Dream Saga

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Dream Saga
夢幻伝説タカマガハラ (Dream saga)
Genre	Shōjo
Manga
Authored by	Megumi Tachikawa
Publisher	Kodansha
Serialized in	Nakayoshi
Original run	1997 – 1999
No. of volumes	5

Dream Saga (夢幻伝説タカマガハラ Mugen Densetsu Takamagahara, subtitled Dream Saga) is a shōjo manga by Megumi Tachikawa, serialised in Nakayoshi from February 1997 to June 1999, and reprinted in 5 tankōbon.

It is a fantasy adventure tale about a young girl called Yuuki Wakasa, who one day she acquires a magical red stone. The stone allows her to travel to Takamagahara (高天原), the dream world, when she sleeps, and can only return to Nakatsukuni (中ツ国), the real world, when she goes to sleep in the dream.

Yuuki discovers that she must save Amaterasu from being trapped and destroyed in Takamagahara, or the light will be lost from both worlds forever. The plot draws elements from the samurai epic Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin, and from Chinese and Japanese mythology, particularly the Amano-Iwato legend.

The manga has been translated and republished in German by Egmont Manga & Anime from November 2002 to May 2003, and English by Tokyopop from August 2004 to August 2005.

[edit] Characters

Yuuki Wakasa (# 若狭結姫, Wakasa Yuuki ^?)

Birthday: January 7, blood type: B.

Yuuki Wakasa is the heroine of the story. Because of her mother's personality she has to look after her three brothers, Kousuke, the oldest brother, and the twins Youichi and Youji. She uses Seiza for punishment. She was once a normal fifth grader until a strange stone fell from the sky in her hands. After that she was sent to find the four other stone bearers and save Amaterasu. Unlike the others, Yuuki keeps the same body in Nakatsukuni and in Takamagahara.

Takaomi Kai (甲斐隆臣 , Kai Takaomi^?)

Birthday: January 30, blood type: A.

Takaomi Kai is a boy in Yuuki class and her crush. He has an older brother, but he never appears in the manga. In Nakatsukuni, he has a mellow attitude and cares about Yuuki which is about the only thing he has in common with the Takaomi in Takagmagahara. The one in Takamagahara is 15 years old and a leader of a band of thieves. His hobbies are eating, sleeping, and hitting on every girl he meets. He says that he does it to be polite. He also has a mysterious mark on his forehead.

Souta Inaba (因幡颯太, Inaba Souta ^?)

Birthday: April 10, blood type: A.

Souta Inaba is in Yuuki's class. He enjoys studying and is very smart. He tends to argue quite often with Nachi. In Takamagahara, Souta is a long-haired priest who predicts the future by dropping his stone into water. They use his fortune-telling skills to make money in Takamagahara, seeing as all of the others tend to get fired from their jobs because of their constant arguing. He has been researching "the end of the legend," and tells Yuuki that he never thought that he'd be part of that legend. Souta has a fear of ghosts. The symbol on his stone is "sariyasu" (cloth).

Taizou Hyuga (日向泰造 , Hyuga Taizou ^?)

Birthday: May 13, blood type: O

He goes to the same school as Yuuki, but is not in the same class. He's sort of a bully, and is said to have beaten a junior high student. He has an older sister (which was never shown), and he doesn't spend much time studying. He first meets Yuuki and the others in Takamagahara when he attacks Takaomi for the bounty on his head. He then finds a magic stone in the net that the poacher used, and that's when he gets his memories from Nakatsukuni. He then meets Yuuki in Nakatasukini when he discovers that she checked out a book from the library that he was going to borrow, telling her afterwards that there is another student in his class with a magic stone.

[edit] Trivia

All three of the Imperial Regalia of Japan appear in Dream Saga. The mirror Shinjukyou (Yata no kagami) and an additional mirror, the Shinkakyou, open the stairs to Tenjukyu. A sword, most likely the Kusanagi, is retrieved from one of the crystal Orochi's scales. And the magic stones resemble the Yasakani no magatama.