Mizushiro Setona - Diamond Head, vol. 01-05 (Chi. trans.)

[oyceter]

Ichihashi Nanao has just transferred into super preppy Mehabia Academy, where one of the strange traditions is having a student judiciary club pass judgment on cases brought before them. She ends up being roped into the club by the charismatic Hanegi Reika, who plays the judge.

The series is largely very mystery of the week, looking into cases like a student accusing a teacher of sexual harassment to a case of possible plagiarism. As with all mysteries, nothing is as straightforward as it seems, although the sexual harassment case was actually extremely typical and not surprising at all considering the percentage of sexual harassment cases in fiction that actually have someone culpable, as opposed to IRL.

There are bits and pieces of character development scattered throughout the cases, from Reika's Angsty Background to Nanao growing into herself as a member of the club, but overall, I wanted more of the club members and less of the mysteries. I also felt that the series often fell prey to the Ordinary Girl Amongst Gorgeous Guys trope (see: Fushigi Yuugi, Ouran, etc.), although thankfully, the gorgeousness of some of the other guys in the club isn't emphasized as much as Reika's, as Reika is the capricious judge with a tragic background who is so beautiful he's probably more gorgeous than most of the girls. There is, of course, cross-dressing and a maid cafe involved.

Overall, this is not bad, and the art is clearly morphing between Mizushiro's older style and her newer one in After School Nightmare; you can see faces and chins getting less round, hair getting slightly less poofy. But it's not overwhelmingly awesome, and I wish it had more of an arc.

Comments

[lnhammer]

Oh this one -- took me a while to recognize it from the description, as the title had completely vanish from memory. By which you can tell how little it stuck with me. I seem to recall something in the way of character development towards a climax in the later volumes, at least as far as Nanao is concerned, but yeah, pretty darn episodic without much arc. Beads on a string instead of segments of an arch.

---L.

[oyceter]

Yeeaaaah... this one is sadly forgettable, especially given the effort it took me to find the volumes in Taiwan! Oh well. I was happy that (minor spoilers) Nanao ends up inheriting the judge role and we see the club go on after members graduate; I feel too much high school manga doesn't pay attention to after graduation. But I was annoyed that Nanao seems to have been paired with Katsuma at the end out of... I don't know. The author feeling like his liking her should be requited? Annoying!

[lnhammer]

I paid much less attention to the romantic tanglements than the inheritance, as it were, developments.

---L.