Renai Cupid and Himitsu Kichi

There are two types of Valentine's Day people:

Me? I'm going to go play some Hatoful Kareshi and seduce some husbando pigeons.



Renai Cupid by Miki Kiritani

Art and story (c) Miki Kiritani (messy color by me)

Genre: Shojo
Length: One Volume – 3 Chapters


The art is pretty generic 2000-ish shojo art, with big, droopy eyes and thin limbs; the hair is even generic. The school uniforms, though, were actually interesting and different from a lot of other shojo. There wasn't anything “bad” in the art that I remember though, maybe

a little stiffness in the facial expressions, otherwise it was drawn well just not very original looking.
           Hiyo has made it into her choice high school, but not because she knows anything about the place or it's record of academics except that it was tough to get into. No, she transferred because the boy she's loved for four years and moved away goes to it and she's gathered her confidence to find and confess to him! Until she finds out the school forbids relationships between students and even discourages them from talking to one another in the shared areas of the school. Her search is over just as she thought she reached the climax, that is until an arrow strikes the pole over her shoulder. The arrow has a note tied around it claiming that it will help her, if she comes to the archery club. Waiting there for her? Two Cupids!
           This manga isn't bad, like the art, it is rather generic but the story isn't entirely like anything else I've read, just the premise is a rather familiar set up. Hiyo is cute and air-headed, and the two brothers she makes friends with are also fun. For a quick

Valentine's Day fluff it was good. It actually takes an unexpected turn at the last chapter, while you might think [SPOILERS AHOY!] Hiyo and the younger brother are destined to get together by the third chapter, the author decided to have the older brother get a girlfriend instead. In the end all you get for the main character is a very silly, one page omake at the end! [SPOILER OVER] Despite that lack of advancement, its a fun shojo read. If you don't like short, fluffy shojo you won't like it, of course, but if you don’t like short, fluffy shojo why would you go looking for something like this anyway? I can never help myself and glance at other reviews when I'm looking up manga just to see what others have said about things. Sometimes I do not agree and sometimes I do, but it always gets me when people who clearly don't like mindless shojo read a mindless shojo and complain about it. Its like, duh? Then again, I've probably got some reviews like that myself. I do try to read all types, though, there is an abundance of shojo to distract from other genres, that’s for sure! As for the unrelated one-shot at the end of this manga, meh. It was rather garbled and too much text when it wasn't needed, amateur but a mangaka usually puts older one-shots at the end of three chapter manga anyway so its nothing surprising but it is something you can skip.



3/5 Cute and fun, worth a read not really a re-read.




Speaking of abundance of shojo…..




Himitsu Kichi by Aya Nakahara

Genre: Shojo
Length: 4 Unrelated One-shots


           I just wanted to re-read some Aya Nakahara for this Valentine's Day because Lovely Complex has some of the best Valentine related comedy ever but since I re-read Lovely Complex two years ago for a review and I couldn't do another post on it, I chose this one instead, even though it's a collection of one-shots, just so I could just have it as an add-on. As far as the art goes, you could probably just read any other review I've done on this mangaka since the art has the same quirky style. The eyes aren't overly large, and the clothing is modern and has an interesting look on street clothes. Of course, the weird characters are the highlight of this particular author's works, the over reactions and gag-y joke facial expressions are a large part of that. The characters still retain their own personalities, too, even if some of the faces tend to look similar. The backgrounds are pretty good, too. I love the style personally so I'm not going to bother being too nit picky.
           Each one-shot is about someone with a secret:

           1. Finding a mature, college boy who will go out with her, Kana is over the moon. Only he isn't the age she thought he was…?!

           2. Hiroko is a tomboy to the max, strangers often think she's a boy, still, she has a crush on the idol of her class even though she knows he'd never look at her. When her secret is found out by a boy from another class, she has to agree to teach him her specialty, judo, to keep his mouth shut.

           3. Seiji is the singer of a band that does local shows on the weekends, and, despite the crowd that gathers, he doesn't care because he is already in love with a girl. The problem is he has to keep it a secret because it's his best friend's girlfriend. When he finds out her secret, though, can he keep his feelings inside?

          4. Emi is the son of an unfunny comedian, and even though his name means 'laugh' he can't find anything to even smile about. Having recently moved to Tokyo, Emi plans to keep his father's identity a secret and find his own happiness.

Dance!! Mushroom!!

           I always say its too hard to review collections of one-shots and I try to avoid them as much as possible, but I figured this was as good a time as any since I only had a one volume manga reviewed before. So, all of these one-shots are interesting and fun on their own, well paced and work alone to complete a single story. The first and last one are the best ones, in my opinion, Kana is a little weak in character but her progression is fun to watch since she really does like her boyfriend, and Emi is great and his story is heartwarming and funny all at once. The other two are good, too, though. The second chapter is my least favorite, but that is the male lead's fault more than it is Hiroko's because she's cute and, though she pretends to be cool, a bit of a spaz. The third chapter is good, too, it's number three in order of reading and in my order of goodness, and it has an excellent ending. Of course, these all being one-shots means you don't really get a lot of closure, but you can imagine them all having good lives after its over and you get a good look at their personalities in the short time you have with the characters. Give it a read, especially if you like any of Aya Nakahara's other works, the humor and the character are all there.



5/5 If you don't mind one-shot collections, give this funny one a read.