Strobe Edge + New Chapter

Ninako and Ren

Konnichiwa~

Today I’ll be reviewing Strobe Edge by Sakisaka Io, it’s a complete series with 10 volumes. I felt I should’ve enjoyed this series, but was rather annoyed by. It wasn’t even Sakisaki-sensei’s fault, the writing and art are both amazing, it was just something that personally bugged me that distracted me from the love story. I’ll elaborate later though. Let’s begin:

Ninako Kinoshita has never been in love nor does she have any experience in romance, despite her childhood friend Daiki Korenaga being in love with her and her friends’ constant pressure to date him. The closet thing she has to a romance is her fangirl-type interest in Ren Inchinose, her school’s most popular boy. Then one day, she has an encounter on the train with him; the two grow closer and she develops serious feelings for him; however she soon learns that he has a longtime girlfriend, so she prepares for the emotional and mental pain of one-sided love. But, is it really one-sided love?

As the story develops, Ren begins developing feelings for Ninako and he struggles with them whenever he’s with her. Then there’s the appearance of Takumi Ando, Ren’s ex-best friend from middle school: when they were middle school, Ando’s girlfriend kissed Ren and things have been strained since then. He’s also been a complete manwhore since then; that is until he falls head over heals for Ninako.

Now like I said, it’s a great story with amazing writing and nice art, but I dislike Ninako because of the way she treats Ando. Some people may consider this a love triangle, but I definitely wouldn’t, she’s barely aware of him. The only time she ever thought about him was when there was a misunderstanding and thought he had a terminal disease; as soon as it was cleared up all thoughts of him evaporated. Even when he confessed to her and promised to help her forget Ren, she only thought about her feelings for Ren. Her reason for rejection also annoyed me: she wanted to continue liking Ren, she said she liked liking Ren. A few chapters earlier, she kept thinking and talking about how she shouldn’t like him and how she has no hope of dating him. At some point, at thought she thinking of him and his feelings for her, but in the end she admitted herself that she was just thinking of herself, that she didn’t want to be the bad guy so did what she did. He opens his heart to her and

My opinion on this may be considered a little
bias since I'm sort of in love with Ando

she completely ignores him, brushing him off and focusing on her own feelings for Ren. I’m not saying she should have loved him or struggled between choosing between the two, I simply thought she should’ve at least acknowledged him feelings. She should have taken the time to think about him and his feelings, instead of treating them so lightly. To be blunt, I thought she was quiet self-centered and selfish.

Ren’s hesitancy bothered me a little too, at first I understood it. He had a girlfriend; he couldn’t let a little crush get in the way of their love. But after he broke up with his girlfriend because both of them were becoming of aware of his feelings, he still hesitates. He doesn’t really explain why he’s not doing anything or why he changes his mind and decides to confess. It’s very odd.

I feel like I should’ve loved this manga, that I should’ve been heart broken by their love and their complicated situation, and that I should’ve been content with them ending up together. But I wasn’t. I disliked the main character, I was frustrated, and I was upset with the way the Ando was treated. When they got together, I just wondered what was going to happen to Ando.

But maybe what bothered me, won’t bother you. Maybe it’ll be the beautiful romance that people told me it was. 

Anyway, moving on to the new chapter: Chapter 13 of Kagerou Days has been uploaded! Shintaro has lived as a shut for 2 years and its been in no way peaceful since an energetic cyber girl named Ene appeared on his computer, causing mischief whenever she can. They get along to an extent, but Shintaro wonders where she came from. Whenever she asks, she never answers. Who was Ene before she became a cyber girl?
http://www.mangahere.com/manga/kagerou_days/

~Nadeshiko-chan