oyceter: man*ga [mahng' guh] n. Japanese comics. synonym: CRACK (manga is crack)
Oyceter ([personal profile] oyceter) wrote2009-04-12 02:56 am

Kawahara Kazune - High School Debut, vol. 06-08 (Eng. trans.)

Bwahahaha! I love this series so much! As [livejournal.com profile] lnhammer says, it is so good at overturning high school shoujo tropes while remaining an awesome high school shoujo series.

Haruna wins at life (spoilers)

Volume 6 took a scenario I typically hate and turned it into something awesome—the female rival! I've started to expect that Haruna and Yoh will actually talk to each other instead of letting misunderstandings fester... unless, of course, they're saying hurtful things about each other, as in vol. 5. In other words, they act like normal people who get hurt and mistrust and worry and worry and worry but don't immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion with absolutely no proof! It is refreshing.

No, my favorite part wasn't that they talked to each other about Yoh's ex; it was Yoh's reaction to finding out that Haruna had befriended his ex! The "I really can't believe this is happening" and "This is so like you" nearly made me fall off my seat laughing. Thankfully, the aisles around me seemed pretty empty...

And I love love love Haruna, who is totally "Love will win! You should keep pursuing him! Fight to the end!" She is such a typical shoujo heroine in her optimism and her persist-to-the-end attitude, and yet, she is so atypical at the same time. I love that even Yoh's ex thinks Haruna'd make an awesome boyfriend.

Yoh-with-fever was funny as well, especially with the potfuls of jook/congee/porridge. And awww, a Haruna-initiated kiss!

The birthday was okay, although neat from a Yoh-perspective; I am perpetually amused by how easily embarrassed he is and how much he will do for Haruna. My favorite part of volume 6, though, was the new freshmen, Haruna and Yoh holding hands, and the illicit kissing! Yoh's solution to that = made of win! I also love Haruna and her new admirers, as well as how unaware she is of them, despite all of Yoh's attempts to warn her.

In conclusion: "But... I won!"
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2009-04-12 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
The Yoh's ex arc is one of the high points of the series, to my mind. Not that it's all downhill from there, but there's very little to top that.

---L.