Yazawa Ai - Paradise Kiss, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)
Sun, Oct. 29th, 2006 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI read these a long time ago, and separated by quite a few months as well.
I've raved about Yazawa Ai before, and since Paradise Kiss is one of the only two of her series that's out here, I figured I should finally get around to reading it.
Paradis Kiss is a sequel to Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story) of sorts, but you don't need to read that to understand this series. It's just a little more fun if you do, since there are some callouts.
Yukari is a normal high-school girl; she's focusing on the upcoming college exams, going to study school after school, and in general, focusing very hard on making her future successful. Then she bumps into Miwako (the little sister of Mikako from Gokinjo Monogatari), who wants Yukari to become a model for their fashion school design studio, Paradise Kiss. Yukari finds that she's not as happy with her studious life as she orignally might have thought, and gets tangled up with the blue-haired, capricious designer George.
As a side note, for once the strange-colored manga hair makes sense; everyone in Paradise Kiss dyes theirs.
I'm not actually that invested in the George-Yukari relationship, but I don't think it's meant to be quite as central as the romances in other shoujo series. One of the things I like best about the series is how incomprehensible George is and how much Yukari turns to Miwako for friendship and help and support. It's not that Yazawa portrays the other sex as impossible to understand, but she very deftly captures the high school feeling of the opposite sex being rather foreign compared to same-sex friendships. Since most romances and shoujo series I read downplay friendships and non-romantic relationships, this was a real relief.
I also like that Yukari struggles a lot in her relationship with George; the misunderstandings aren't stupid ones that could be cleared up if people only talked to each other. Instead, they stem from differences in personality and philosophy.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I haven't read vols. 4 and 5 yet; this is, like almost all of Yazawa's series, a good, solid, quiet manga about real people, despite their crazy fashionable clothes.
I've raved about Yazawa Ai before, and since Paradise Kiss is one of the only two of her series that's out here, I figured I should finally get around to reading it.
Paradis Kiss is a sequel to Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story) of sorts, but you don't need to read that to understand this series. It's just a little more fun if you do, since there are some callouts.
Yukari is a normal high-school girl; she's focusing on the upcoming college exams, going to study school after school, and in general, focusing very hard on making her future successful. Then she bumps into Miwako (the little sister of Mikako from Gokinjo Monogatari), who wants Yukari to become a model for their fashion school design studio, Paradise Kiss. Yukari finds that she's not as happy with her studious life as she orignally might have thought, and gets tangled up with the blue-haired, capricious designer George.
As a side note, for once the strange-colored manga hair makes sense; everyone in Paradise Kiss dyes theirs.
I'm not actually that invested in the George-Yukari relationship, but I don't think it's meant to be quite as central as the romances in other shoujo series. One of the things I like best about the series is how incomprehensible George is and how much Yukari turns to Miwako for friendship and help and support. It's not that Yazawa portrays the other sex as impossible to understand, but she very deftly captures the high school feeling of the opposite sex being rather foreign compared to same-sex friendships. Since most romances and shoujo series I read downplay friendships and non-romantic relationships, this was a real relief.
I also like that Yukari struggles a lot in her relationship with George; the misunderstandings aren't stupid ones that could be cleared up if people only talked to each other. Instead, they stem from differences in personality and philosophy.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I haven't read vols. 4 and 5 yet; this is, like almost all of Yazawa's series, a good, solid, quiet manga about real people, despite their crazy fashionable clothes.
(no subject)
Mon, Oct. 30th, 2006 04:23 pm (UTC)Have you gotten to the disturbing part about Miwako and her guy? I don't remember when it was and don't want to spoil it. Get reading! :)
(no subject)
Mon, Oct. 30th, 2006 06:03 pm (UTC)I can't actually remember if I got to the disturbing part about Miwako and her guy yet, but I suspect I have, since I find their relationship rather disturbing, albeit understandable. Oh, that was another thing I liked as well! Miwako's romantic triangle actually works for me and doesn't make me want to kill people!