Katie Cullen Reads

Oh, wow… I remember this manga!  I absolutely LURVED IT in 6th grade… ah, that was the year things were always fun…  Anyway, on to the review.

Yukino Miyazawa is 15 years old and seems totally… flawless.  She gets the top grades in her class, all the boys like her, and she’s a star athlete.  But it’s all a facade!  Yukino just loves attention and popularity.  This would make her an unlikely shojo heroine (they’re all rather genuinely kind and plucky and joyful and… gag me…), but she’s really original and that makes her fun to read about.

But just when Yukino-san thinks that all is going well in her freshman year of high school… a plot device hits her in the form of Soichiro Arima, a suprisingly short-haired (thank the Lord he isn’t another long-haired bishie dude, although he is pretty cute for a manga character) smart guy who beats her by, like, 1/2 point in the entrance exam.  OH, HORRORS!  Yukino decides to get revenge…

…and it doesn’t work.  For starters, Arima seems to like her!  And then he finds out her secret: she’s not the perfect girl she’s cracked up to be.  Yukino realizes that she likes Arima… but it’s too late, he could never like her knowing who she really is… right?

The art is great and the plot is amazing, but what really drives Kare Kano is the characters.  The obsessive Yukino, nice-guy-with-bad-past (0.o) Arima, and the other characters introduced later (diminuitive Tsubasa is so cute/strange… a little like Hagu from Honey and Clover) make it a fun and engrossing read.  I urge you to pick up the manga today!

So here’s a few links to Comics Worth Reading and their lovely reviews instead, so that they can get all the glory.

Dramacon.  Because who doesn’t love a manga with egotistical boyfriends, chibis galore, and hot guys in sunglasses?

Fruits Basket.  Ah… this was the first manga I really fell in love with.  I started reading it in 2006 and have kept on to Volume 18, almost done with the series.  It sounds silly at first, but wait until you get to the double digits.  Then Takaya-san hits you with the heavy stuff.

The saga of Chiyo-chan’s pigtails I mean, Azumanga Daioh has something for everyone, from the adorably spaced-out Osaka to the strange, strange Miss Yukari (who hits students with papers when they eat good food.)

 ….

WAIT, what?  I was just reading a review of Death Note and it said… it said… IT SAID THEY KILLED L!!!  WAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!  THAT IS THE WORST SPOILER EVER!  Forget me reading past #6.  Like, ever,  DN minus L = ridiculousity!  Where is that element of cute that the spiky-haired little prodigy adds to the story if he’s GONE?????  OH MY GOD! *storms off with knife in search of Light Yagami*

….

*storms back on with knife now covered in blood*

And now, back to my list of Comics Worth Reading’s great reviews:

Japan Ai is the book I’ve been waiting to read.  It looks awesome– a trip to Japan!  All the bits of culture I can’t wait to experience when I go there myself!  Yaaay!

Who wouldn’t want to look at a manga called Penguin Revolution?  I can see it now, little black-n-white birdies with powdered wigs and bayonets, fighting the British… shoot, that’s not what it’s about.

Well, that concludes my ramblings for now. Bye-bye, toodles, see y’all soon!

L-lovingly, manga-readingly, and disappointedly yours,

Katie Cullen

Something horrible has happened, and Kat can’t remember what it was.  Well, that happens when you have amnesia.

Maybe it has something to do with her old friends, who seem to be avoiding her as much as possible and don’t believe that she’s lost her memory.

Maybe it has something to do with the little cat under her old self’s mattress.

Kat has no idea.  But she’ll need to have an idea soon, because she’s lost the friends that she can barely remember.

This book was very engrossing, though it could’ve used a little more figurative language.  The suprise at the end hits you like a ton of bricks and the dialogue seems real, if very British.  Reccomended for reluctant readers who want an introduction to British teen lit.

3/5