Review: SO CUTE IT HURTS Volume 15

SO CUTE IT HURTS!!, VOL. 15
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Go Ikeyamada
TRANSLATION/ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Tomo Kimura
LETTERS: Joanna Estep
EDITOR: Pancha Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9328-9; paperback (October 2017); Rated “M” for “Mature”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK

So Cute It Hurts!! is a shojo manga from creator, Go Ikeyamada.  Also known as Koba Cute in Japan, VIZ Media has the license to publish an English language edition of the manga,  It released the entire manga as a 15-volume graphic novel series.

So Cute It Hurts!! focuses on a high school girl, Megumu “Mego” Kobayashi,  She has a twin brother, Mitsuru Kobayashi.  Megumu is a full-on otaku and a history nerd, while Mitsuru, the popular and successful high school jock, is terrible at history.  One day, dark-haired Mitsuru concocts the idea that he should put on a blonde wig and dress up as Megumu and attend her school, Tosho High.  Meanwhile, Megumu will wear a dark wig, dress like Mitsuru, and take his history exams.  This is not the last time the twins will switch places, especially when love is involved.

So Cute it Hurts!!, Vol. 15 (Chapters 72 to Final Chapter) opens four years after the Great Tohoku Earthquake and nearly nine years after the story began.  This is the wedding day of Megumu, now 23-years-old, and her longtime boyfriend, Aoi Sanada.  After so much tragedy, can this day be the beginning of happily-ever-after?

[This volume includes two “Bonus” stories; an interview with Go Ikeyamada; the story, “The Goddess Never Turns Back?!” and an “Afterword.”]

The So Cute it Hurts!! manga started out as “T” rated shojo-manga-cute.  The series took a surprising turn as its rating went from “T” (for Teen) to “M” (for Mature), as Megumu and Aoi became... intimate.

So Cute it Hurts!! Volume 15 is the final volume of the series, and it closes the series with a mixture of cute and grown-up.  This “cute,” however, has to do with teen characters who have made the transition into adulthood, and adult relationships and roles.  That includes parenthood and cute kids!  I often find myself having problems with final volumes, but in the final volume of So Cute it Hurts!!, creator Go Ikeyamada gives the characters the happiness they deserve

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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