I had realized that I have been reading quite a number of complete manga lately. I want to put them in batches so the manga on a certain post are somehow related. So here goes the first complete batch, the shoujo group!Ah, this image is form Akuma to Dolce by Suzuki Julietta. Finished it a long time ago, but I freakin' miss it. I hope the author just continued this instead of creating a new series which was . . .pretty disappointing. Meh.Alrighty, manga featured in this post are the following:AKAKU SAKU KOE by MIDORIKAWA YukiCINDERELLA BOY by YUMENO Makoto ]KOKO NI IRU YO! by TOOYAMA EmaMAIMIKO TOUKO NO JIKENBO by TAKADONO Madoka and KANOU Arashi ORESAMA OUJI by AIKAWA Saki[ AKAKU SAKU KOE by MIDORIKAWA Yuki ] Karashima is a high school boy with a beautiful voice. So beautiful that he can make anyone do anything, just by saying the words. Because of his potentially dangerous ability, he distances himself away from people but soon finds himself in the middle of various criminal investigations that he can help solve, and a girl named Kokubu who seems in love with him.I read this because I highly adored the author's other works, namely The Scarlet Chair and Natsume Yuujinchou. Sadly, this one hadn't been as great as my favorites.It was creative though and the story was really wonderful. The character interactions have been fun but I hope it didn't focus too much on the leading girl's problems on the leading guy. The leading girl's my problem as usual. Well, she had been the useless heroine and she knows she's being a burden, but she had improved in later chapters. However, her obsession with the leading guy still scares me (he's always in her thoughts . . . .always and so much that it's kinda stalkerish). I don't think it was love. It was started from enchantment that she wanted to believe as love. It only became real because she had believed it was so. Meh. Ah well, at least they hadn't been mushy. Wanting to be by his side is better than wanting to be kissed by him so badly.As for the story . . . I'm not sure how to think of it. You see . . .it starts out very interesting . . . then later it shows up some cliches . . . then things get intriguing . . . and then there goes the headaches . . . but in the end it makes up for what it lacked and leaves a pretty satisfying lovely ending.It's lacking but still a beautiful story. It had been very nice to read . . . . you just need to tolerate the girl's uselessness in the early chapters. Things get better later.[ CINDERELLA BOY by YUMENO Makoto ] One of the five handsome men in the incredibly popular idol group "Z", Riku, is actually a girl! She's tied with the leader, Touya, for popularity. She pretends to be the type of guy that makes all the girls smile and is extremely cool-looking. However, when she receives a Christmas present from Touya, she decides she wants to show him her feminine side...!?I picked this up for the "Cinderella" thing; but it appears that it had no connection to the fairy tale.The story had not been bad, but it's not that unique and it was really dull. They tried to be funny, but they seem to be trying to hard to be hilarious. Only the manager managed to be amusing. It did a better job on the emo part, which was annoying. I do not get women who cry when their crush is with someone else and they still don't get that they're jealous. Go die!Fortunately the angst didn't last that long, and the leading girl faced her problem in the end bravely. The main story's actually okay . . . .just how things happened is just . . .guuuh . . . this manga had been boring and gave me several headaches. I'm surprised I had managed to finish it . . . then I guess it really isn't that horrible . . . but I still don't recommend it. The art isn't that pretty anyway.[ KOKO NI IRU YO! by TOOYAMA Ema ] Hikage is a reclusive 8th grader who no one seems to notice. She finds comfort in her blog, and the people who comment on it. Everything changes one day when two cute boys notice her. These boys are the most popular kids in the entire school. When one of them tells her something that she's always wanted to hear, she might not be as invisible as she thought... I've had enough of shy girls who won't be able to stand out without a popular boy falling in love with her. But this girl is a blogging freak . . . shet I can relate . . . and I'm socially awkward myself so I ended up being able to relate to her loneliness. She had it worse than me . . .so I guess I understand her . . . but to rely to a Mr. Popular is still dumb though.Anywayz, though I was really unimpressed with the premise . . . and it even had the stupid love triangle with the girl unable to decide who to choose . . . I find it very cute and heartwarming. And I was so relieved that by chapter our shy heroine learns to grow and change. There's development. So she has been the type I can't dislike forever. Hehe. But I'm not that pleased with how the love story turned out . . . but at least there's no angst that lasted for decades and the rivals in love still had a healthy relationship. I'm cool with that. Besides, the best friend bishies here are adorable. Haha! I had been most amused with the heroine's blogfriend: MegaPig. Haha!Story's not exactly something spectacular but it had been cute and heartwarming. I enjoyed it.[ MAIMIKO TOUKO NO JIKENBO by TAKADONO Madoka and KANOU Arashi ] Touko Hanamori is the young successor to the Hanamori family's line of priestesses. What she longs for, however, is to have a normal life--to have a boyfriend, go on dates, and live like a normal girl would. A new job introduces her to a handsome young man, but will this be the start of a blooming romance...or is there something she doesn't yet realize? I checked this out because the author is the same as Makai Ouji's . . . and to my dismay this one has been so disappointing that I fear Makai Ouji will turn crap like this in the future.It's not absolutely horrible but still . . .bad. To me, the leading girl was 1/4 decent and 3/4 pathetic. She sucks because she's one of those typical girls that want to have a boyfriend so badly and was stupid to realize that the one for her is just beside her. She is of course being rescued in most of the chapters and she's also the type who's easily attracted to pretty bishies. What made her not totally despicable for me is that she is capable of performing something that can calm the gods. And fortunately she wasnt the type to cry like a loser when in danger. But . . I still don't like her.As for the story, it's like an episodic one-bishie-per-chapter thing. There seems to be something special about the leading guy but we got no explanation. The romance development was duuuuh . . . it felt too simple (I'm referring to the end). I think it might've been better if she had acknowledged him from the very beginning. But . . .*sigh*It tried to have as many miko references as possible that it got pretty texty and hus, boring. I'm not that impressed with the story development though I admit some twists seem pretty good. And I find the leading guy funny (grandma's funnier though) and cool. And identical twin boys is fanservice I can't miss. Haha!Story hasn't been fantastic like what I expected it to be. Many parts are dull and annoying, but it had still been fun to read and the art on many panels had been gorgeous. I guess the art bias people won't have a problem with this . . .and also those into miko stuff (It might've been better if it didn't concentrate on just one miko...).[ ORESAMA OUJI by AIKAWA Saki ] Sawa hates Judo. She was once really good at it, but boys always rejected her because she was so strong. Now she's entering high school and the gorgeous captain of the Judo club has selected Sawa (against her will) to be the club manager! He also claims he knows her from the past... How will Sawa deal with managing the sport she hates most, especially since the captain seems to like her!?"Ore-sama" reminds me of how Hetalia's Prussia calls himself xD And I'm a sucker for princes so I picked this up without a second thought.Well, it was cute . . . . but it sucked so much. I don't care if the art is so pretty . . .the story's full of cliches and annoying stereotypes (except for the leading guy. His personality's pretty unusual). My head hurt so much.As usual, I'd start complaining about the despicable leading girl. Oh gawd, she's being emo for not having a boyfriend. She's supposed to have judo background but she was absolutely defenseless when she got kidnapped. She's also the martyr who doesn't think and her role in the story is just to give the leading guy a tough time.And the leading guy? Yeah, he's cute and romantic and all but . . . . he's extremely possessive (easily gets jealous too) . . . and he had been like that all of a sudden. He wants to own her but he won't tell why he's being biased to her because he's been acting childish and he wants to keep the suspense to readers so that the leading girl will have screentime in going emo for she thinks he has mistaken her for another person. Uuuuggghhh....Ah well, of course they became canon so quickly. And when that happened, the love rival will appear afterwards! Just in time to play his role in messing up the lovely couple. And he's going to do it through bad methods which will of course be resolved by the leading guy very soon so the couple could have a happy ending. Yeah, the one-sided dude in the love triangle was just there to take the girl away, but we don't really see how he had liked her. What a great love triangle twist, huh?Oh gawd, story and character-wise, this was VERY horrible. There was development in the romance, but I think this could have been better as a oneshot, not a whole volume full of crap. It's wasting time on the stupid things. Ugh . . . I was able to last until the end because I kinda like the comedy and the art is pretty. But overall, though it's not totally pathetic, it's horrible. Meh.[ GENERAL COMMENTS ] Pathetic heroines really ruin the series . . . meh. Anyway, I recommend those that I rated 3 parfaits and above. I don't know much about Aikawa Saki, Kanou Arashi and Yumeno Makoto's works. But on Takadono Madoka, Makai Ouji's a better choice. On Tooyama Ema, Watashi ni xx Shinasai is hell better. Then for Midorikawa Yuuki, well, I already mentioned what I loved from her. Her oneshot collections are good too.
(Read the rest of this entry)
(Entry meta)
