Haruna thinks she’s in love with Fumiya, good friend of her “love coach” Yoh. As soon as she tells Yoh (and his sister Asami) about her feelings in High School Debut volume 2, they question her. It’s not pushy or inconsiderate, but they want to be sure she knows what she feels. Maybe she’s just reacting to someone being nice to her when she was feeling down. She’s got to be sure, or the results could get messy. Given that […]

After finally telling Otani how she feels in volume 4, here Risa has to cope with the fallout. He’s not interested, and as a result, she’s still depressed. She took the chance and it didn’t work out as she hoped, so she’s walking through school like a zombie, causing all her friends to worry. In volume 5, she wishes things could get back to normal, but it’s not that easy to forget her declaration and his response. Either she’s trying […]

I’m still enjoying this comedy romance series by Aya Nakahara, as each new book brings more complications. After her realization from volume 3, Risa finds herself in the position of being in love with a good friend who can’t pick up on the most obvious of hints. The gang heads off to the beach for summer vacation. Everyone but Otani knows about Risa’s crush, and they keep pushing her to do something about it. Her shy attempts in that direction […]

A typical shojo plot — young woman desperate to get a boyfriend as she starts high school — is made highly entertaining through dynamic characters and art in High School Debut by Kazune Kawahara. Haruna is used to working hard to get what she wants. She’s a softball player (and girls’ manga fan) who thinks that slavishly following teen magazines for fashion and behavior suggestions will gain her a guy. She doesn’t understand what works specifically for her body type […]

The biggest disappointment I’ve read recently is easily Death Note. I’d wound up collecting all 12 books of the series, and over the Thanksgiving holiday, I started reading them. Volume one was as involving as they’d said it would be. Super-student Light Yagami finds a notebook dropped by a death god to cause trouble. Anyone whose name is written in the book will die if the person writing it also pictures their face. The art, by Takeshi Obata (Hikaru no […]

I don’t make any claims for superior artistry or quality, but this manga series by Yukiya Sakuragi has quickly become one of the top five I look forward to. It’s consistently entertaining, and I know what I’m going to get from it: cute dogs and soap opera among the people who love them. It feels good to read it, and it rewards me exactly as I expect it to. I do wish, though, that some of the fan service chapter-opening […]

As volume 3 opens, tall girl Risa is figuring out her relationship with Haruka. They were friends when they were kids, but now he’s told her “I’m going to ask you to be my girlfriend,” and she’s not sure how she feels about that. (Bear in mind that if Haruka wasn’t a wuss, he would have asked her to go out with him instead of telling her he was going to ask her at some future time. He’s hedging his […]

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this romantic comedy by Aya Nakahara, especially coming in a book late. Love*Com is a classic pairing of opposites executed with believable teenage romantic confusion. Risa’s the tallest girl in the class, and Otani’s the shortest boy. Both have crushes on more typically attractive students, so they try to help each other. Unfortunately, their crushes wind up going out with each other, leaving the two misfits to bond out of desperation. […]