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Midorikawa Yuki: Akaku saku koe vol. 2
I think this series relies a bit too much on its premise. The general theme is "Karashima has an ability which could potentially make him a very dangerous person; Karashima tries to supress this possibility by keeping away from people; Kokubu is in love with Karashima and tries to get close to him but is repeatedly reminded of Karashima's situation; Kokubu repeatedly realizes that she will do anything to be with Karashima". And Midorikawa slaps on a criminal or two with a grudge against Karashima, and voila. Nothing wrong with that, but reading this volume I can't stop thinking I've read it before. Which I have. So it needs to move on from this premise.
I suppose the purpose of this particular criminal in this volume was to make Karashima realize that Kokubu was his "saviour", so to speak, but it was too weak to really get through. Which is sad because I do like this manga.
The two early short stories also featured here show that Midorikawa has written the same story over and over again since her debut. There's nothing wrong with that in her case, and I liked both. It seems she has changed pens between Hanadorobô and Kôhii hirari, and I actually liked her early, thicker lines better. Her characters appear cuter in Hanadorobô, especially Takahira.
Completely unrelated to the story, I was taken aback by the public phone in this volume. This was written in ... 2000? Didn't every high school girl in Japan have a cell phone at that point? But I guess that adds to the weird timelessness.
Category: Shojo/ladies | Posted by Alicia at October 1, 2004 11:54 AM