Nakahara Aya - Love Com, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

Koizumi Risa is the tallest girl in the class, and Otani Atsushi is the shortest guy. Everyone pairs them up because the contrast is so funny, and the two have now decided to do something about it. They'll quash all "All Hanshin Kyojin" taunts by helping each other find dates. The problem is, the more they try to date other people, the more well suited they seem for each other!

Like so much of shoujo, you know exactly where this is going the second the characters are introduced. But Nakahara does it well, and she had me smiling through much of the volume because of how much I liked Koizumi and Otani. Not only do I like them, but I even think they work together as a couple, which sadly isn't always the case in shoujo. Even their squabbling comes off as good natured. I love the way they always answer questions at the same time with the same words and the way they geek out over a musician they both like. Mostly I just like how the two of them are endlessly enthusiastic and seem to have absolutely no ill will in their bodies.

Koizumi doesn't completely break the mold for shoujo heroines (she reminds me a lot of Haruna from High School Debut), but I like that she's not small and cute and girly, and that she stays up too late at night gaming and stressing about whatever big boss she couldn't kill. Granted, the manga version of "not girly" is still very girly by my standards, but she's still refreshing and fun to read about. I also love that Otani is not at all grumpy or angst or silent; he's cheerful and peppy and happy and smiles a ton. They are just so cute together! They grin all the time when they're not squabbling!

I also lilked what happened with the "find each other dates" plot, which could have dragged on for far too long. Instead, it's fairly neatly resolved, and in a way that may not be fully realistic (I wish I had been that mature in high school!) but makes me love all the characters more. And even the secondary couple in the volume is briefly but nicely characterized in a way that makes them feel like people, not tropes.

Fun and fluffy and happy-making, and I am sad my library only has volume 1.

Comments

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Are you unaware of there being boy/boy manga?

[deepad]

Nope! I've seen a lot of the pretty boy/boy stuff, I just hadn't heard of girl/girl before.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I figure there must be, given that there is manga porno. rachelmanija's userpic says it best:

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

There is, of varying quality, of course. :) Not a lot has been released here, but I did like Blue, released by Fanfare several years ago. SevenSeas has a few titles on offer, but many would probably appeal more to guys.

[deepad]

Yeah, I find femmeslash, or indeed any erotica, geared to male tastes, doesn't work for me at all. Thanks for the rec.

[octopedingenue]

The first volume of Maka-Maka by Kishi Torajiro (ISBN 9781598832938) should be out from MediaWorks soon, and it is A)girl/girl, B)gorgeous [see icon], C)incredibly sexually explicit, and D)totally sweet.

[deepad]

::stares at icon:: That's actually prettier than Buffy/Faith, and that's high praise from me. Thanks for the rec!

[octopedingenue]

More icons here! They are so sweet together and gorgeously drawn. Here are sample (NOT WORKSAFE!) scans. Maka-Maka originally ran in a Japanese equivalent of Penthouse, which gives me hope for a future of genders coming together for the love of sweet romantic totally hot girlsmut!

[deepad]

Eeee! The one where they are making little 'sniff sniff' noses at each other! If I hadn't reached my 6 icon limit, I would totally take that one, even though I haven't read it. So... would this sort of manga be available at a library? I am a newbie to reading manga, and also broke, so advise on how to read it would be welcome. Oyce already told me that translations that don't flip the pages right to left are better, but that's about all I know.

[octopedingenue]

You are VERY unlikely to ever find Maka-Maka in a library, as it is pretty much Porn Without Plot. Or really the plot is just "Best friends Jun and Nene hang out, chat with each other, have lots of smutty sex, chat some more, rinse repeat for two volumes"--but the little character touches of their conversations and their playful physicality with each other make it great. But it's still totally porn, porn, porn that you can try to get on interlibrary loan if you want(?).

Lililicious did the great scanslation of the series that they've pulled since its licensing; I'm uploading volume 1 now if my wireless will cooperate and will link it when it's done. You can read scanslations on your computer with the program CDisplay (google it) or other image viewers.

ETA Maka-Maka volume 1!

[deepad]

Downloaded it, thanks so much! I'll get an image viewer over the weekend and try to read it. You're a good pimp!

[octopedingenue]

You're welcome! Let me know what you think either way.