Book Information:
ISBN-13: 9784088563237
Language: Japanese
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 193 (Single volume)
by: Ikeno Koi
Publisher: Ribon Mascot Comics
Type: One-shot
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Synopsis:
One day university student Suzune suddenly meets her cousin Yuuma again, who has become quite a man in recent years. Their grandmother has told Yuuma that he must, “protect†Suzune, therefore he now wants to live together with her.
Characters:
We have a total of three characters of note in this one shot love story. Harada Yuuma, Harada Suzune, and Kannazuki Junpei.
Junpei is the leading guy for this story, he has a good if slightly forceful personality. He’s the living embodiment of a knight in shinning armour character. I love the way he talks to people and put’s them in their place, without being condescending.
I was also happy with his character design, which really fits his personality perfectly. Though initially I have to admit I did not like the overly pretty boy look to him, though there’s a good reason for his looks which comes out later on.
Harada Suzune is our damsel in distress this volume, and she seems to be in distress a lot hehe. Her personality is a bit wishy washy and I found her a bit irritating. Her personality does not really change much over the volume and it shows.
Her actual character design though is perfect, I really liked the way she was drawn and the subtle changes we get over the volume.
Harada Yuuma, is a weird guy. His personality is sort of bookworm, but also a bit on the forceful side. His personality is the least changing, but then that’s to be expected since he has the least page time.
His character design follows his personality pretty well, opting for a bookish look. He’s small and slim, but not unfit, he just looks it compared to the like of Junpei.
Story:
The basic premise is a love triangle, Suzune’s mother goes to look after her father who is working away from home, leaving Suzune home alone. While walking home one night from work a boy rescues her from a stalker, it turns out that it’s her cousin who she used to torment as a kid.
He tells her that he had a dream of their grand mother telling him to protect Suzune, so he moves in with her. He rescues her yet again from a stalker, and makes a few rather bold statements, including embarrassing her useless childhood friend.
Enter a friend of Yuuma’s, Junpei and things start to get a little more complicated. Things come to a head when the truth finally gets revealed, and Yuuma and Junpei return to their own homes. However return to the Harada house a final time, and just in time to rescue Suzune from yet another terrifying ordeal. What was the truth? Yuuma was really Junpei who was helping his friend out because Yuuma (the real Yuuma) had trauma from the bullying as a child. Junpei however fell in love with Suzune the first time he saw her photo, so was more than happy to help out.
this is where the first part of the story ends, and the second starts. With the truth revealed the two guys return to the Harada household as tenants, so they could attend a school close by.
This time the focus changes to Junpei, who has a secret identity, which gets revealed in a rather spectacular way….
General Thoughts:
the down side of this title is it’s a one-shot, so it’s very fast paced. At times the changes are sudden and feel a bit out of place. This was especially true in the second part of the story, which I felt was rushed. Rather than a one-shot it would have been better as a two volume series with each arc having it’s own volume.
Yet even with this flaw I really enjoyed reading this volume. I am a sucker for love stories, and setting where we have damsels in distress and knights in shinning armour sort of thing really get to me.
The story itself is interesting and flows well, and sure it’s cliché. but it’s shojo so that’s allowed 😀
The ending was not the best I have seen, even by one-shot standards, but I have to admit I did find it funny and had a bit of a chuckle over it.
Why License, Why Isn’t It?:
This hasn’t been licensed I would guess because it’s a one-shot. Not many shojo single volume titles get licensed, which is a sad thing since there are some excellent ones out there.
I think this would be a good addition to any publishers shojo line up, it’s a good filler manga that could easily help fill the time between two other series. And lets face it, there’s always room in the world for more shojo titles!!
