Shoujo Manga Updates and Thoughts :) (Part II)

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Another slew of mini-reviews for certain shoujo manga which I have completed 🙂

Sprout

The set-up here is rather similar to Strobe Edge; in a sense where a girl falls in love with a guy who already has a girlfriend, though this girl already has a boyfriend at the start. When the main girl’s parents decided to turn their house into a boarding house and invite tenants in, she is initially unhappy with the suggestion, but her sentiments change as she realises how fun her housemates (including the guy she fell for) are. My personal favourite moments are those fun times all of them spend together at their house. As for the romance, it was really quite an arduous, almost painful journey to read about a girl who leaves her boyfriend for a guy who is already attached – I personally didn’t see anything too redeeming about the main male lead, though this could be said to be something that’s ‘different’ from the ordinary shoujo manga plot.

Mr rating: 7/10, worth a try but it can be rather painful.

Nakanmon!

This story starts pretty interestingly as a series of occurrences lead five students to be late on their first day of school. This group is a pretty odd one: we have a crybaby female lead who just moved to Tokyo (who has understandable reasons for being the way she is), a tsundere-ish guy with a nice heart, a player, an aloof girl and .. another aloof guy. Despite the drama potential with such an ensemble of characters, do not be fooled as there is actually an almost non-existent love triangle. The characters grow and change with what they can over 16 chapters, especially the main female lead and the main male lead (which I will decline to say which one is). The romance ends up being quite cute and it’s a rather short and refreshing 16 chapters.

My rating: 7/10

Ouji to Hero

The story is had a cliched setting with a love triangle between a poor but pretty, nice female lead and two popular, good looking guys, one being the ‘prince’ and the other being a ‘hero’ (due to his name actually). Having said that though, the drama was good because of the love triangle taking central stage and I did enjoy the ride, as there were many plot twists in the middle as well. However the ending was terribly disappointing as the actions were not justified by what the characters were actually feeling – there was a rather poor explanation given for all their behaviour (especially the male leads). I had expected a more logical explanation for everything.

My rating: I still gave it a 7/10, because despite the things that didn’t make sense, I couldn’t deny that I was pretty addicted and I did enjoy the drama. However, stay away if a satisfactory, sensible ending is a must for you.

Boku wa Kiss de Uso wo Tsuku

This started out as a mystery: who was the person who had kissed Meiko in the library? There are 4 possible candidates i.e. male leads involved in this, and I did have a fun time trying to guess who was it and who Meiko would eventually end up with. Fortunately for me this time, she did end up with the guy I preferred, but as with all short manga there wasn’t too much exploration or development of the male characters to turn me into a fan.

My rating: 7/10

Though all the four manga here have garnered the same rating from me, the only one I would seriously recommend is Nakanmon! because I felt that it has the most realistic character development and it really did have satisfactory romance. Having said that, I don’t think the rest of the manga this time around is a waste of time to try 🙂

Have you tried any of these? What did you think about it? If you haven’t, which ones are you motivated to try? Comments are welcome! 🙂

*All images belong to their respective owners and do not belong to me.*

26 thoughts on “Shoujo Manga Updates and Thoughts :) (Part II)”

  1. I haven’t really read the first one and the 4th manga, so I have no opinion on them.
    Between Nakanmon and Oiji to Hero, it’s Nakanmon, hands down. Oiji to Hero is pure BS , in my opinion. I didn’t like both male leads. The mangaka misled us on so many fronts. First, she made us believe that it was potentially a triangle btween the Oiji and Hero, but the truth is , it was actually a triangle between Oiji and Hero and Hero’s girlfriend ( and Oiji’s ex ) . Then all the time that we thought Hero liked the supposedly main girl, he was co-habitating with his GF, and not only that, their relationship was intimate. I can’t understand why at the end, Hero gave way to Oiji. On the forums, readers didn’t even realize that Hero and his GF are having sex.

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    • Yeah I agree Ouji to Hero is waaaaaay screwed in that sense – the so-called ‘true feelings’ that was revealed in the end didn’t make sense with what they were doing previously.
      At least it had pretty art.

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  2. Is that first manga ” Sprout” on Manga Fox? I don’t know if I’d want to read it,anyway. You wrote the mail lead was unredeemable, lol. So do they end up together ?

    I like the personality of the male lead of Strobe Edge. The main girl will never worry that her now BF would be unfaithful. He was never unfaithful to his ex, and would have stayed with her, probably forever, had t the GF not let him go.

    I dislike Kuo of Ao Haru Ride.

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    • Yes it is! Here: http://mangafox.me/manga/sprout/
      Nah I just didn’t see what was so good about him in a sense that made the main girl really like him so much. But that was my personal opinion, you may think differently 🙂 Yes they do.

      That’s true, I thought Strobe Edge’s male lead was good in that sense as well.
      Ah Kou … had some of his own reasons for behaving the way he did, I believe.

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      • About Kou…. ugh, don’t get me started on this guy. I could make a complete thesis on why I dislike him. I dropped that one because I liked the second guy. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. And I was so p*ssed off with Kou’s fans for hating Touma so much for the simple reason that he was in love with Futaba and was doing everything to make her fall in love with him. Kou’s reason for rejecting Futaba and going with Narumi was so lame. But that was his right of course ,But what made me despise him was the fact that he played with Futaba’s feelings, and was so cruel about it.

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      • I do agree that I thought his reason for choosing Narumi in the first place was really a bad one; quite unforgivable – you would have thought he would have the sense to differentiate between feelings of pity/merely being helpful to a friend in need and real love. Though he wasn’t as bad as Rita in Heroine Shikkaku I guess.
        Though then again, there’s unfortunately very few manga out there where the girl actually chooses the guy that puts in more effort deserves the love.. ><

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      • It’s rare to find a shojo protagonist who is brave enough to walk away from a male protagonist’s BS. I can only think of two at the moment… Cappuccino ( truly heartbreaking ) and this one whose title I can’t recall at the moment. In this story, the second guy wins her heart, even though she still likes the first guy…. and the first guy cries at the end of the story. Tonari no Atashi is another one.

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      • Ooh I see, I’ll probably check these out soon! I have been eyeing Tonari no Atashi but I haven’t gotten around to reading it because I know its rare and I just want to save it up ><

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      • I wish I could remember the title of that one.

        I also wish mangakas should start changing their formula of idiotic, plain, dumb ( they get 5/100 in their tests ) heroines getting the rich, handsome , super intelligent heroes. You know, the Cinderella kind ? I guess the authors are catering to tweeners, lol. I’m getting old.

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      • Yeah I agree that that formula is too overused and superficial; you’re right that they may very well be catering to tweens, though I guess its the lower end of the target age group that was originally intended by the ‘shoujo’ tag. I do think that the upper end at least (maybe 16-18) should be mature enough to appreciate better twists and plot settings. There should be more manga of the same calibre of Strobe Edge for example. Though I guess technically our age group has already surpassed the shoujo one that’s why … ><

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      • I guess it’s time to move to josei ? My problem with josei is , it’s too realistic, and depressing.

        I’ll stick to shojo. I’d rather have fantasy, and be entertained by fairy tale romance for a few minutes, ha ha.

        So what are you reading these days ? Are you reading Skip Beat ?

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      • Haha yeah, I agree with you! Same reason why I am quite reluctant to read josei >< I like the lighter, fluffier feeling of shoujo in general!
        Hmm I actually only just finished Ao Haru Ride myself, not currently reading anything at the moment. I haven't actually read Skip Beat though I did watch the anime 🙂

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      • My heart used to palpitate for Skip Beat, but now, aaaargh, it bores me to tears. It’s a pity coz I already bought 28 volumes of this manga. I really cannot comprehend why it has so many fans, like obsessed…. every little dialogue is analyzed to death. Have you noted my signature name? Renxkyoko… the 2 leads of Skip Beat. Haha.

        So what do you think of Ao Haru Ride ?

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      • Oh, I thought you would have been a massive fan of Skip Beat due to your signature name 🙂 Haha I have no idea, I always thought its massive popularity was due to the fact that its show biz and Kyoko was a strong female lead.

        Ah … Ao Haru Ride was okay I guess, but it wasn’t as good as Strobe Edge or Hirunaka no Ryuusei for me. Kou’s actions are understandable but I wasn’t fully sympathetic with his plight unlike say Ren Ichinose. I personally preferred Touma, but I can see why Futaba chose Kou in the end. I may be writing a post on it soon though; probably have some stuff to say about it. 🙂

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      • Kou had been very nasty . It was heartbreaking. Futaba too did not treat Touma wel. In a way, it was Touma’s fault. But he did try his best to make Futaba like him. To no avail, of course. I like Touma, he’s got talent. He can sing well, play guitar, and compose music. he composed a song for Futaba, which Futaba didn’t get to hear coz she broke up with him. Touma did everything that Kou should have done….. and yet , Kou got the girl.

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  4. I haven’t read any of these!!! You just stocked up my ‘to read list’ I think I’ve heard of Nakanmon before and may even have had it recommended to me but I haven’t heard of the others. I’m particularly interested in learning a little more about the unique premises behind ‘Sprout’ (You already know my feelings on painful stories) and Boku wa Kiss de Uso wo Tsuku. I shall have to give them a go and let you know ^.^

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  6. I know you will get this comment despite it being 6 mos. late, LOL ! Anyway, I hope you can continue to write on shoujo mangas you have read. I am happy that we seem to have similar opinions /takes on shoujos we have both read. I ‘ve been rereading our conversations here. LOL. Funny thing is, I’m planning to revisit these shoujo mangas, most particularly AO Haru Ride, and Kou being one of my most hated male protagonist , ever. LOL I have another blogsite devoted to mangas and animes. I hooe you can check it out once in a while.

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