was hoping it would. The spirits Arianrhod calls upon remain the same throughout the 8 volumes I've read so far, and are more or less restricted almost entirely to those 2-4 spirits.

Another thing about this is that the characters remain largely static. Now this is just something I've noticed in the 8 volumes I've read so far, but nothing, absolutely nothing about the characters has changed. Arianrhod isn't too different from the first volume, and I forget her friend's name, but she's only changed marginally. There's also very, very little story about the characters. They kind of get thrown into the story and go from there. Makes them feel a little bit artificial, and makes it hard to really get to 'know' a character. It's a bit of a disappointment, because of how much potential you could draw out from a series like this.

The art is a bit on the retro side, but it's from way back in the 80's so cut it some slack! It does get a bit graphic, much more than it's shounen counterpart, Naruto (it's a joke).

Would I recommend this one? Maybe. It's hard to say. The setting and story is pretty cool, and the art is good too. But that thing with the characters makes it a bit hard to swallow after a while.