The Tarot Café

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Looking for OG Goth vibes content? You got it here!

The Tarot Café was the first manwha I ever read, many years ago, when I thought it was just some horror manga, and I was wrong. The characters are interesting, and their designs are amazing. The history develops at a good pace, and the mysterious atmosphere, both given by the café and the characters, is intriguing. You're constantly wondering how things will develop and what type of characters Angela will have to deal with.

At first, you might think that the episodic chapters are all what the story is about, but slowly you fall into the ... mysteries of the protagonist and her friends. Even though it has a horror and mysterious history, the mix of romance does not disappoint. Some relationships may be a little weird and seem out of nowhere, but considering the peace of history, that is completely ok.

Now, some problems that I had while reading it:
The artist clearly has a "type" when drawing. Don't get me wrong, the character designs are really cool, and they deliver that goth style, but sometimes, it is way too much. Some designs are extremely exaggerated with extreme details for no reason. This is probably up for debate and depends on your opinion, but I'm sure you're going to notice it. 
Also, when analyzing the many characters and side characters, you can see that the artist can make different body types and faces but chooses to always make the same faces. Unfortunately, the characters will always have this same face, so get used to it. 

In the end, that an 8 only cause of that, but the rest is amazing. It is a must-read if you like horror and mysterious histories with a bit of romance. 

I know many readers will think there's nothing special about this great little manwha but I found it to be exactly what I needed. If you like supernatural stories with good character development then this is one you might want to add to your library.

Pamela, the main character, has an interesting backstory herself -- but as a tarot reader, she's also a vehicle for exposing the backstories of her clients. The tarot reading angle is a great mechanism for introducing characters and revealing their motivations, etc.

The locations are also beautifully drawn. There's the depths of hell where the story eventually leads, but there are also ... great locations like London and Turkey. If you're worried that it's too "horror" or too scary, it's not. It's a relatively light read.

My criticisms, are that the character artwork is a little too similar. It's hard to tell some characters apart. Some more identifying characteristics would have helped. The storyline itself is pretty simple, which I don't mind.

Most of all, if you're a fan of tarot cards, this is a great read. The way it weaves in a greater supernatural story with the concept of tarot readings is excellent.

Pamela... Far as I can remember must be the only character from the manga/anime medium to look authentically trad-goth. None other could pull it off right. (The japanese author Mihara Mitsukazu published a couple works that attempted to. Without success.). Goth-ness is often misunderstood, so is Gothicism. But I'll give it that one sole pat on the back for getting one thing right nobody else could. Oh, and the art is lovely. Though I shouldn't have to say this, as anyone already into this visual style will be inclined to agree.

So far from what I could tell this does the typical mushy, mish-mash of story ... telling you always run into within asian works. It blends together a variety of themes from low fantasy, the victorian -era setting, gothic + goth, dark romanticism and religious symbolism together to tell some kind of deep tale (It pretends to be.) And that's what bugs me so much...

This overshot so hard with it's formula that you shouldn't begin to utter the question "Why isn't it more popular?" Like with any smaller niche, I am noticing a trend of what I like to call "amateurish enthusiasm". People so deep into their own world, they are eager on writing this extremely ambitious story to feel good about having achieved something. WITHOUT, the nuance and compelling ties to the real world, which are needed in order for a wider audience to grasp it.

You just can't throw people into a world with highly specific, highly subjectively tailored lore and expect it to click. It's why I really found a ton of RPGs pretentious, even if they're probably not when you disassemble them to their core ideas and values.

Bleh... All The Tarot Cafe needed was an eye to eye episodic format. Simple and straight forward. We as the readers don't need to know every meticulous detail of each person's tragic life to follow the story nor message. So had it opted for a more abstract and minimal approach with an angle on pseudo-occultic form of divination I would've been very pleased.

Now that I am not, and low on reading material. I guess I will go on another existential tirade.

https://www.graphitecomics.com/title/TOKYOPOP/The-Tarot-Cafe < You can get a feel for it here, the first volume is available for free.