Komomo Confiserie: My Boyfriend's Girlfriend

I posted a review of Komomo Confiserie Volume 3 at the ComicBookBin.

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Komomo Confiserie: Friend-Girl Rise Kaname

I read Komomo Confiserie, Vol. 2

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Review: KOMOMO CONFISERIE Volume 1

KOMOMO CONFISERIE, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Maki Minami
TRANSLATION: Christine Dashiell
LETTERS: John Hunt
EDITOR: Nancy Thislethwaite
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8139-2; paperback (September 2015); Rated “T” for “Teen”
200pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

The works of manga creator, Maki Minami, include Kanata no Ao (Faraway Blue), S•A (Special A), and Voice Over! Seiyu Academy.  VIZ Media is publishing her new series, Komomo Confiserie, under the company’s “Shojo Beat” imprint, with new volumes scheduled for release in print and digitally on a quarterly basis.  Komomo Confiserie is available digitally via VIZManga.com and the VIZ Manga App, as well as from the Nook, Kobo, Kindle, iBooks, comiXology, and GooglePlay stores.

Komomo Confiserie focuses on Komomo Ninomiya.  As a little girl, 6-year-old Komomo delighted in picking on 5-year-old Natsu Azumi, the son of her family’s pastry chef.  Ten years later, her family fortune is lost, and 15-year-old Komomo has no place to live.  She encounters Natsu again.  He is a 15-year-old prodigy patissier who has returned to Japan to care for the family business, Méli-Mélo, a confiserie.  Now, Natsu the master pastry chef will help Komomo, but only if she works for him at his new confiserie!

Komomo Confiserie, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5) opens with a recollection of the past, 10 years earlier.  Komomo is a spoiled princess, who picks on young Natsu.  The truth is, however, that she loves the sweet treats the boy can prepare, even at his young age.  In the present day, Komomo is broke, living in a boarding house, and keeps losing her wage-slave jobs.

Her savior arrives, and he even has a new place for her stay – right above the family confection shop.  He's the boss, and now, he delivers the torments.  Meanwhile, Natsu's pal from France, 23-year-old Yuri Lacroix, is coming to join the fun.

[This volume includes two bonus manga.]

I am not sure that I will enjoy the Komomo Confiserie manga as much as I enjoyed creator Maki Minami's previous manga, Voice Over! Seiyu Academy.  But there is a chance that I will.

Komomo Confiserie Volume 1 introduces a heroine in Komomo Ninomiya that has potential.  She is naive, but worldly.  She is bedraggled, but determined to be on top again.  She is a crybaby with the stiff spine of a stoic.  Yes, Komomo Confiserie has potential, and I want to see what the next volume has to offer.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Voice Over: I Must Avoid Him

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 10

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Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy - Omelet Rice

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 8

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Voice Over: TrappedintheCloset with Senri Kudo

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 7

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Voice Over: Seiyu Academy - Two Dudes Beastin' Renjai

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 5

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Voice Over: Camp Rock a Prince Voice

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Voice Over: Lunchtime Broadcast #2

I read Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Review: VOICE OVER! Seiyu Academy, Volume 1

VOICE OVER! SEIYU ACADEMY, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Maki Minami
TRANSLATION/ENGLISH ADAPTATION: John Werry
LETTERS: Sabrina Heep
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5970-4; paperback (October 2013); Rated “T” for “Teen”
208pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN

After debuting in 2001 with Kanata no Ao (Faraway Blue), Maki Minami created many other manga series, including S•A.  VIZ Media publishes her recent series, Seiyu Ka!, in North America as Voice Over! Seiyu Academy.

The series is set at Holly Academy High School, which offers general education, sports, acting, music, and visual arts like many other high schools.  However, it is famous in the world of voice acting for its voice acting department.  Fifteen-year-old Hime Kino is the newest student.  This first year student’s dream is to be a voice actress with a cute voice – the princess type.  However, Hime’s gruff voice earns her the ire of teachers and students alike, but she isn’t about to give up.

As Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, Vol. 1 opens, Hime is spending her first day at Holly Academy.  She recalls the moment that started her dream of being a voice actor.  It was an encounter with voice acting legend, Sakura Aoyama, former star of the anime, Magic Warriors: Lovely ♥ Blazers.  Aoyama’s son, Senri Kudo, just happens to be a second year student at Holly Academy, but after her first encounter with the teen, Hime finds his attitude about more than a few things to be potty.

Her time in the Year One Voice Group quickly turns sour as she finds herself in the Voice Acting Department “stragglers,” the failing students.  But a school acting performance will change Hime’s future... hopefully for the best.

As a narrative set at a school for voice actors, the Voice Over! Seiyu Academy manga seems to have a problem.  In theory, it is a story that would work best as an audio drama or as a television series.  A manga certainly does not come with sound, and audio would also be the best way to hear the characters’ voices, especially Hime’s.

Creator Maki Minami focuses not so much on voice, but on overall characters.  All the characters in Voice Over! Seiyu Academy are familiar types, even stereotypes, from shojo manga.  Minami gives each a twist, something surprising, shocking, or unusual about each character type that makes him or her interesting to the audience.  In fact, that has made me very interested in Voice Over! Seiyu Academy.  I like this manga and want more – shojo loving guy that I am.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.