Honey So Sweet Volume 7 by Amu Meguro
Between My Love Story!! and Honey So Sweet, English manga readers certainly have some stellar current shoujo series that are standouts for being adorable and benign. I was struck by just how Nice with a capital N Honey So Sweet is with the seventh volume’s take on a typical shoujo plot of the girl who gets a crush on main girls boyfriend and attempts to drive a wedge between them.
Miyabe has a crush on Taiga, and she proceeds to pursue him in the relentless and clueless way that only someone in the grips of first love is capable of. She shows up when Nao and Taiga are about to share some precious time alone, and she even starts trying to copy Nao’s hairstyle and outfits in an attempt to get Taiga’s attention. Nao at first doesn’t bring up her own feelings of jealousy, because she’s afraid of being viewed as petty and selfish. But she eventually realizes that it is much better to be honest. Taiga is fairly clueless about what Miyabe is up to for far too long and things start getting out of hand. It is heartwarming to see Futami trying to intervene to distract Miyabe from her poorly executed boyfriend stealing plan.
As the ineffective boyfriend stealer, Miyabe ends up getting treated with a great amount of compassion when all her strategies don’t end up working out. A marginal character in a situation who would serve as a distraction or be quickly forgotten in a less benign manga ends up having her feelings and friendship acknowledged. There’s something so human and hopeful about Honey So Sweet, it is the perfect manga to read if you need something to offset any cynicism you may be feeling.
Your description of how gently the story handles the “rival” character reminds me of Eensy-Weensy Monster, another capital-N Nice shoujo where the group of girls trying to bully the lead end up harmlessly following her around for a day instead, and then flock to her defence when they think she’s being hit on. I loved that story to bits as a teen.
It’s harder to write a good story about hope and optimism than it is to write something miserable, I think. You have to try so much harder to keep the readers’ interest. None of the previous reviews I’ve read made me feel particularly compelled to pick this series up, but maybe I ought to give it another look; I could really use something to offset cynicism right now.
It is a good cozy series! Similar good feelings to My Love Story!! but not quite as frantic if that makes sense. The more realistic situations make it a nice relaxing read. I’ll have to check out Eensy Weensy Monster, I haven’t read that!