Nakajo Hisaya - Sugar Princess, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

Maya goes skating in her ice rink for the first time ever, and to her surprise, she ends up being scouted! The coach who finds her wants to pair her with Shun, who used to pairs skate with his sister, but Shun doesn't think much of her.

Unsurprisingly, Maya's talent and work ethic gets Shun to finally notice her and coach her.

Like so much of what I seem to be reading these days, this is not a brilliant manga. But hey, it's about figure skating! And while I found Maya's sudden talent highly unbelievable, at least she's 13 instead of the 15 or 16 that I first thought. I'm also guessing that pairs skaters can start older since their careers don't end as quickly as singles skaters? Particularly the women.

Mostly I read this and laughed at Nakajo's illustrations of her favorite skaters between chapters, most of whom I don't recognize, with the exception of Mao Asada. I think she's been watching skating for much longer than I have. And it's sort of awesome to have a fan write about it! She's got the bit on how you have to listen to the sound the skates make on the ice (the smoother, the better), and will probably have even more to come!

Enjoyable fluff, if you're a fan of figure skating like me.