Yami no Matsuei: Byakko Crochet Doll
A testament of my age are the anime I’ve watched in the past, and it shows. I don’t think a lot of the new avid anime watchers these days even remember those good series like Maison Ikkoku or Slayers, and I don’t think even the popular ones like Ranma 1/2 and Vision of Escaflowne (or even Rurouni Kenshin) are mentioned by most anymore.
One of these is Yami no Matsuei (also known as Descendants of Darkness or Darker Descendant), which was a 13 episode anime with some decidedly subtle and hinted at yaoi content (Muraki is a scary seme), though the manga covers a bit more than that. It’s the first few manga series where I fell in love with the gorgeous art, and also the first manga I actually bought and completed, even though the artist has never officially finished the series, capping it at (I believe) 12 volumes. One of the adorable characters that never made it into the anime series (his human form never made it, anyway) is Byakko – one of the gods that main character Tsuzuki is able to summon. Byakko is seen in the anime in the form of a gorgeously pure white tiger, but his human form is just as pretty:
