Love Me, Love Me Not, Vol. 2

May 22, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Love Me, Love Me Not, Volume 2 by Io Sakisaka

At two volumes in, I’m not feeling quite as connected to the characters in Love Me, Love Me Not as compared to Strobe Edge, but Sakisaka is still doing a great job setting up a complicated and thoughtful teen romance drama. Yuna is still processing her feelings about the complex relationship between step-siblings Akari and Rio as she also deals with her own attraction to Rio. Yuna’s hesitation and introspection is prompted by the fact that she’s never experienced love outside of books. Rio also seems more attuned to Yuna than he is for girls who he has a more superficial relationship. He notices her being less shy around him, and figures out a way to set up their study group so she doesn’t feel hesitation about asking him questions. All along, Rio has encouraged Yuna to pursue a relationship with the boy she has a crush on, not knowing that she’s talking about him. Yuna’s love confession is unconventional, as she tells Rio about her feelings and says “Now, reject me.”

Rio reacts with a lot more compassion than he usually does with the girls who are attracted to him only for his looks, and Yuna deals with the aftermath. Both Akari and Kazu are impressed with Yuna’s emotional growth and general levelheadedness. While it is fairly easy for the reader to understand Rio, Akari, and Yuna, Kazu remains a perpetually cool enigma. Akari is fascinated by him, but he’s still a bit of a blank slate, defined only by his occasional blunt and insightful statements. I’m hoping that in the next few volumes his character becomes as well defined as the other series leads. This was a strong second volume, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series develops. Sakisaka is great at capturing all the subtleties of emotion in her drawings, and even though much of this manga is people simply talking to each other in a variety of settings, her paneling and the emotional stakes involve keeps everything dynamic.

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol 6

May 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Daytime Shooting Star Volume 6 by Mika Yamamori

As this series continues, I grow more and more conflicted because heroine Suzume is such a sweet girl, I want her to get everything she wants. Unfortunately the main thing she wants is her teacher Shishio, and as he progresses in dropping some boundaries he was not even all that great at maintaining before, I find him more and more unappealing as a romantic prospect for Suzume. As I tend to do in k-dramas, I’m now firmly rooting for the second lead guy, Suzume’s classmate Mamura. I’m still drawn in by Daytime Shooting Star’s combination of stylish art and teen soap opera plot. As a bonus, Mamura is on the cover of this volume.

In this volume, Suzume and Shishio continue to capture some stolen moments here and there, but she’s often frustrated that she can’t deepen her relationship with him, and she’s continually reminded of the need for distance. She gives him a birthday present that she earned the money for with her part-time job. She attempts to make him a lunch, but sees him turning down food from another student. Throughout all of these interactions Mamura hovers in the background either quietly observing or forcing himself to eat some of Suzume’s first attempts at rice balls. Mamura continues to be a good friend, even when Suzume finds herself stood up by Shishio when he’s tied up with work on Christmas. A little bit of awareness seems to be settling in with Suzume as she realizes that she can be herself around Mamura after spending more time with him. Shishio seems to be losing his grip on his professional ethics, so I’m growing concerned about that, and the fact that Suzume’s uncle is extremely clueless about this developing situation between one of his best friends and his niece.

I have to admit I’m impatient to see how all the slowly building romance in Daytime Shooting Star will pan out. There’s a bit of a train wreck quality to this manga, seeing a young girl invest in the possibility of a romantic relationship that doesn’t seem like it will work, but I’m hoping that Mamura’s flashes of insight and his evolution from a boy who could barely talk to a girl to a young man who will gallantly bestow a scarf on a girl when she’s cold will pan out somehow. Go Mamura!

Prince Freya, Vol 1

May 4, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Prince Freya, Volume 1 by Keiko Ishihara

I really liked Ishihara’s other series The Heiress and the Chauffeur, which was only two volumes but left me wishing I could read a longer series by the author. I’m always up for shoujo fantasy, and “girl who must disguise herself as a boy” is one of my favorite plot elements so I have been eagerly waiting to read Prince Freya.

prince freya

Freya lives in the quasi-medieval setting that is very familiar to fantasy fans. She likes to casually jump off cliffs and is a well-beloved figure in her village, as she heads to town to fetch items for her ailing mother. Her adopted older brothers Aaron and Aleksi return home for a visit. Aaron is the famous Black Knight who guards the Prince and Aleksi seems mostly content to remain in his older brother’s shadow. There’s a bit of a budding romance between Aaron and Freya, but Freya quickly gets caught up in court intrigue though. Due to her habit of hanging out in high trees she overhears a plot to attack Aaron and the palace. She sneaks in and discovers that the prince ailing, and Freya is his exact duplicate. Far too quickly, she assumes his identity and manages to pull off a stupendous impersonation as the prince. This comes out of nowhere, I would have appreciated a brief 2 page prince training montage to at least address how on earth this happens. Freya’s Prince Edvard is both arrogant and charming, which contrasts with her more naturally retiring personality, putting aside the cliff-jumping and tree climbing.

There’s a terrible tragedy, but Freya is drawn even more into her deception after the prince dies and she has to make sense of what the small circle of courtiers around her is telling her to do as she continues to play along with hiding the prince’s death so the enemies of her country don’t catch on. The art is clear and expressive, and Freya and her quasi-adopted siblings are sympathetic characters. I’m hoping that the second volume has some time to slow down a little bit and let the story unfold a little more gradually. I’m very much looking forward to the second volume.

An Incurable Case of Love, Vol 3

April 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment

An Incurable Case of Love Volume 3 by Maki Enjoji

I’ve found it difficult to concentrate on reading much in the past few weeks. That being said, I thought that the workplace romance of An Incurable Case of Love was the best series to try to get back into my somewhat irregular rhythms of manga reading. This volume immediately picks up with the scary situation of Nanase being menaced by a stalker. When Dr. Tendo attempts to protect her, she immediately puts her self between Dr. Tendo and danger. She ends up getting knocked to the ground in a pool of blood and rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. What follows is Nana’s elaborate love confession that manages to capture the combination of sweetness and absurdity that makes this manga such an enjoyable read. She announces that she’s happy because she got to kiss Tendo one time and she has no regrets except “I wanted to be your girlfriend…I wanted to kiss and cuddle you…” Alarmed, Tendo grips her hand and says that if she pulls through “I’ll be your boyfriend or whatever you want.” Nana promptly falls asleep saying “Don’t forget about me…”

An Incurable Case of Love

She wakes up to Tendo’s glare, because she fell asleep as opposed to fainting, and while she was injured her head wound wasn’t life threatening. They quickly get back into the regular rhythms of work, except they are officially dating. Dating means not actually going out on any dates due to their hectic schedules. They fall back into the usual rythms of this series, briefly dealing with distractions in the form of a super cute but not very compassionate new trainee nurse who has her own crush on Dr. Tendo, traveling to an educational seminar, and cooking lessons from the too handsome Kisugi. Tendo gradually is starting to show some genuine emotion and concern despite his extremely dispassionate demeanor. Nana’s relentless devotion and affection despite her general lack of encouragement will have readers agree that her workplace nickname of “Valiant One” is fairly earned. I definitely recommend picking up the three volumes of this series if you are looking for a fun josei escape.

Love Me, Love Me Not, Vol 1

March 15, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Love Me, Love Me Not, Volume 1 by Io Sakisaka

Strobe Edge was good, and Ao Haru Ride is a special series, so I was very excited when I saw that another Io Sakisaka series was going to be put out under the Shojo Beat imprint. Sakisaka changes things up a little bit by focusing just as much on female friendship as romance. Yuna is a girl who loves reading shoujo manga. She’s a bit shy and not very confident, but she’s quietly very nice. She meets the more outspoken Akari when she asks Yuna for train fare. Yuna also encounters a mysterious, but somewhat crass boy who resembles her long-dreamed of storybook prince. Akari and Yuna bond when they realize that they are both living in the same apartment building and attending the same high school. Yuna shares her romantic dreams, and Akari counters with her much more pragmatic approach of going out and meeting people instead of quietly waiting for a destined love to show up. Akari is surprised when Kazuomi drops by – he’s Yuna’s childhood friend and Yuna’s shyness disappears when she talks to him because she thinks of him like a brother.

Love Me Love Me Not

The characters are all introduced in a series of slice of live scenes that feel very naturalistic. They run into each other on the sidewalk, in convenience stores, walking to and from school, and visiting outside their part-time jobs. As Yuna gets to know Akari better she discovers that her fabled prince is named Rio, and he’s actually Akari’s brother! Akari is concerned about what would happen if Yuna gives in to her crush, because Rio is a bit of a player and is constantly turning down confessions of love from girls. Akari concludes that Yuna should get together with Kazuomi, but she also finds his forthright ways attractive. There’s a not super surprising twist at the end that sends Love Me, Love Me Not firmly into Marmalade Boy territory. This first volume does a great job setting up four sympathetic characters who are all equally engaging despite having very different personalities. Yuna might spend a great deal of time averting her eyes and blushing, but she is willing to push herself to stand up for Akari when some false rumors start going around. Akari is outspoken and always strategizing about what to do when it comes to her friends, but not always great at sharing her own feelings. While Rio is treated in a certain way due to his looks, it is easy to see from his body language and facial expressions, that he’s also burdened by girls developing crushes on him without even taking the time to talk to him. Kazuomi has an open personality, combined with the ability to occasionally come out with pronouncements about life and relationships that make him seem irresistibly cool.

Sakisaka does a great job setting up a new series in the first volume of Love Me, Love Me Not. I like the idea of a shoujo series that will focus just as much on female friendship as it does on romance, and will be eagerly waiting to see how this tangled web of potential teen romance develops in future volumes.

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