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

Nineteen, Twenty-One + New Chapter

Konnichiwa~

Nadeshiko-chan here and today I’ll be reviewing the Korean webtoon Nineteen, Twenty-One written by Yohan and illustrated by Kim Hye-Jun. For those whose don’t know, webtoons are animated comic strips that are posted on the internet; webtoons are rather popular in Korea and I think there often better than manwha, both writing and art wise. This particular webtoon is only 21 chapters. Anyway, lets begin:

Yun-lee is a girl who fell into a 2-year long coma after an accident. When she woke up, she had a huge emotional scar, having lost the time period between 19 and 21 years old. She feels completely empty as she attends preparatory school, trying to catch up with all the time she’s lost. The only time she’s happy is when she’s feeding stray cats, whom she finds adorable and admirable. Then one day while she’s on her way to feed her beloved stray cats, she meets the cheerful and happy-go-lucky Dong-whi, a 19 year old boy who has befriended several stray cats. They quickly become friends and together they work on helping their feline friends. I’ve never read a story that talks about cats and animal control as much as this one. Yohan must really think about stray cats and shelter animals a lot because these two characters spend a great deal talking about these topics. But they also talk about their hardships and problems and a sweet, comforting love begins to blossom between the two.  

It’s a short and simple story. It isn’t very dramatic or anything, its straightforward and pleasant. You might get frustrated at the pace of the romance; they’re particular a couple at some point but neither of them really acknowledge the fact. That’s the only thing that bothered me, that we barely go to see them as an official couple; I was somehow satisfied and dissatisfied with the ending, happy that everything was resolved but wanting a little bit more when in it came to the romance aspect of story. 

Anyway that’s the end of this review, before I leave though I need to report a new chapter

Ao Haru Ride Chapter 30 was scanlated today! I was so excited, there hasn’t been a new chapter since May!!! Kou and Futaba have gone through nothing but ups and down in their relationship and it feels like there’s always something in the way of them getting together. Things would probably be a lot easier of Kou finally accept the fact that he likes her! 

http://www.mangachapter.net/5058/ao-haru-ride.html

Bye-Bye

~Nadeshiko-chan

Last Game

Kujou and Yanagi

Konnichiwa~

Today I'm going to review Last Game by Amano Shinobu, a rather new manga that came out in 2011. Well I guess that isn't too new, but it feelings new since its ongoing and only on volume 4 in Japan. Its been scanlated to chapter 16. Anyway, lets begin:

It begins with the protagonist Hisato Yanagi in elementary school. He's smart, popular, and rich, the center of attention at school and number 1 at everything. That is, until one day Mikoto Kujou transfers and beats him in both in academics and sports. What angers him even more is that she’s quiet, plain, and poor. He soon becomes obsessed with beating her, becoming so desperate he even comes up with a plan to make her fall in love with him; if she does, he’ll consider it a victory. But in his attempts to get closer to her, he falls in love with her. And when falls, he falls hard head-over heals for her. Unfortunately  Kujou has spent most of her life helping and supporting her mother, her only family, so is rather dense when it comes to any type of relationship, even friendship is something unfamiliar to her. The manga skips to them in college: Kujou finally realizes how important Yanagi is to her, how his always been by her side. Though she doesn't realize what she’s in love with him, her social skills are improving. She begins dealing with these new feelings for him that appear. At first she  worries that Yanagi might get annoyed with her and come to hate her and avoids him. But at some point she decides to stay by him and try figure theses new feelings out. That's a good amount of progress for someone as dense as her. There aren’t too many chapters out, so it shouldn’t take long to catch up and start waiting for the new releases.

Now, Yanagi is definitely a tsundere, getting angry whenever he becomes flustered and embarrassed; at first he doesn’t want to admit he has feelings for Kujou and even says that he went out with other girls in a futile attempt to forget her. He’s stopped doing such things and is currently focusing on his feelings for Kujou, looking

Yanagi really cares for Kujou,
its only a matter of time until she
realizes why her hearts racing

out for her and trying to get her to fall for him. He truly cherishes her and enjoys ever moment he can be with her. He's really cute, once they fell asleep next to each other and he held her hand, when he woke up he adorably apologized for taking advantage of her. He’s so cute that you can’t help but root for him. Then there’s Kujou; quiet, studious, and cool. I typically dislike female leads that are dense, but I can’t really hate Kujou who’s spent so much of her life trying to take care of her mother. She’s hardworking in all aspects of life, even when it comes to making new friends. After realizing how important Yanagi is to her, she begins wanting to make friends and experience life a bit more, trying to do things beside housework and studying. And despite not understanding her feelings for Yanagi, its obvious that she cares about him.

The art is lovely as well, very clean and smooth; though the ink lines seem a bit thick at times, it’s overall very charming; the eyes aren’t too big and they look about their age. Though the romance looks like its going to be rather slow, I think its building up to something great and worth-while. 

~Nadeshiko-chan