The Cain Saga

Earl Cain (伯爵カインシリーズ Hakushaku Kain Shirīzu), also known as Count Cain, is a Gothic Shojo Manga series written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki. Earl Cain consists of five parts or "Series": Forgotten Juliet (忘れられたジュリエット Wasurerareta Jurietto), The Sound of a Boy Hatching (少年の孵化する音 Shōnen no Fukasuru Oto) , Kafka (カフカ Kafuka) , The Seal of the Red Ram (赤い羊の刻印 Akai Hitsuji no Kokuin) , and the sequel series Godchild (ゴッド チャイルド Goddo Chairudo).



Appearing as serials in the Japanese manga magazine Hana To Tume, the chapters of Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram ran from 1991 to 1994, and the Godchild chapters appeared between 2001 and 2004. Together, the series spans 13 tankobon volumes, with five for Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram and eight for Godchild. Two drama CDs based on the series were also released. Set in 19th century England, the series focuses on a young earl named Cain Hargreaves who solves murders while encountering his father's secret organization, Delilah, that experiments with reviving the dead.

Earl Cain is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which published Forgotten Juliet, The Sound of a Boy Hatching, Kafka, and The Seal of the Red Ram as The Cain Saga. The first volume of The Cain Saga was published in October 2006; the final volume was published in June 2007. Godchild was released simultaneously, as well as being serialized in Viz's manga anthology Shojo Beat from July 2005 to June 2006.

Yuki began the manga inspired by "the darker, grislier side" of the Victorian upper class and her admiration of films set in the Victorian time period. For Godchild, she traveled to London to do historical research and visited seven historical sites there. In the series, she refers to the Bible as well as real-life literary works, films and people. Earl Cain features several themes such as "the darker side of love and a tainted childhood. Critical reaction to The Cain Saga was mixed: some felt that the mysteries were well-done with detailed art, while others found the art crude and the short stories confusing and predictable. Reviewers praised Godchild as an overdone, entertaining series with detailed and distinct art.

Plot
Set in Victorian England, the series focuses on Cain Hargreaves, the son of Alexis Hargreaves's elder sister, Augusta. Abused physically and emotionally by Alexis, twelve-year-old Cain befriends a new servant named Riff, after Riff speaks to him. Cain acknowledges that his father despises him and has been slowly poisoning him with arsenic. When he secretly visits his mother at a mental institution, she mistakes him for Alexis and jumps out the window. Dying, she warns him to escape from Alexis. He returns home and poisons his father. Before Alexis plunges into the sea, he curses his son to have a miserable life and die alone. Cain inherits his father's title of Earl as a result of Alexis' presumed death.

Years later Cain, now seventeen, solves murders and collects poisons. During one mystery, he adopts young Mary Weather, who he believes is his half-sister. He also encounters his half-brother Jizabel Disraeli, a member of a secret organization that focuses on resurrecting the dead. From him, Cain learns that Alexis had survived his suicide and became the leader of that organization, renaming it Delilah. After the death of the woman that Cain loves, a Delilah "doll" or resurrected corpse surviving on the fresh blood and organs of others, he vows to end Delilah's experiments with the dead.