I want to make a joke about how Kara can’t keep writing books laser targeted at me, literary trans goblins can’t be that large a market. Though, it would seem I’m more basic than I thought (or there’s a thriving market for well written, hopeful trans stories).
That’s probably all need be said. For the second time, on the eve of a dark day for American trans folk, I picked up a Magica Riot story and was reminded there is hope and happiness left.
Jade Evergreen and the Perils of Polybius is a love letter to the stories and media little girls are supposed to enjoy, and which many trans women felt denied growing up or found secret joy in. Between the alliterative title and ‘Beverly Turtledove’, a series of teen girl detective stories that inspires Jade, Perils of Polybius is wearing its affection for Nancy Drew on its sleeve. However, I’d be remiss in my duties as a lover of lesbian media to not point out some similarities to MY personal pre-cracking escape, and first anime, Card Captor Sakura (I’m intentionally putting on the nostalgia glasses for this bit, I’m very aware of the ick aspects now, thank you).
Catherine and Jade’s relationship feels so much like Sakura and Tomoyo’s, I just have to call it out. Jade/Sakura start out on a weird foot with Catherine/Tomoyo as she knows Jade/Sakura’s magical girl secret, and Jade’s other secret, low blow Cathy. The non-magical girl in each case uses those secrets to blackmail her would-be friend into letting them come along on their adventures for her own personal reasons. That being the next big scoop for Cathy – I miss the ‘reporter chasing stories’ character archetype so much, and the highschool version is even more fun – and to film Sakura’s adventures while forcing her into cute thematically appropriate outfits in Tomoyo’s case.
As an aside, you’ll never convince me a Clamp main character is straight no matter how much they pushed her with Li when she’s spending every night out with her girlfriend using her as a dress-up-doll.
The development of Catherine and Jade’s forced partnership into a real friendship feels a little rushed due to being a novella, but I think it works.
Jade Evergreen and the Perils of Polybius feels like the third episode of a magical girl show. Episode 1 was Jade hearing the Maidensong singing to her, moving to Portland, and the thing with the haunted tarot deck Cathy saw. Episode 2 was the learning to work around each other, probably a montage episode covering a bunch of the early cases that inform Jade and Catherine’s relationship that Jade ruminates on through Perils of Polybius. Episode 3 is when the plot kicks in and the girls have to commit.
I don’t do scores, so let me finish by saying something quippy.
Jade Evergreen and the Perils of Polybius is a fun, hopeful love letter to the girlhood denied many trans women. It’s $2. Get it or risk being hit by a van.
