Love is friendship set on fire. ~Jeremy Taylor
Mangaka: Ayu Watanabe
Genre: Romance/School/Shoujo
Review Status: Complete (3 Volumes/3 Volumes)
Licensed: No, this manga is not licensed in the US
Art: Pretty typically shoujo. Big eyes, lots of toner. Little to no detail in the backgrounds. The character designs are unremarkable. The panels are uncluttered and flow well.
Summary: Aki and Mase have always played basketball together, and their feelings have blossomed into those of love. Before she can confess, Aki gets a confession from a boy from a rival school. An unfortunate accident throws a wrench into everything, as Aki finds herself riddled with guilt and needing to make up what happened somehow. Her feelings end up mixed up, and she can’t decide what to do.
Review: This is definitely one of the poorer romance manga I have read. When you have characters that are only recognizable for their hair, and can’t be remembered a few hours after reading the manga, there’s a problem. Why should I care about their romance when I can’t care about the characters themselves?
I can think of one reason: Aki pity-dates the guy who’s injured on their date and tries to convince herself that it’s love. That’s the crux of the relationship- she’s guilty, and forces herself into an unfulfilling relationship because of it. What makes this doubly terrible is that he really likes her! Aki lies repeatedly, to herself, to the guy, to her friend, to Mase about her feelings.
Mase isn’t much better, using another girl in order to get over Maki. Quite frankly, that’s not cool.
Both need a firm slap over the heads, and they get them. They get broken up with so that they can be together. A happy ending that they went through a whole lot of shallow drama for.
Overall, this wasn’t worth my time to read. Pass!
Recommended: No. 13+, though, since the scanlations did have two swears. One instance of the a-word, and the word for illegitimate child. No fanservice, no violence except for a scene where the guy gets hit with a car. This isn’t graphic or lingered on at all. The worst he gets is a broken leg.
Other titles you might enjoy:
Fruits Basket (manga)
NANA (manga and anime)
Moe Kare!! (manga)
Kimi ni Todoke (manga and anime)
No comments:
Post a Comment