Manga Maniac Cafe For the Geek in all of us

Title: High School Debut Vol 10

Author: Kazune Kawahara

Publisher: Viz

ISBN: 9781421526652

May Contain Spoilers

The school sports festival wraps up, and Yoh and Haruna can finally go out on another date.  When large crowds and delayed trains derail their plans for the day, they end up at Haruna’s house.  Will her family ruin their date?  Then, when Yoh meets a very strange girl at prep school, she takes an instant dislike to him.   Can he discover why she hates him?

I just love this series!  It’s sweet and touching, and the characters are all so quirky.  During the sports festival, the competition between Yoh and Asaoka heats up, with both of them giving their all to one-up the other.  Yoh thinks that he’s battling to keep Asaoka away from Haruna, so he’s determined to win, despite an injury.  Asaoka keeps on trucking along, with his silly grin and his cheerful demeanor.   He is so hard to read, and I can never tell when he’s serious.  Asaoka is so busy deflecting his feelings, that I don’t think even he knows how he really feels. 

The series takes a little break from the drama, as Haruna and Yoh end up at her house during a date.  Haruna’s family livens up the occasion, embarrassing both of them with their almost worshipful treatment of Yoh.  An afternoon barbeque takes on an unexpected dimension for the young couple, and I couldn’t stop laughing through this chapter.  It was funny and lighthearted, and a perfect set up for the next story arc, which has a darker tone.

When Yoh announces that he’s going to to to summer prep school, Haruna is disappointed, but she’s going to support her man.  That’s good, because he’s going to need her comforting presence for a change.  When one of his classmates freaks him out with her obvious aversion to him, he doesn’t know what to do.  This was an change for Yoh, who usually charms the ladies, whether he wants to or not.  He’s not one to purposefully flaunt his good-looks, and though he restrains his charisma, he’s never without his admirers.  When a girl comes out and pretty much tells him that he’s not all that, Yoh is dumbstruck.  What is up this blunt, bizarre girl?

One of the reasons that I enjoy this series so much is because of the interaction between Yoh and Haruna.  Usually it’s Haruna who is troubled with self-doubts, but now, it’s Yoh who needs a compassionate shoulder to lean on.  This girl in his class hates him, and he doesn’t know why!  Haruna, ever the chucklehead, tries to comfort him, but she gets creeped out by Yoh’s new anti-admirer, too.  The glowering girl could suck the life out of a wildfire!  Yoh and Haruna feed off of their uneasiness, blowing it out of proportion.  It was interesting to see that Yoh has let his guard down so much that he’s upset by what someone else thinks about him.  Though the story arc features some predictable elements, I’m curious to see where Kazune Kawahara takes it.

Grade: B+

Review copy provided  by Viz

Title:  Love*Com Vol 13

Author: Aya Nakahara

Publisher:  Viz

ISBN: 9781421523712

May Contain Spoilers

I’ve got to admit that when I first started to dig into this 13th volume of Love*Com, it wasn’t with my usual enthusiasm for the series.  I mean, Risa and Otani are an established couple, their goals for the future are pretty much set in stone, and the only thing left is to wrap up the side stories of all of their friends.  The Suzuki plot thread just didn’t hold my attention, and it seemed to be so unnecessary.  Suzuki is a spineless wimp, he’s always been sickly and weak, and suddenly having him resolve to become a “stronger” man just doesn’t ring true to his character.  Thankfully, this story arc is quickly, and predictably, wrapped up so we can move on to other drama.

The other drama turns out to be Risa’s crotchety old grandpa, who comes home after an extended period overseas, sowing his ancient oats.  He’s a decadent old guy, with an eye for pretty ladies.  When he and Otani have a chance encounter on the street, things don’t go well.  The old man is trying to harvest new phone numbers and email addresses from beautiful young women, and Otani mistakenly interferes.  The gloves come off and the two suddenly have a very contentious relationship.  Imagine the surprise of both of them when they met again at Risa’s home.  Things go from bad to worse, with gramps vowing to tear the two apart. 

While all of the adversity was funny and kept me engaged, it just seems so extraneous.  Let Risa and Otani march off into the sunset already!  It doesn’t seem fair that after all of their ups and downs, their conflicts are based on something that, picked apart and set out for examination, doesn’t really matter in a deep or meaningful way.  Much of the conflict of the series is based on self-perception and fear of how other people will see them, all because Otani happens to be short, and Risa happens to be tall.  It’s even her grandfather’s biggest reason for wanting them to breakup.  Short men aren’t reliable, he thinks.  Yet lecherous old men are?  Come on, you old geezer – go take a look in the mirror before making judgments against other people!

With Risa’s grandfather running interference in their relationship, doubts quickly rise to the surface.  While they both claim to be happy and content with each other, the old man is very cunning and clever when it comes to derailing their young love.  He preys instantly on Risa’s fears, and dangles a very skilled temptress in front of the naive Otani.  It hardly seems fair that two jaded strangers have entered the picture, and with just a few carefully woven conspiracies, have started to sabotage Risa and Otani’s relationship.  It doesn’t help that Risa’s brother thinks Otani can do better than to date a stupid girl like his sister, which gets both of them thinking about things that don’t really need to be contemplated. 

While the story kept me entertained, I did feel a bit of impatience with the current goings-on.  There really isn’t a need to keep dragging out the story; Risa and Otani have already overcome the obstacles to their relationship, and all sub-plots have been wrapped up.  Do we really need to re-examine the fact that there is a height difference between them?  Let them have their happy-ever-after, for goodness sake!

Grade: B-

Review copy provided by Viz