The Tarot Cafe Manga Collection: Volume 1

by Sang-Sun Park

Meet Pamela, a tarot card reader who helps supernatural beings living in the human world. She'll help anyone, whether they're a love-stricken cat, a vampire spending eternal life running from his one true love, an unattractive waitress looking for the man of her dreams, or even a magician who creates a humanoid doll to serve the woman he loves. Although she is good-natured, there is a deep dark secret that she must deal with before she can move on to the next life.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Manhwa, Horror, Comics

528 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2018

Reviews

[♛ Garima ♛]

It looks like awful lot of pages but something preventing my eReader, going at the last page.

Don't get excited (as me) by looking at amazing cover - the entire book is black and white :(

currently reading....more later...

Update:

Can't read this...not because of story or anything but simply can't read this....fonts not visible, blurred and cannot be magnified....so bad

[Jace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5-4*/5* it was fun. More about it later today. Now I'm going to sleep 😂

[Rachelle (ReaderRachelle) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

I received this book for free from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'll be honest its been a little while since my hardcore manga reading phase so maybe I'm totally out of the loop with what's popular and what's considered acclaimed. I just wasn't super into this; to start with one of the major reasons I picked this up was the tarot and the tarot reader being the main focal point of the stories. This felt more like a short story collection about a wide variety of people and their life stories with the only common thread being they had all visited this cafe and had their cards read. As a consequence of this, this came off feeling very unfocused and meandering while I was reading it.

I really enjoyed the full page tarot card spreads with included a short description about its significance and generally accepted meaning but for the rest of the volume I have to say the art was a little bit of a letdown. It wasn't as clean as I prefer or in a style that I would normally go for; the front cover is not indicative of the inside at all. I also, did really struggle with getting a download of this where the smaller texts were legible. It got to the point where I had to contact to the publisher to get the issue fixed, I will say they handle it admirably, it just made what would've been a small issue into a much larger disappointment.

So while this wasn't the manga to respark my love of the format I can definitely see this appealing to others and bringing a little bit of joy to their lives; I just won't be continuing it.

[Dev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley

I'm sure this would be a really enjoyable read for some people but unfortunately not for me. This collects the first four volumes of a manga series that ran in the early 2000s. The story focuses on a woman who reads tarot cards for other supernatural creatures and the narrative uses the stories of these people to break up the volume into several shorter fairytale-retelling type stories.

It sounds like a really great premise but honestly I would have preferred to just either have the fairytale type stories separate or else only have stories that focus on Pamela. I skimmed through a lot of this because it just wasn't holding my attention but it seems like some of the stories have no relation to Pamela at all while others focus on her and a boy named Ash that she has known for several hundred years. I would have liked it better if the author had chosen one thing or the other to focus on, but other readers might feel differently.

I absolutely love the art though. It's definitely manga-style artwork but it also has a very 90s goth feel that I felt really complemented the whole 'dark fairytale' tone that stories had. However I did think that a lot of the male characters looked REALLY girly, like even more than is usually with anime/manga, so that did cause some confusion as I was trying to figure out whether several characters were men or women.

[Annette Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really clever and interesting concept, together with some beautiful illustrations.
Using a modified deck of Tarot cards to tell the story allows the reader to be taken to the past and to distant corners of the wolf, and meet many magical creatures along the route.

[Alexia Cambaling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of several volumes and episodes of the manhwa, The Tarot Cafe collected in one volume. I believe there would be 3 volumes.

The Tarot Cafe is a pretty good manhwa with a compelling story and beautiful art. Unfortunately, it's burdened by being too blurry in places (on my iPad) with the smallest text being downright impossible to read on a small screen. Those explain what the tarot cards are and their purpose. After switching and reading on my laptop instead on PDF format, the experience got significantly better. The images and text became more crisp and easier to read. This is great for viewing the gorgeous artwork and enjoying the story better. The scrolling can be tedious, however.

The story revolves around Pamela, a witch and tarot card reader who has the power to see her client's future. She basically helps them out in exchange for a bead. What said beads are for is yet to be explained. Throughout the 500+ page book, there are several episodes explaining several plot threads. Some are smaller than the others, with the bigger ones presumably spanning several volumes. The Tarot Card helps give a glimpse into the clients' pasts and at the end, their future. This takes us to unique and varied settings from a tower, to a Middle Eastern harem, to medieval Europe.

The main plot involving Pamela and her past spans back hundreds of years and ties her back to several characters who appear in several episodes. It's clear that helping her clients would aid her in achieving a certain goal which may be explained further in the next volume. The characters presented are pretty distinct both in looks and personality. Each of the clients have their own stories which are enjoyable to read and I would love to see continued in the next volumes. Still, the story, while incomplete (not surprising for a manhwa) is still good and I can still recommend it.

I will have to recommend that anyone interested get a physical copy though. I originally read this in ePub format which would have brought the overall score down if I hadn't switched to PDF. Otherwise, a large screen and a good display would be a good idea.

Recommended for fans of mangas and graphic novels and those who love a good urban fantasy featuring a witch/Tarot card reader.

This review can also be found on my blog: The Bookworm Daydreamer

[Sarah Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the stories from this comic. They were loosely based on fairytales or common folklore but I appreciated the twist the author gave them. I’m not sure if it was a scanning thing but the a lot of the text in the graphic novel was often blurred, indecipherable (the explanation of the tarot cards) or just missing. I could piece it together but it was frustrating. To be completely honest, I had an extremely hard time also differentiating between male and female characters. That may be due to my lCk of familiarity with the style and genre. Overall, I’d definitely read the second installment but only if it’s presented in a better format than previous.

[Nadia Norin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a lot of comics, manga to be precise. So I was looking forward to read and review Tarot Cafe. As always, I did not read the synopsis or description given as to not be spoiled in any way.

I liked the characters’ design and it was a fresh look different than the mangas I am used to. The plot was intriguing however it was not something that I would read. It had too many stuff going on and being a person that knows nothing of tarot cards, I was constantly confused. I had to reread numerous times.

[Alan D.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm in love with this series, no matter how much passes. I love Pamela and her gang.These characters combine the best of mythology, fairy tale retellings and gothic charm in one single,gorgeous volume. Everyone should read this! Will definitely read the next books if given the chance!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story is good, but it is starting
to get complicated.
The only problem is that the
drawing style makes everyone
looks similarly feminine.
I have to read a bit to figure
out who is who.
On to the next in the series.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fun! Art reminds me of Moyoco Ano ( artist of " Happy Mania" one of my all time fave mangas....) If you like Tarot and that type of art, give it a go. This first volume was a big boy FYI. (500+ pages) will be picking up the next omnibus!

[Ziggi Chavez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* I enjoy the storytelling process through the Tarot deck, but the stories disjoint a bit too much. In each story there is plenty of information to make the minor characters unique to each chapter make sense, but there is barely any information about the main characters through 10 chapters.

[Taylor West · Rating 2 out of 5]

More about Pamela's clients than about her. You don't learn anything about who she really is until almost 300 pages in. Would've been more interesting if we learned more about her from the get go.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool stories and beutiful artwork, but the way the main storyline emerges is not very well executed. Enjoyable nonetheless.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

-1⭐ for the werewolf

[Johan Shore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this series more times then I can count this was my very first manga

[Imogen Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarot Cafe by Sang - Sun Park is such a unrated manga I feel like it has got lost in translation I originally brought the collector edition on a manga sale attracted by the beautiful gothic artwork of the front cover. Tarot card reading is a interesting feature I had difficulties reading all of the descriptions of the tarot cards written in small print often cut out by the pages although the art work is first class I might continue reading the remainder of the series in a different edition.

[Karissa Talks Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! The beginning was a little eh to me, and I wasn't sure how I felt about the artwork, but in the end I found that I wanted to keep reading.

This collection features a main story line and small stories that are sprinkled throughout. At times it was difficult for me to distinguish what time period I was in as well as if I was in the main story or a side story. The artwork was very pretty, but it was SO difficult to distinguish men from women that I had to be told most of the time.

If you are interested in this, it is almost required that you get a physical copy. It was so difficult to read, even on my laptop, that I couldn't read some of the words on pages when they were so small.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren (Northern Plunder)]

My review was first posted on Northern Plunder, you can read more of my reviews there too.

A manga about a Tarot Cafe? Yes sign me up!

Very small font around the Tarot cards describing what they are and how they’re relevant to the story on the computer screen? OH NO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME.

Its annoying having to write a review that ends up being impacted negatively because of the format of the review copies but alas I shall do my best.

I did also find the story hard to follow at times, to the point where I panicked and thought I had read it back to front…

But other than those two things I actually really enjoyed this manga.

The character designs really blew me away and it was nice to see such attention with no use of colour.

The story follows Pamela as she reads tarot for supernatural beings, they all bringher a bead and a story. So as well as the overarching story of what Pamela is setting out to achieve with these bead we also get a bunch of short stories from each of the customers.

I really enjoyed the short stories as they all had something interesting to tell – from creating puppets to falling in love – many even had a folklore vibe to them too. I’d love to know the inspiration to a few of these.

The story featuring a cat was my favourite even if it was heartbreaking!

So was I fan? Yes, mostly. Will I read vol 2? Sure, but not from NetGalley. If anything I’d rather find a physical copy of this and give it a second read through before deciding whether I really do want to continue.

[Sara Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update: I ended up purchasing this book. It's much better in print than electronic. I really loved it the second time and look forward to the next installment.

I didn't love this as much as I wanted to. The plot is interesting but there are so many characters that come and go that I had a tough time determining who was who. One issue with manga is that the characters are often androgynous. This was the worst I had seen - not only were they androgynous but they seemed to be all sexual orientations. Again not a huge problem except I couldn't figure out who was who.
With that said, I actually think I am going to track down a copy for myself. There were a lot of things I did love about this story. It's inspiring to me (makes me want to create art) and I like that. I love the little tarot card definitions and the bits and pieces of folklore.
I don't think this is a good introduction to Manga but if you are already a fan, you may like this book.

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first this Manga screamed XXXHolic at me. Maybe just the fact that it was based in a shop and had all kinds of mystical people coming through, or perhaps the similar art style.

At first I didn't think I would be interested in reading another one. The manga seemed to be focusing on the mini stories (any of which could be their own series if fleshed out a bit) more so than its overarching plot line, where a woman, Pamela reads Tarot for the supernatural. As I continued to read, the story became more clear, and I became more interested, but it didn't really get good until the last chapter which was disappointing. I would have liked more Pamela less "other"

The artwork was nice, but grainy and kind of broken up in the version I read. You could tell that it had a nice throwback style ( maybe using the same artwork from the original release?). I would probably read the next 2 ( I'm assuming there will only be 2 more since the first release had 3 total as well) But its not a Manga I would personally add to my collection. I could see some people really enjoying this though.