The Tarot Cafe, #6

The Tarot Cafe #6

by Sang-Sun Park

Alecto receives a dark prophecy from an old three-headed fortune teller. If he wants to tell Pamela the truth about his feelings, there will be dangerous consequences! While Pamela and Belus search for Alecto, Berial plays a game of chess with their lives--and Alecto and Pamela face a disaster from which neither can run...

Genres: Manga, Manhwa, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Romance, Paranormal

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Secrets are revealed, and the end is in sight.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far this is the most 'main story' heavy volume which makes sense since it's the penultimate volume. It's interesting, because on one hand I feel like this series is kind of dragging and feels slow, but on the other hand I also think it could have benefitted from being longer? More one-offs of Pamela's business, more expansion on Aaron or Cora, more time to unravel Pamela's story. It's all kind of tidily crammed into 6 volumes so far though, so I'm thinking the last volume will be a fairly satisfying ending.

[Blake Herondale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pero como me dejan con tremendo plot twist y justo El siguiente tomo no lo hay en la biblioteca 🥲 Si que es verdad que en las escenas con más acción es algo complicado (para mi) entender que está pasando por lo mucho que saturaron las cosas para hacer el efecto de "blanco y negro".

Pues ahora me queda buscar el siguiente tomo para ver si belluse va a vivir o a morir 🫠 espero encontrarlo o jajan't

[Kristin Katsuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is more interesting because it starts revealing things about the main story. Less side stories with tarot fortunes, but still not rlly into it. I hate to say this has a young teen only reading capacity, but it does. I don’t normally like to age things like that, but I’m trying to be truthful with the way this is written.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good manga👌😁💕💕

[Paula Cañete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent manga love it

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything is really coming to a head now, and the cliffhanger ending - ah! This is great set up for a really big finale!

[Helen Pugsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funky as always. It was thrilling.

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The game is coming to a conclusion and the full story becoming clear. The question remains who will win in this game that the devil plays to amuse himself.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alecto visits an old three-headed fortuneteller who reminds him of a promise he once overheard between Ash and Belial, the devil, and tells him various important secrets. Alecto tells Cora these secrets, secrets with include the knowledge that Cora is Pamela's mother, reborn in a new form. Elsewhere, Ash arranges a surprise meeting with Pamela and tells her about his relationship with Belus. Since he was a child, Ash saw Belus as something like a father figure, but one day Belus left him in order to go be with Pamela. That's why Ash hates Pamela. He tries to push her into a door to Hell, but Belus saves her, getting wounded in the process.

Cora finds Pamela and, just before she dies, tells her to find Alecto. Belus and Pamela track Alecto down, as does Ash. Alecto reveals some of what he's found out. It turns out that Ash isn't really Ash, but rather a gem - the real Ash is being kept at Belial's castle. A long time ago, Ash made a deal with Belial: Ash wanted to give up immortality for the ability to die, be reborn, and have an end. He said that, although he loves Pamela, he loves himself more. Before Alecto had even met Pamela, he'd also learned from the three-headed fortuneteller that it's his fate to have unrequited love for a human female and then disappear like dust. Alecto did his best to protect himself from that fate, but then Ash took in Pamela. Alecto eventually fell in love with Pamela and was jealous of the love between her and Ash.

Alecto begins coughing up blood, and Belial appears. Alecto turns into his dragon form and attacks Pamela, who is told by Belial that she must do what she can in order to stay alive if she wants Belus to continue living. With that motivation, Pamela tries to kill Alecto but fails. Belus appears to try to finish the job but is badly wounded. By the end of the volume, it's unclear whether he will continue to live, since Alecto had the power to kill immortals like Belus. Meanwhile, back at the Cafe, Nebiross comes back for Aaron.

I have to admit that this volume was massively confusing for me. Ash isn't Ash, Alecto loves Pamela and hates her too, Cora is Pamela's mom, and Belus may be dying. Actually, it doesn't sound too complicated when I put it like that, just... soap opera-ish. Even if the confusion turns some readers off, I imagine the high pretty-boy content will keep people reading anyway. This volume is just filled with images of Alecto. Are really gorgeous images of Alecto worth paying $9.99 for? I suppose that depends on who you ask. At any rate, the series is almost over, and the events of this volume may make more sense after the next and last volume.

As far as extras go, there's a preview of Park's Ark Angels vol. 2. Three sisters are sent back in time to rescue the last remaining Seychelles Elephant Turtle.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Strangerealms · Rating 5 out of 5]

This manga is my first manga and I got hooked on mangas ever since.

The serie follows a special gifted woman Pamela who has somehow become immortal. She now owns a cafe where she reads tarot to very special clients too.

In each volume the artist takes the time to put tarot cards illustrations with the characters imitating certain published tarot decks. With the tarot readings her character Pamela gives it's obvious the artist knows about tarot and is not making stuff up.

There are short stories in each volume following the fantastical beings who come to Pamela for tarot readings. Some of these stories are dark, funny or tragic. There is of course a main storyline behind all these short stories that continue in each volume and it ends in the seventh volume.

The characters are interesting, you feel drawn to the story and you want to know more about them. Even the characters of the short stories are interesting and moving. My favorite character is Belus.

The drawings are beautiful and detailed and I really love the way she draws men, I find them gorgeous. I've bought two other mangas she made after I fell in love with her style.

[Miss Ryoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoa....

So this volume seemed to follow the main storyline and wasn't full of random side stories. However, I found it a bit confusing. Pamela is trying to figure out her past and Alecto begins to tell her....but I just got lost along the way. All I know was at the end of the volume, I was like:

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! BELUS!!!!!! *extreme heartbreak*

Haha! OMG, LOVE him!!

One more volume to go!! Let's see how it ends!

(what I wouldn't give to be Pamela in this picture! Haha!)

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sang-Son Pak, Tarot Cafè, vol. 6 (Tokyopop, 2007)

Unlike most of the volumes in the series, Volume 6 of Tarot Cafe gives us a single story, as some skullduggery sends Pamela straight to hell—literally. We finally get some of the backstory surrounding Pamela, Ash, and Alecto, and as it's revealed (not only to us, but to the characters themselves, who are as in the dark as the readers), it becomes quite obvious that this will not end well for everyone involved. This is another volume that ends with a twenty-page preview for Ark Angels, which is quite fun, but seems like filler given how short this volume is. ***

[planetkimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely jaw-dropping art. I love the art nouveau flourishes and the intricate razor-sharp details of the costumes and backgrounds.

The fact that all of the pretty boys look very similar doesn't help one follow along with the plot as it jumps back and forth through time - and now souls jump in and out of bodies.

So ... what's going on again?

Ah well - I like the art so much that I won't mind rereading the whole series once it's complete and trying to piece together what happened.

[Alan D.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things are getting better with each volume! It's hard to believe I only have one more book to finish this series T_T Complete review on the blog soon!
Las cosas están mejorando con cada volumen! Es difícil de creer que sólo tengo un libro más para terminar esta serie T_T Pronto la reseña completa en el blog!

[Mosley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cards are all on the table, and it looks like they are stacked against poor Pamela.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was quite intense. A lot of action, a lot of answering the questions.