Manga Review: Koukou Debut

Shoujo: Koukou Debut
Mangaka: Kawahara Kazune
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, School Life
Rating: 10/10

Summary [from baka updates]:

When Haruna Nagashima was in junior high her life consisted of playing softball and reading comics. But now that she's going to high school, Haruna decides to put all of her energy towards getting a boyfriend and having the high school romance of a lifetime. To help in her quest, she enlists cute upperclassman Yoh Komiyama to coach her as she eschews her jock tendencies and turns herself into the kind of girl who can catch a guy. Yoh agrees, but with one exception: He tells Haruna not to fall in love with him!

Another great shoujo manga. Number 3 on my Favorite Shoujo Manga list! Among others like Hana Kimi and Beast Master, this one definitely caught my attention and I am so happy to have read this great piece of work.

This was so amazing that it made me laugh and cry. I absolutely did not want it to finish it, though it ends with 5 volumes, 52 chapters. I will always love this manga. The plot is original, surrounding an idea I've never encountered before. In addition, I instantly fell in love with the characters. Haruna is not your typical everyday girl - she's strong and a little insecure, but she's the type of person who doesn't give up on her goals. The way she does things makes you laugh out loud. The male main character Yoh is a very particular character, whom I fell completely head over heels for. He is quite the opposite from Haruna - he's reserved and cool, but there is still an undeniable amount of attraction between them. Yoh' s ways of expressing his love is quite different from what you might imagine, but Haruna is not the weak girl who can get easily affected by his harsh words. It's interesting to note that most of my fellow shoujo-readers thought he was the awesomest guy ever.

I fell in love with this manga so much that I think I'm becoming a shoujo manga otaku. This manga made me crazy about it to the point where I didn't want it to end. I mean, it was hilarious to the point of tears, the romance was there, and in each scene you could see in detail the characters' expressions and feelings. Until the very end, it kept me at the edge of my seat. Again, since the story revolves around high school, there are a few love triangles, a lot of humor, and a refreshingly youthful romance. The characters have very distinct personalities, though they work together very well. It's a masterpiece - you will surely love this manga and will never let go.

To read it: Koukou Debut

By: Eli
Edited By: Annie

Lovely Complex

Name: Lovely★Complex, Love★Com, ラブ★コン ,Rabu★Kon
Mangaka: Nakahara Aya
Genres: Shoujo, Romance, Comedy, School Life
Rating: 9.7/10

Before I start my review on Lovely Complex, let me write about a chapter in my life that nobody knows about: my brief stint with OchibiChan Scans. I have been an avid reader of Lovely Complex since about...the dawn of time. There has always been something that's been tugging me in a corner of my mind. What can I do to contribute? I don't want to always be a silent reader - reading a chapter, and then spamming the scanlation group for a month until they update again.

Maybe there was something deeper than that. Something that would put this mental harassment to an end. And there it was: the answer to everything. I can, I shall, I WILL become a scanlator. I was pretty handy with Photoshop and I think I could read my fair share of Chinese. So I emailed them and after dinner, they replied saying that they'd love to have a potential translator/typesetter on board. They emailed me two tests to do, a translator one and a typesetter one.

There's a reason why it's called a "brief" stint with OchibiChan Scans. That night, I got to work on the Translator test (they kept hinting at the vacancies in their translator posts...). Unluckily, my mom (with her psycho-Asian mom powers) managed to come into my room at the same time I was in the middle of a quite finicky Traditional Chinese character. Outraged at my association with these "abhorrent Japanese trash", she banned me from doing anymore of this "useless" thing. I managed to email Ochibichan that due to circumstances I was unwilling to say, I couldn't go through with my application.

That's my sad, short (not really) story. Now onto the actual review section.

Lovely Complex rates high on my list of good mangas. There are only a few mangakas who draw don't always make their characters look as pretty and composed as [we expect them to be]. One is Nakahara Aya-san. Another one I can think of is the mangaka of Goong (I actually can't remember her name!).

Lovely Complex is the hearwarming story of two people: Koizumi Risa and Otani Atsushi. When you look at the characters of their names, there is something interesting. Koizumi (小泉) means "little spring". Otani (大谷) on the other hand, means "big valley". Their real-life personas can't be anymore different. Koizumi is the tallest girl in her grade at 172cm tall, towering above the rest of the petite and cute girls in her school. Otani, on the other hand, is shorter than the other boys in their grade. He is 156 cm, humiliatingly shorter by about 20 or so centimeters than the rest of the male population.

The whole story revolves around these two odd people. The two of them are always in the same class, where the apparent height difference is constantly picked upon by their peers. The entire school jokingly dubs them as the "All-Hansin Kyojin" after a famous Japanese comedic duo that has the same height difference. Both are very sensitive about their height...leading to meaningless and comedic fights between themselves. Hate slowly turns to like as the story progresses. About half the storyline is concerning Koizumi's attempts to get Otani to like her (he couldn't 'see' her as a girlfriend just yet).

I absolutely loved this series but I was bipolar when it came to the end of this series. Yesterday, the last chapter of Lovely Complex came out. I was happy that it finally came out after about 3 months of dormancy (I even finished the sequel first!), but there was a feeling of disappointment because it had ended.

The art isn't Korean manhwa but I think that there is something special to be found in it. [However simple it may be, it's capable of summoning a whole range of emotions from you]. It seems confusing, but goodness knows how many times my heart throbbed at their angsty antics. Nakahara-san manages to bring a healthy dose of comedy into each chapter. Either with lates (to school, school trips, and eventually even the graduation ceremony) on Koizumi and Otani's parts or with absolute hilarious faces and expressions.

As the story gradually progresses from hate, dislike, neutrality, and then to like, I felt myself melting into the storyline and relating to all of the characters, especially Koizumi. Being 171 cm myself, I remember going back to China and feeling like a lanky giant. I totally felt everything she felt, with all of her insecurities and doubts. Of course, here in Canada, the height complex isn't as prevalent as in Asia so I don't think I have it as bad.

Ending on a final note: read it! I think it is considered as a classic manga, up there with Ouran, Special A and Naruto (which I absolutely detest...I don't even know why I'm naming it...=.=). The manga has been made into a 24 episode drama, a live-action movie, and a video game (what do they NOT make into a video game nowadays?!). I have watched all of them and loved it. Lovely Complex has a fiercely unique plot with equally original characters. It is deep but light at the same time. It explores the psyche of teenage adolescents while maintaining its humor and keeps the romance flowing.

Read the manga.
Watch the anime.
Watch the movie.

Experience the love.

By: Berber
Edited By: Annie

Manga Review: Kare Kano

Shoujo: Kare Kano
Mangaka: Tsuda Masami
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Life, Shoujo,
Rating: 10/10

Kare Kano [his and her circumstances], which is number 2 on my favorite shoujo manga list, is about a girl, Yukino Miyazawa, who is perfect at everything in her school. She is both smart and athletic. She has the looks and the personality of a perfect young lady. Everybody admires her and thinks she is amazing. But, that's not her real personality. The real Yukino is actually the queen of vanity - she loves to be praised by others regarding how perfect she is.

Everything goes according to plan until she enters high school. There, she meets her match - Soichiro Arima. He is athletic, smart and good-looking. He soon finds out about Yukino's real personality and that's when everything starts to change.

Kare Kano fills my thirst for the perfect shoujo manga. On top of the amazing art, the characters were flawless and the various plots were something to scream about. The romance was extraordinary and cunning. The various problems that the main characters faced had depth to it, the comedy was hilarious and original, and the story itself was a masterpiece. It was written with immense detail; Tsuda Magami made sure you understood each character and its circumstances.

I found the whole story mind-blowing and something unique. Although some said the story dragged out, I think it was due to the setting and the many characters that were introduced. It took place in high school, and the memories of it were precious to the characters themselves. The drama and romance kept me at the edge of my seat.

If you are looking for a manga that has drama, romance, and everything in between, check this one out. It is truly a masterpiece.

By: Eli
Edited By: Joey

The Wallflower

Shoujo: The Wallflower

Mangaka: Hayakawa Komoko

Genres: comedy, drama, romance, shoujo, school life

Rating: 9.5/10

Who hasn’t read The Wallflower, otherwise known as Perfect Girl Revolution? I admit that I was addicted to it over the summer, [and have been impatiently waiting for updates ever since.]

Wallflower is about a girl, Nakahara Sunako, who used to care about pimples, hair, and clothing. Until, that is, when she gathered the courage to confess to an upperclassman that she had a crush on. He responded rather cruelly, saying, “Sorry, I only like PRETTY girls.” Rather than making herself pretty in response, Sunako loses faith in people and in the superficiality of beauty, including her own.

She refers to pretty people (bishounen and bishoujo) as “creatures of light.” She is obsessed with horror movies and blood. Her rich celebrity aunt is worried for her, so the aunt makes a deal with the (extremely attractive) guys renting one of her mansions: if they can turn her niece into a real lady, they can have free rent, but if they fail, they have to pay 3x the rent. Kyohei, Yuki, Oda, and Ranmaru are up to the challenge. While the four of them manage to make Sunako physically beautiful (occasionally, when she feels like crawling out of her shell), it is still difficult to cure her emotional outlook. The main problem lies with Sunako's attitude and interests (which she has no intention of changing).

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This manga just cracks me up - it's hilarious! There was one scene in the beginning when Sunako scares the bejeebers out of the four guys by crouching in the rose bushes. All of her fights with Kyohei and her constant nosebleeds whenever she sees a “creature of light” are beyond comical.

I have to admit, if you are the type of person who likes reading slow, extremely slow romances, this is it. It beats Ouran High School Host Club (romance started around Chapter 62…ish) and even Special A (Hikari FINALLY realized around Chapter 56 -I was about to throttle Hikari's denseness). There are about 87 Chapters scanlated on Mangafox right now. The first hint of romance was in Chapter 59. HINT. Not even an “I think I like her.” Just a hint.

Only now does the romance start flowing in. The first 85 chapters deal with how Sunako copes with the presence of four extremely hot bishounen around the house that forces her to lose copious amounts of blood. It is so sweet when she does start to have fewer nosebleeds and the four guys get scared out of their minds less and less.

As an artist, I also really like the art of this manga. The characters all have very prominent jaw lines, chinlines (if that makes sense :P), and foreheads. There are four things that captivate me in the art:

1. The body proportions. Sure, they are a bit exaggerated, but Kyohei just rocks those legs of his. They aren’t over-exaggerated like Gals! or Code Glass.

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2. The eyes. The eyes that Hayakawa draws are absolutely amazing. They have the dimensions of real eyes, only manga-fied and beautified. The lashes are so crisp and clear; the pupils don’t resemble black and white Easter eggs. It's just so beautiful to look at.
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3. The hair. I don’t know how the mangaka does it, but the hair is just so wonderfully drawn. Every single clump and strand is inked on. The tendrils and the bits that escape are tremendously realisitc.

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4. The hands. The hands aren’t beautiful or graceful. In fact, they are knobbly and kind of unproportional. But there is something alluring about them. Have you ever imagined a man’s hands? Kyohei’s hands are thin, long and strong. It’s really indescribable.

It’s an awesome shoujo, definitely in my top 20 mangas. Check it out :D

Note: There is also an anime out, though sadly, there is no feature on the impending romance. :'(

By: Berber

Edited By: Annie