This is so short, you'd never know it took me three weeks to write

[wednesday_10_00]

I have totally and completely forgotten how to express what I like or dislike about a manga. But, before I go the whole year (orz) without reviewing anything, let's just plunge back in and hope I remember eventually.

Shoujo:

Koukou Debut - Kawahara Kazune (sweh!!)
(AKA High School Debut)

Or, The Series that Made Me Love Shoujo Manga Again (Okay, I never really stopped loving shoujo manga, but sometimes I forget that I do, or that not all heroines are annoying.) This was one of the shoujo series that I meant to buy in Japan but my suitcases ran out of room. :( And then I hesitated over buying it through Amazon, because I hate starting new series that way. (Do I buy one volume and love it and get angry I didn't get more, or do I buy five volumes and hate it and get angry that I spent so much money on it?) So I held off until I happened to be manga shopping in Chicago and buying shoujo suddenly seemed like a good idea because there was so little BL.

But I digress. In Japanese, "high school debut" is a phrase used for someone who completely changes their image upon entering high school. In the case of Haruna, she was a tomboyish softball player in junior high, but decides that she's going to spend her high school years focused on romance, and thus completely remakes her image in order to go out and snag a boy. However, Haruna, being charmingly overzealous and dense, bungles things to the point where no boy will touch her with a ten foot pole. Eventually she enlists the help of Yoh, who is super popular because of his looks, but isn't dating anyone because he claims to hate romance and girls (in actuality I think it's more because he's just plain shy; Yoh is as adorable as Haruna in his own way), as her "coach." This being shoujo manga, I think we can all see where this is going.

In addition to the totally adorable characters, this series contains one of my favorite exchanges EVER, during a discussion of how couples are supposed to act after they start going out:

Yoh: You read lots of shoujo manga, right? Aren't there some that tell what happen after the couple gets together?
Haruna: Yeah, of course!
Yoh: And?
Haruna: Well, a rival will show up, or they'll have to have a long-distance relationship, or they'll turn out to be related...
Yoh: I don't think that'll happen.

And, of course, we do have to deal with tropes in the course of the series; some more successful than others. But overall, I'm totally in love with this manga and wish it would go on forever (but I think it'll end up with 13 volumes ;_;).

AiOre! ~Danshikou no Hime to Joushikou no Ouji~ - Shinjo Mayu (vol 1: sweh, vol 2: meh!)

I heard about this series via momiji_mii, who wrote about Shinjo Mayu's fight with Shougakukan; how they wanted her to just crank out Kaikan Phrase clones, until she got sick of it and left them for Asuka. I was curious and looked up some reviews on Amazon, where I read that you didn't need to read the original Shougakukan series (Ai wo Utau Yori Ore ni Oboreru), so I went ahead and ordered the first volume of AiOre. And, indeed, I didn't feel lost at all starting there (okay, it did take me a minute to realize that all the band members except Akira are girls), though I have decided to go back and get the original series, just because I'm curious about that also. I really loved the first volume, which was like...Pheromomania Syndrome x (Kaikan Phrase - sex) i.e. Really tall girl ("Prince of the Girls School") dates adorable short boy ("Princess of the Boys School"), together they face issues that may or may not relate to their band. (In these two volumes we see them being a band for about five seconds.) It was really funny and cute; Akira is totally adorable and I love his evil streak. The second volume was full of a lot of headdesky idiocy (OMG my boyfriend evaded a question I asked, everything he ever told me must be a lie!), but still had some good parts. I'm looking forward to more of this.

BL:

Tenki Yohou no Koibito - Machiko Madoka (vol 1: sweh!, vol 2: heh!)

Amasawa, the crazy cutesy-cosplaying weatherman, falls in love with Koganei, the straight-laced news anchor; hijinks ensue. (On air flirting? TOTALLY ADORABLE. Especially when the Koganei gets all blushy. Hee!) The second volume is a little disappointing in that the plot is SO cliché (a third wheel shows up, Koganei has to move to New York in volume three they'll turn out to be related), but I still love the characters and how they handle their dumb cliché situation.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi -Nakamura Shungiku, Fujsaki Miyako (manga: sweh!, novel: bleh [not counting manga chapter])

The stories for the manga and novel are related in that they are both centered around the shoujo manga department of Marukawa Shoten, but they are separate enough that you don't need to read both of them; in fact I don't find that they really complement each other (like, say, the different stories in the Junjou series do). Also, I think this series demonstrates perfectly how much Nakamura's humor can make me love characters, and also that Fujisaki's ridiculously cliché writing in the Junai novels is not on purpose; she's just that bad of writer. I really did not like the Sekaiichi novel AT ALL; the characters were annoying and the "story" was full of annoying tropes we've all seen a million times. At the end, though, there's this little mini-chapter of manga, which I found totally adorable. How can I hate Chiaki's cluelessness when it's so cute?

The manga I love to death; it's pretty much everything I love about Junjou but with new characters. The flashbacks do make me a little sad, though, because the characters were so adorable and happy when they were kids; it makes you wish they could do it over again and not break up over a stupid misunderstanding.

Ai no Kotoba mo Shiranaide - Honjou Rie (heh)

This is the sort-of sequel to Konna Otoko wa Aisareru, centered around some other classmates of Kaji and Retsu's. The first couple (masochist seme x sadist uke) is not really my cup of tea, but the second couple (gay Marmalade Boy!) is pretty cute. Of course, my favorite parts were the little bits with Kaji and his doberman pinscher Retsu, which were adorable, but far too few.

Kimi wa Koi ni Oboreru - Takanaga Hinako (sweh)

I actually bought this while I was in Japan this winter, but I didn't read it until just recently, because I didn't really like the first book in the series (which centered around the brother of one of the main characters of this book) and I heard lots of rumors about how bad and stupid this one was. And yes, I agree that the sudden sex was sudden at the end, but, but...WHY did nobody tell me how adorable Reiichirou was? This manga is almost like...grown up Bukiyou na Silent (from the seme's POV)? Jinnai even says, of Reichirou, "ああ見えて、あいつも色々考えてるんだよ", which is like, almost word-for-word Libre's tagline for Tohno in Bukiyou. Okay, Reiichiro is more...clueless and socially awkward than unable to express what he's feeling, but it's still totally endearing to me. Also, Jinnai is pretty cute himself with all his I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT faces.

Seriously, Random People on the Internet Who I Happened to See Writing About This Manga, you really dropped the ball in not knowing how much I would love these characters. I demand that you shape up or I will never stumble upon your comments again.