Christmas Shimasho by Nagisa Odagiri

Its time for cookies! My family makes, like, thirty different types of cookies and candies, it takes all the way up to the 25th to finish them. Fun fact: I eat more cookie dough than I do cookies once they are baked. I don't know what to tell you, they just don't taste as good once they aren't filled with raw egg.


♪On the ninth day of Christmas My Manga Malady gave to me...♪



Christmas Shimasho by Nagisa Odagiri


Genre: Shojo
Length: One Chapter – 31 Pages

            The art and story were typical, even the Christmas theme couldn't help that. Let's start with the art, its the excessively large eyed type, but it was really well done all around. The hair is stylish and has good movement and the eyes are very expressive. The clothes aren't particularly interesting

but they fit well and look regular enough. The backgrounds are all there, though, in tones and actual background, but I can't say they were interesting either, but they are there. Overall, very good art that couldn't overcome the overly done themes of the story.
           Kyouko and Takuto are a new couple, and Kyouko is very excited because their first Christmas together will be special and magical. Takuto, though, seems a little hesitant to spend the couple's day together and starts to get more distant the closer the date gets. Will the love Kyouko worked for be over after just one holiday?
           All the cliches were in there, girl over excited for holiday, boyfriend not so much and giving excuses, part time job to pay for presents, boyfriend seen with other woman, etc. Its made worse by the fact that all these over-used shojo points are given at breakneck speed so that it will all fit into a one-shot manga that's only thirty-one pages long. Its just not possible to process that much drama so quickly and enjoy yourself or get to know the characters beyond tropes. I simply think the mangaka over thought it, this situation and the boyfriend’s family would have been better suited to a longer plot instead of just getting flashes of things that usually take much longer.


2/5 The art is really nice and everything, but the story is basic shojo derivatives.

Mmm, cake.