My Love Story: The Unspoken Love of Yukika Amami

I read My Love Story!!, Vol. 7

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

My Love Story: Gonna Be a Big Brother

I read My Love Story!!, Vol. 6

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

My Love Story: Ai Wants You

I read My Love Story!!, Vol. 4

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

Review: MY LOVE STORY!! Volume 2

MY LOVE STORY!!, VOL. 2
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

STORY: Kazune Kawahara
ART: Aruko
TRANSLATION: JN Productions
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
LETTERS: Mark McMurray
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7145-4; paperback (October 2014); Rated “T” for “Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK

Kazune Kawahara is a manga creator best known for her romantic comedy shojo manga, High School Debut.  She also writes the high school, romantic comedy manga, Ore Monogatari, which is drawn by Aruko.  VIZ Media recently began publishing Ore Monogatari in North America as My Love Story!!

The series focuses on high school student, Takeo Goda.  He is a gentle giant, but he isn't the most attractive fellow.  He also has a giant heart, but girls won't have anything to do with him.  Then he meets Rinko Yamato, after saving her from a harasser on the train.  Yamato falls in love with Takeo and his life changes.

As My Love Story!!, Vol. 2 (Chapters 4 to 7) opens, Takeo is enjoying life with a girlfriend.  Now, that Takeo has a girlfriend, his friends also want to meet girls, so Yamato plans a mixer.  Everything is going well when some of the friends decide to start saying bad things.  Also, Takeo agrees to help out the Shuei High judo team, but that means time away from Yamato.  Will this relationship, which is still in its “honeymoon stage,” survive gossipy friends and sports tournaments?

[This volume contains an interview with series creators, Kazune Kawahara and Aruko.]

The My Love Story!! manga is a sweet high school shojo love story.  Reading it tickles my imagination; it's dessert for my brain.  That's all I can say about it for now.  I have to admit that I cannot help but love a volume of manga that includes four recipes for Japanese treats, sweet and savory.  Manga plus foodie culture – that's nice.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

I Reads You Review: HIGH SCHOOL DEBUT Volume 6

Creator: Kazune Kawahara

Publishing Information: VIZ Media, paperback, 192 pages, $8.99 (US), $10.50 CAN

Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4215-1733-9 (ISBN-13); 1-4215-1733-9 (ISBN-10)

The heroine of High School Debut is Haruna Nagashima, a high school girl who was a tremendously talented and prolific athlete in junior high school. Now, a high school student, Haruna has changed her focus from athletics to boys. She consults fashion magazines and shojo manga (comics for teen girls) for advice on everything from what to wear to how to attract a boyfriend. It doesn’t work because she can’t get even one boy to make a pass at her.

Haruna finally gets an idea. When she wanted to get better at sports, she found an athletics coach. So, she thinks, if she wants to get better at attracting boys, why not hire a love coach. Haruna recruits the very popular upperclassman, Yoh Komiyama, as her dating coach. He agrees to help her as long as she doesn’t fall in love with him… but how will Yoh feel when boys start hitting on Haruna?

Eventually, Haruna and Yoh became a couple, and many were the tests of their love’s strength and endurance. High School Debut, Vol. 6 presents the biggest test. Yoh’s former girlfriend from junior high school, Makoto Kurihara, has returned, and Haruna has unknowingly befriended her. Helping Makoto reconnect with her old flame, Haruna is too clueless to realize that she is helping Yoh’s ex-girlfriend reestablish contact with him. Yoh insists that he’s through with Makoto, but Haruna wonders if he is really being honest.

High School Debut is a high school shojo romance similar to Aya Nakahara’s Love*Com, as both are about mismatched couples. The reader would not be blamed for doubting that the taciturn Yoh and the frantic, chatterbox Haruna will last as a couple. That, of course, is the draw of High School Debut. The tenuous nature of the Haruna/Yoh relationship is what’s at stake in this series, and lovers of such tales of shaky romances will enjoy this.

Although High School Debut, in a sense, is standard fare, creator Kazune Kawahara tells the story in a way that transforms teen romance into a pot boiler of a soap opera. Her graphic storytelling mixes taut compositions (especially on the figure drawing) and atmospheric toning and sparkly effects. That makes for a visually sparkling romance.