Category: Manga Reviews

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Kimi Ni Todoke Volumes 12 and 13

I’m very fond of this series, but I tend to read it in patches. It is the 12th volume and Sawako and Kazehaya are only just to the stage of awkward hand-holding and meeting each other’s family! No one could accuse Kimi Ni Todoke of moving too fast, but there’s something about the slow development of this awkward romance that is very endearing. School is out for the summer, and Sawako isn’t entirely sure how she’s supposed to get in touch with Kazehaya because as she confesses to her girlfriends Chizu and Ayane “In general, I don’t know what to do in a relationship.” They point out to her that if she’s in a relationship it would be normal for them to spend time with each other, hold hands, and kiss, leaving Sawako instantly overwhelmed. She just cannot process the idea of actually having a boyfriend. Kazehaya and Sawako do homework together for their summer classes. Later, they walk out together and there is an scene showing the shadow of Sawako’s hand reaching out towards Kazehaya, capturing the agony of making the first move. Kazehaya accidentally jostles her and then takes her hand, and as they are walking together as boyfriend and girlfriend, they run into Sawako’s mother. What follows is a simultaneously awkward and adorable round of introductions, as the new couple takes turns giving Sawako’s Mom all the details about Kazehaya and their relationship. They end up going to Sawako’s house for dinner and her father’s reaction to Kazehaya’s presence is a blank rictus of shock, made more comical by the way his glasses go completely white. Kimi Ni Todoke is really great at capturing all these embarrassing moments of teenagerhood while telling a very sweet story. Sawako’s parents welcome Kazekaya because they see how happy she’s become recently. The next story in this volume gives some great background on Ayane and Chizu’s friendship, as it shows how they became unlikely best friends.

As summer vacation progresses, it is Sawako’s turn to meet Kazehaya’s family. It is fun to see how excited she is. Kazehaya and his mom have the type of relationship where they mock apologize for each other as soon as they have an audience. Sawako is excited to see Kazehaya’s little brother and when she meets Kazehaya’s father she is overcome with the thought of seeing “Kazehaya-kun in the future!” Kazehaya’s sporty dad quizzes Sawako on her eating and exercise habits, makes the pronouncement that she needs to eat more and gruffly insists that she eat his favorite ice cream. Other notable episodes in this book include Chizu’s massive arm wrestling competition on the beach, and the beginning of the obligatory in most shoujo manga school trip chapters. Overall dipping back into this series reminded me of the things that Kimi Ni Todoke always seems to do right – sympathetic but quirky characters going thorough first love with plenty of awkwardness and funny moments.

Review copies provided by the publisher

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Manga Reviews

Jmanga Review – Cousin Vols 1-3 by Ryo Ikuemi

Cousin is available on Jmanga.com

Most of the series on Jmanga have one or two volumes, so it was nice to stumble across this three volume shoujo series that has been completely translated. Cousin is the story of a girl finding her way after high school, and I was intrigued to see that it was published in the magazine Zipper, which also published Paradise Kiss. Tsubomi, nicknamed “Bon” is graduating from high school and planning on working part-time. She’s a friendly chubby girl who has many superficial acquaintances, and one closer friend, the snarky and boy crazy Eiko. Bon is fairly sheltered after attending an all-girl’s school and the first boy she really talks to is Shiro, one of the other workers at the video store. One remarkable thing about Bon is that her cousin Noni is a hot new celebrity.

Noni experiences her first crush when an tall man bumps into her at the video store and casually picks her up to put her back on her feet, commenting “You’re so small, I didn’t see you!” Shiro knows the gentle giant is Nasukawa, a lonely recently divorced man who runs a nearby restaurant. Bon and Shiro manage to strike up a friendship through work. Shiro takes Bon to Nasukawa’s restaurant. Bon starts to get curious about appearing feminine for the first time, getting a new haircut and asking Eiko to help her go shopping. Filled with hopes for her first love, Bon goes on a diet and transforms herself with Shiro acting as her cheerleader the whole time. Shiro’s girlfriend is a former classmate of Bon’s who looks entirely different from the way she looked in high school too. Shiro seems to be a bit of a good-natured, slightly clumsy Svengali.

Cousin has a nice slice-of-life quality to it as Bon goes through her self-improvement regime and find herself becoming friends with Shiro and Nasukawa. She even reconnects with her famous cousin Noni at a wedding and sees that being a celebrity might not really change someone all that much. Bon has a bit of the typical shoujo heroine personality type to her, being clumsy and socially awkward, but she’s still a sympathetic protagonist. The art is simple but attractive, and the characters are as stylish as you would expect from a manga published in a fashion magazine. Cousin has one of those slightly open-ended endings that hints at what is going to happen, but leaves the conclusion up to the reader. I found most of the characters very sympathetic, and one of the chapters employed one of my favorite narrative devices in manga, where all the supporting characters speak directly to the reader as if they are in a documentary. This was a quick way of adding more depth to the story, as the reader can see how Bon is perceived by many different people. It was fun to be able to sit down and read the entire series at once! Recommended if you like shoujo transformation stories.

Electronic access provided by Jmanga.com.

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Manga Reviews

Dengeki Daisy Volume 9

Dengeki Daisy Volume 9 by Kyousuke Motomi

This volume marks a turning point in this series. Orphaned high school student Teru and hacker/janitor Kurosaki have been defining their relationship by dancing around the truth. At first, he hid the fact that he was Daisy, Teru’s confident and protector that was reachable by cell phone. Then, Teru found out Daisy’s identity and proceeded to pretend that she was still ignorant. Then Kurosaki knew that Teru knew who he was, but he wasn’t going to tell her that he knew she knew. Teru found out the details of Kuosaki’s past and the burden of his guilt, and he promptly took off, thinking that he was protecting her by avoiding her. In this volume, they finally have a conversation with each other with no secrets or pretense designed to protect each other from the emotions they are both feeling, and the payoff is big for the readers. Of course, they don’t get to this confrontation without some drama and slightly twisted antics.

Teru is determined to track Kurosaki down. She hears all about his past from his colleagues and comes up with a devious plan. She’s going to tell Kurosaki that she’s going to meet the evil hacker Akira in order to discover his location. She knows that if Kurosaki thinks she’s threatened, he will come to save her. Kurosaki meets her at a beach and when he realizes that she’s tricked him he turns around to walk away. Teru keeps him around by making him angry. She starts reading Daisy’s most mushy messages, goading Kurosaki into a confrontation. They finally hash things out and talk, without all the secrets that have been serving as emotional armor. Teru shows herself to be much wiser than her years in the way she deals with Kurosaki. She knows that his guilt is so overwhelming that he wouldn’t be comforted if she tells him that she forgives him, so instead she tells him “thank you.”

So many shoujo series end up spinning out a central conflict between a romantic couple for many volumes, where not much really happens in terms of character growth until the very end. At nine volumes Dengeki Daisy isn’t a short series any more, but it feels like the characters are genuinely changing and moving forward in a way that makes this series seem fresh. Not only does the relationship between Teru and Kurosaki change slightly after their conversation on the beach, they are shown dealing with the aftermath in various ways. Teru doesn’t want to give up her texting relationship with Daisy, but Kurosaki can’t keep playing the role anymore. They have to carve out new ways of communicating with each other, but it seems like they are moving forward with a stronger foundation. Of course, there’s plenty of evil corporate spy antics going on in the background to keep things exciting. This was a very satisfying volume of Dengeki Daisy, and this series continues to be one of my current favorites.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

A Devil and Her Love Song Volume 2

I enjoyed the first volume of A Devil and Her Love Song, and was curious to see if the next volume lived up to the potential of the first one. Though there were some rough spots, I found myself still intrigued by this new shoujo manga.

Maria and Yusuke go to visit their classmate Tomoyo, who has been staying home from school. I was amused to see that Tomoyo, who goes out of her way to be bland and agreeable to everyone at school, is actually a closet goth. They just stay for a visit and don’t confront Tomoyo about her coming back to school, but Maria forces the issue when she shows up at Tomoyo’s house then next morning. She goads Tomoyo into saying what she really feels, then comments “That angry look isn’t flattering on you…but it isn’t half bad.” When Tomoyo goes back to school she finally speaks out and defends Maria against the group of popular girls who have been bullying her. Shin stops Maria from reacting when the situation in the classroom gets out of hand and Yusuke goes to confront their teacher about his hypocritical ways. Instead, the teacher decides to set Maria up as a scapegoat to cover for his lack of discipline in the classroom. He decides that Maria will be leading the class choral performance, and she has to scramble to put something together when she’s ostracized by her classmates. Yusuke is singled out as an ally of Maria’s and he says that he likes her in front of the class. Maria isn’t sure if he genuinely likes her, or if he’s trying to protect her. She pushes him away, telling him that if he defends her “it’s suffocating.”

Maria attempts to pull together a choral performance despite the fact that the entire class isn’t cooperating. It is fun to see the random friendship that she’s developed with Tomoyo, as they always seem to wind up in a corner of the school discussing the day’s events. Yusuke hovers around, determined to help. Yusuke drags Shin into the choral performance too, since he can play the piano. The class grows more and more tense, provoking even more of a confrontation between Maria’s allies and the classmates who have decided to hate her. Maria’s habit of blurting out whatever she’s thinking forces all of these conflicts into the open. Someone more socialized might put their head down and attempt to ignore everything, but Maria comments on what everybody is doing, making everyone confront their behavior and reactions. Things are getting pretty bad at school, so it is easy to see why Maria’s gotten kicked out of school so many times before. But the small core group of friends that she’s developing is something new for her, and she’s actually trying to engage with other people in a way she doesn’t quite seem capable of. This series continues to be very promising, I’m just hoping that there is more Shin in the next volume, since this one was more centered on Maria and Yusuke.

Review copy provided by the publisher

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Manga Reviews

Harlequin Manga Quick Takes from Jmanga: Avoiding Mr Right, The Celebrity Doctor’s Proposal, and Princess of Convenience

All of these Harlequin manga titles are on Jmanga.com! I’m reviewing them in order from least to most favorite.

Avoiding Mr Right by Sophie Weston and Keiko Okamoto

The heroine of this story is Christina Howard, a girl who serves as a crew member on various ships and has a tendency to yell loudly in banks in Athens when they won’t give her any money. As she’s freaking out over her lack of funds, she runs into a rich bank customer named Luc who treats her to coffee and offers to lend her money to pay for a hotel room. Christina throws his money back into his face proclaiming that she doesn’t need it because she’s “an independent woman.” A independent woman who happens to be able to crash with a local friend. Luc is intrigued by the way Christina yells at bankers and messily eats croissants, thinking “she’s a type of girl I haven’t come across before.” Christina gets a job working on a ship belonging to minor royalty and keeps randomly running into Luc, who keeps plying her with coffee. Perhaps he likes his women jittery. She doesn’t want to be tied down to anyone, but feels attracted to Luc despite her general suspicion of him. It turns out that Christina has been serving as crew on his ship, getting to know his sister and his niece and nephew.

The adaptation for this series sprinkles a few good background images of the exotic setting of the story, and the art is generally clear but the characters sometimes look a little stiff and there are often panels with almost no backgrounds or details at all. Avoiding Mr Right is pretty typical of most Harlequin manga adaptations, which I’m betting are rush jobs. The story and characters are a bit on the bland side, without some of the crazy plot twists that I tend to enjoy in most Harlequin stories. Overall, this manga was so-so. Not terrible but not reaching the heights of craziness that I tend to enjoy in my Harlequin manga adaptations.

The Celebrity Doctor’s Proposal by Sarah Morgan and Masami Hoshino

I find that Harlequin books are more enjoyable if they employ at least one or more adjectives in the title, so I was hoping for good things from The Celebrity Doctor’s Proposal. This book was more lively just due to the bickering relationship between the main characters. Anna is a doctor at a small village in a small family practice. Her boss is going on a vacation, and he brings back his son and Anna’s old frenemy Sam, who has gone onto fame as a reality TV doctor. Anna thinks Sam is a dilettante who doesn’t take medicine seriously. When she finds out that Sam is her new partner for the summer she’s extremely unhappy. Sam thinks that Anna’s overwhelmed by the volume of work and doesn’t have the time to notice that her office manager is dealing with a family crisis. As Anna spends more time with Sam she begins to realize that he might actually be a good doctor after all, celebrity status aside. The townspeople think that the pair are destined to end up with each other, and Sam’s parents arranged their vacation from the clinic in order to play matchmaker. Anna finds herself having to live at Sam’s house when the cottage she was attempting to buy exhibits structural defects. Apparently wonky windows can be a sign of structural instability instead of rustic charm. Sam and Anna have several slice of life scenes when they trade dinner chores and enjoy the beach. The character designs in The Celebrity Doctor’s Proposal have a bit of individual flair that is always nice to see in this type of manga, and overall the art is fluid and self-assured. There was plenty of time spent on the motivations and changing feelings of the bickering doctors as their relationship evolved, so overall this Harlequin manga is much better than average.

Princess of Convenience by Marion Lennox and Takako Hashimoto

So there’s something about slightly old school shoujo art combined with the crazy plots of Harlequin books that works a strange alchemy upon me. If there’s a heroine who has improbably curly hair, a steely-eyed hero, and some sort of insanely convoluted plot involving dead ex-wives, marriages of convenience, and imaginary European countries in a Harlequin manga there’s a high probability I am going to enjoy reading it. I will enjoy reading it even more if alpacas play an important role in the plot. So this title delivers on all fronts!

Jessica, a divorced bereaved mother and fashion designer, is driving around a teeny tiny European country when she gets in a car accident with another woman dies in the crash. Sarah’s fiance Raoul visits Jessica in the hospital and is oddly philosophical about the death of his fiancee, inviting Sarah to convalesce in his castle. As one does when someone gets into a horrible car accident with the woman you were going to marry. As Jessica is sitting down to dinner with Raoul and his mother, a boorish relative bursts in and announces that they’ll have to be out of the castle in a few days. Due to the complicated inheritance laws of his country, Raoul has to be married to serve as regent, and his wedding with Sarah was going to be a marriage of convenience. Jessica hears a child crying in the castle, the heir to the throne Edouard. She decides to swoop in and comfort him. Poor Edouard has been locked in a strange room with a carnival of horrors decorating theme along with a mini-army of horrible nannies. Raoul comments “It’s diseased. This room. This country.” Not only is Raoul royalty, he’s also a Doctor who wants to go back to serving in Doctors Without Borders once his country is on the right track. Jessica decides that she’s going to help Raoul out and proposes marriage to him!

They get married but their issues aren’t over yet, as there is supposed to be a witness stationed outside their bedroom to witness the consummation of their marriage. Jessica isn’t happy about this, and she argues with Raoul on her way back to the castle, but she’s distracted by alpacas! Twin Suri alpacas that aren’t being cared for properly! She takes the alpacas back to the castle! There is a pretty hilarious scene when the witnesses to the royal consummation are startled by the sounds and conversation coming out of the bedroom, not knowing that Jessica and Raoul have set up a track and are engaged in competitive toy car racing. Hashimoto’s art has a stylized old fashioned quality that suits the charmingly erratic plot elements of this story which combines personal tragedy, evil European royalty, and cute baby alpacas. Hashimoto also illustrated one of my other favorite Harlequin manga titles, To Marry a Stranger, which features a hero with an eyepatch, and who doesn’t love heros with eyepatches? Overall, Princess of Convenience provided the exact combination of humor, slightly deranged plot, and pretty art that I enjoy most in Harlequin manga adaptations.

Electronic Access provided by the publisher