The official English title of Futari no Kimochi (ふたりの気持ち)
Kan (18) is in love with his brother’s ex-wife Fuyumi (23). In order to be together they’ll have to overcome their age difference and the inevitable opposition from their families.
Like most romantic series, the conclusion was a given from the start. Of course they’re going to end up together, it’s just a matter of how. What I wanted to see was the romance would develop and how the author would handle this unusual premise. I didn’t bank on the plot crawling along at a snail’s pace or the characters being childish, petty and completely unlikeable. Kan gets a pass for being 18, but Fuyumi is even more spoiled, naive and empty-headed. They make a good (idiotic) couple, but not one worth reading about.
Nothing much happens in volume 1. Fuyumi and Kan reconnect 3 years after the former’s divorce. They start dating pretty much right away (Kan first kisses her in chapter 1!) and then they spend the rest of the book having silly misunderstandings and petty little fights. “OMG he’s talking to another girl/she’s talking to another guy, s/he doesn’t like me after all!” Clear up one problem and another one arises, just as childish and petty as the last. If that’s what I wanted I’d just read a regular shoujo manga.
I skipped the rest of the books and read the blurb for volume 8 to find out how it ended. Predictably enough Kan’s parents have a fit when they find out the two are dating, so Kan and Fuyumi run off and shack up together and eventually have a baby. In the end the two families kind of make up and the two lovers and their baby attend Kan’s brother’s second wedding. So happy I saved myself several hours worth of reading teenage-level excrement in manga form.
What annoys me the most is that the romance could have been very easily derailed if Kan’s parents had just accepted the relationship in the first place. It’s pretty clear the two of them were getting off on the secrecy and sneaking around, so adding more drama and creating an “Us against the World” situation was a surefire way to make sure they ended up together. Especially since her mother-in-law was the main reason why Fuyumi divorced Kan’s brother in the first place. A pointed “It’s so nice to have you back in the family!” would have gone a long way towards cooling her ardor.
…You know a romance manga has gone all wrong when you’re rooting for the evil mother-in-law…
(碧 水惑星年代記) is really boring. I made it through half of the first story about the guy who wants to bonk his older stepsister while his younger stepsister wants to bonk him before giving up. I hate that kind of story, especially when it’s told in a slow, whiny, self-conscious way. Also the pen-and-ink art style may be popular these days, but I don’t think it fit the mood this time (i.e. I don’t like it) Next!
has got angst and violence – physical and sexual (how many times must Ash be raped before the mangaka is satisfied), it’s got action, mystery, suspense, tragedy and more. And everything moves along at a good pace, not too fast, not too slow. By the end of volume 3 Ash has already lost his best friend, his brother, his gang, he’s been to jail and back, he’s got a new Japanese best friend (I love how Japanese always self-insert no matter how improbable the location) and he’s gone home to trace his brother’s past.
doesn’t sound too exciting from my description, that’s because it’s not. Hazuki’s too stupid to be a manipulative loli, too young to be a convincing tsundere and too bad-tempered to be a sympathetic character. As for Kouhei, the only thing he’s got going for him is that he’s invulnerable to hypnosis and stuff, but that’s because he’s DENSE, nothing else. So you’ve got a series that revolves around a relationship between two unlikeable characters…is anyone but me seeing the problem here or do you need a few more hints?
is いばら姫のおやつ, with a translation provided as “The Thorn Princess has Afternoon Refreshments”. A…seinen-ish, shoujo-ish manga by Ishida Atsuko.