Review: YAKUZA FIANCE

 Perhaps the hardest thing about this month is finding romance manga that are messed-up enough to fit the theme but aren't awful.  

This year, I managed to find one.

YAKUZA FIANCE (Raise wa tanin ga Ii), by Asuka Konishi.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Yoshino is the granddaughter of an Osaka-area yakuza clan, but all she wants is a normal life.  That's why she's so frustrated when she learns from the local tabloids that she's being engaged against her will to Kirishima, the grandson of a Tokyo clan.  

At first, Kirishima seems too good to be true: handsome, polite, and attentive.  Then the mask slips and the real Kirishima is revealed, a cold, cruel, sadomasochistic enforcer.  At first Yoshino is frightened, but then resolves to scare him off with a stunt of her own.  Who could have guessed that it would backfire and that Kirishima would end up genuinely smitten with her as a result?

Review: RIZELMINE

Don't think we're ignoring shonen romance, as here's a wretched little one-shot example from the creator of D.N. Angel.

RIZELMINE (Rizerumain), by Yukiru Sugisaki.  First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Tomonori Iwaki is having a very bad day.  It began when he learned that the teacher he's been crushing on is getting married.  It only got worse when he came home, only to find a tiny, obnoxious little girl named Rizel claiming to be his wife.  Rizel is a secret government experiment, a being who needs to learn about love to further her development, and her "dads" (who are totally not government spooks) easily bribe convince his parents to go along with it.  Rizel loves her new husband, but Tomonori wants nothing to do with her and his rejections come with explosive results.  Things only get more chaotic from there, as some of Tomonori's classmates, an American-made knockoff of Rizel, and a coma threaten to part the unwitting couple.

Review: DON'T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO

 It was inevitable that I would have to grapple with the series that gave us the go-to user icon/Favorite Anime Girl of online chuds everywhere.

DON'T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO (Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san), by Nanashi.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT:

It began in the library, when Naoto accidentally dropped the manga he had been drawing in his spare time in front of a bunch of gyarus.  They all mocked it for a bit and then left...except for Hayase Nagatoro.

Despite being a year younger than him, she knows weakness when she sees it.  She needles him for ages, until he's on the verge of tears.  After that, it seems like she goes out of her way every day to tease him as he blushes and freezes.  Is it mere bullying, or something more complicated between them?  Naoto isn't sure, but neither can he quite gather up enough courage to make her stop.

Review: I WANT TO ESCAPE FROM PRINCESS LESSONS

 It's time for another Bad Romance Month, where we cover a selection of some of the worst and weirdest romances to grace manga.  We're starting with a fairly recent title that's in the same vein as all those villainess stories, but no sausage-curled ojou-sama could devise a torment as bad as the one this story's heroine receives.

I WANT TO ESCAPE FROM PRINCESS LESSONS (Kisaki Kyoiku kara Nigetai Watashi), based on the light novels by Izumi Sawano and illustrations by Miru Yamasaki, with art by Uri Sugata.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

When Leticia was seven years old, she was engaged to the crown prince Clarke.  This meant she was torn from her family home and forced to undergo a decade's worth of lessons in deportment, etiquette, history, dancing, and more, all for the sake of a boy she barely knew and a role she never asked for.

One day she finds another woman on his arm and presumes she is free at last from her unwanted engagement.  She immediately runs off the countryside to play, roam, and do all the un-ladylike things she's been forbidden from doing for years.  Unfortunately, Clarke does not want their engagement will end and he will do anything to keep Leticia by his side, including stopping her many attempted escapes.

Review: MABURAHO

Well, for once I'm reviewing a harem manga where I understand precisely what the girls see in the lead.

It's a terrible reason, but I can comprehend it.

MABURAHO, based on the light novel series by Toshihiko Tsukiji and character designs by Eiji Komatsu, with art by Miki Miyashita.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

In a world where magic is real and where the number of spells one can cast determines everything from your social status to your lifespan, Kazuki Shikimori is an anomaly.  He only has the ability to cast seven after using one as a child to make it snow in the summer for a mystery girl.  He also comes from a long line of powerful witches and wizards, meaning that any child he could potentially father would have immense power.  That's why three girls from some of the oldest and most prestigious magic families have their eyes set on Kazuki.  It's a three-way battle between the clingy and temperamental Yuna, the stoic Rin, and the bombshell Kuriko for the rights to Kazuki and his killer DNA, and all of them are determined to win by any means possible.

Review: FOUR-EYED PRINCE

I don't know if it's reassuring or not that Kodansha has always been peddling shojo manga about taming Asshole-kuns to Americans, even when they were Del Ray Manga.

FOUR-EYED PRINCE (Megane Oji), by Wataru Mizukami.  First published in 2007 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Sachiko thought it was bad enough when her confession to the stoic class prince Akihiro was rejected.  Then she had to move in with her long-absent mother after her grandmother had to go to a nursing home, and during that time her mother married Akihiro's father.  Now her crush is her step-brother and the two of them have to find a way to live together harmoniously.  That's no small challenge considering that Sachiko's crush is still going strong in spite of Akihiro's regular attempts to needle her, embarass her, and deny any connection to her as much as humanly possible.

Review: YOU LIKE ME, NOT MY DAUGHTER?!

 It's time for another round of Bad Romance Month, where I look at some of the weirdest romances in manga.  We're starting off with an age-gap story, albeit one with a MILF-y twist.

YOU LIKE ME, NOT MY DAUGHTER?! (Musume Janakute, Mama ga Suki Nano?!), based on the light novels by Kota Nozomi and character designs by Giuniu, with art by Tesshin Azuma.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

For the last 10 years, Ayako Katsuragi has been happy serving as adoptive mother to her orphaned niece Miu.  The only thing that makes her happier is seeing how well Miu gets along with their college-aged neighbor Takumi, who is always hanging around.  She presumes that someday the two of them will get married...at least, until Takumi confesses that he's always loved Ayako and wants to marry her.  Takumi is completely serious, but Ayako's unsure if she's ready for romance at all at this point (much less dating a much younger man).

Recipe: LOVE RECIPE

The only thing worse than a bad BL romance is a bad BL romance that ruins an otherwise good concept for a manga.

LOVE RECIPE, by Kirico Higashizato.  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

Tomonori Ozawa was hoping to get the journalist job of his dreams, but instead he's working as an editor at a BL magazine.  His duties force him to cross paths with the magazine's most successful mangaka, Sakurako Kakyoin.  It turns out that Kakyoin is a man using a female pen-name, one who is drawn to Ozawa's innate adorableness and determined to turn their professional relationship into a very personal one.  Will Kakyoin ever get the message across to his oblivious editor?  Will Ozawa ever feel comfortable with the world of gay romance?

Review: PURI PURI

 Valentine's Day may be past, but that's not going to stop me from trashing on some poorly conceived harem manga.

PURI PURI, by Chiako Taro.  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

Shocked by the scandalously sloppy looks and behavior of his students, the principal of the all-girls Saint Sophia's divinity school decides that the best solution is stricter surveillance and to make the school co-ed.  That's how Masato Kamioda became the school's first male student, hoping to use this opportunity to study for the priesthood like his foster father.  Following in that holy path will be more challenging than Masato anticipated, as when he's not being threatened with expulsion by the student council he's being tempted by the soft, squishy, panty-clad bodies of his fellow students.  In particular, the body of sweet, motherly Ayako might be the biggest temptation of them all.

Review: WITH THE SHEIKH IN HIS HAREM

 It's Bad Romance Month once again at the Test Drive, and we're taking a spin once again through Kodansha's digital shojo offerings and fishing out yet another dud.  

WITH THE SHIEKH IN HIS HAREM (Shiekh-sama to Harem de), by Rin Miasa.  First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

Just a few weeks ago, Sanagi was just another Japanese teen girl.  Sure, she had to work a bunch of menial part-time jobs and save every yen to keep her family financially afloat, but aside from that she was fine.  Then she managed to talk a weird rich blond boy out of jumping off the roof at one of her jobs, and that boy turned out to be a prince from a far-away land who wants to reward her with marriage!  With her family in dire straights, Sanagi has no choice but to accept his offer.  Now she's being whisked off to the sun-baked land of Armadia where she'll be surrounded by luxury and intrigue.

Review: HAPPY LESSON

Of course, I couldn't let the month pass without talking about a bad harem manga, but this one is both different from the rest and yet not all that different either.

HAPPY LESSON, written by Mutsumi Sasaki and Dengeki G's Magazine with art by Shinnosuke Mori.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Susumu Arisaka is an orphan who has spent the last decade in an orphanage.  Now he's returning to his parents' home to attend high school.  Five of his teachers learn about his predicament and are so moved by his tragic life story that they decide to all become his "mama."  They move in with him, cook and clean for him, tutor him, all in the hopes of giving him a happy life...or a lot of chaos for poor Susumu.

Review: THE YOUNG MASTER'S REVENGE

Shojo manga is full of bad relationships, but what happens when you combine that with one of shojo manga's fluffiest creators? 

THE YOUNG MASTER'S REVENGE (Kimi no Koto nado Zettai ni), by Meca Tanaka.  First published in 2014 and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

As a child, Leo was forced to play with Tenma because her wealthy family owned a fancy department store and Leo's family had a clothing company that wanted to get in good with them.  He mostly got dragged around by Tenma and got nothing for it but mockery from the other kids and turtle bite scars in an awkward place.

Ten years and one extended stay in the US later, Leo's family is fabulously wealthy, Leo is a handsome young teen, and he's ready to enact his revenge.  His plan: seduce Tenma with sweet nothings and princely behavior, only to dump her and leave her in misery.  Those plans get complicated when he learns that Tenma's family went broke and that she's ready to enter into an arranged marriage to ensure her family's future.  Leo's determined that no one and nothing is going to get between him and his revenge, even if it means financially supporting Tenma, teaching her about the world, and saving her from trouble at private school.

Review: FINDER

 We are rested and ready to return with a month's worth of bad romance manga!  Let's begin with...well, "classic" would be too strong for this series so let's say a notable one from BL of the past.

FINDER (Fainda), by Ayano Yamane.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Akihito is a freelance photographer who wants to use his skills to expose the seedy underbelly of the criminal world.  Alas, he's quickly capture by the powerful gangster Asami, who proceeds to rape Akihito, ruin his film, and set him free.  Akihito hates what Asami did to him, but remains determined to fight crime in his own way.  Meanwhile, Asami finds himself increasingly drawn to Akihito, protecting the young man even as he pursues him for the sake of his own pleasure.

Review: YOU'RE MY PET

 Of course, just because a romance is strange does not mean it is inherently bad or that the manga itself is lacking, as today's example proves.

YOU'RE MY PET (Kimi wa Petto), by Yayoi Ogawa.  First  published in 2000 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Sumire seemingly has it all: a great college education, a job as a journalist at a high-profile newspaper, and the tall, stately look of a model.  Too bad then that she's just been demoted from the politics section to the lifestyle page, her fiance dumped her for his mistress, and her coworkers are convinced that she's a stuck-up ice queen who deserves what she gets.  

Then she finds a boy in a box.

The boy in question, a teenaged runaway, likes the attention she gives him (along with her cooking) and begs her to let him stay.  She agrees, on one condition: that he serve as her pet.  They won't be dating, but she will provide him with a place to stay, food to eat, and as much attention and affection as he can tolerate.  He won't provide her with his actual name, so she dubs him "Momo" after a former pet.  Their strange arrangement seems to be working for a while until Sumire's old college friend Hasumi comes back into her life looking to rekindle their relationship.  Can she maintain a relationship while keeping Momo a secret?

Review: PRIMITIVE BOYFRIEND

Normally we here at the Manga Test Drive spend February looking at bad romance manga, but after this last year we need something of a break from badness.  Let's spend this month looking at strange romances instead!  And what could be stranger than a shojo manga about a girl falling for a literal australopithecine?

PRIMITIVE BOYFRIEND (Genshijin Kareshi), by Yoshineko Kitafuku.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2020.

PLOT:

Mito wants a man as strong and sturdy as her garden, but all the boys in her class are self-centered and weak.  She gets her wish when the harvest goddess Spica wants to reward her with her soulmate.  The problem is that her soulmate is a 2.5 million-year-old hominid and being with him means Mito has to survive the dangers of Pleistocene-era Africa!

STORY:

In her author's note, Kitafuku notes how this story grew from a number of small ideas: a pure romance, time travel, a farm girl in the big city, and so on.  I'm not 100% sure how that turned into this particular premise, but truly original premises in shojo are rare so I'll take what I can get.

I do like how this story values how strong and capable Mito already is.  Her friends might encourage her to act more stereotypically weak and feminine to land herself a man, but Mito refuses to compromise herself and that's a very admirable quality.  Of course, no modern human is strong and capable enough on their own to deal with things like Ice Age predators, so it doesn't feel egregious or hypocritical when she finds herself needing her proto-human soulmate (nicknamed Garhi, after his species name) to save her. 

Of course, it's kind of weird to fall in love with a creature that's still more ape than human, but Kitafuku certainly tries to make that as palatable as possible.  She hobbles the competition by making all the modern hot guys self-centered and weak.  They are clearly meant to be parodies of some of the usual otome guy types, from the smug womanizer to the shy otaku.  That said, Garhi's whole strong and silent thing can only go so far, considering he doesn't have things like 'a concept of language.' 

All that said, as someone with an anthropology degree and someone with a long-standing interest in paleontology, Kitafuku's loose and fast approach to history drove me a little nuts.  I wanted to give her a little credit for making her story revolve around a fairly new species of hominid and making its status as an evolutionary dead-end a plot point.  But then she populates this world (which ostensibly Africa, based on the savannahs and jungles seen and where fossils of A. garhi have been found) with creatures that weren't found there.  Yes, there were saber-toothed cats in Africa, but not ones that look like the Smilodons she's drawing! Woolly mammoths wouldn't have been found alongside Deinotherium, and neither of them on that continent!  Was that a freaking Archaeopteryx I saw in one panel?  I realize that asking for scientific rigor in a goofy shojo manga about a girl and a monkey-man is kind of ridiculous, but sometimes it's the little things that can throw you right out of the story.

ART:

Kitafuku's art is a little rougher and less cute than you typically see in shojo art today.  This is most obvious in the faces, with their long squashed rectangle mouths.  It doesn't help that everything is so busy: the backgrounds, the panel layouts, the sound effects and shojo sparkles layered over it all.  Most of the emphasis is on the action, but they're put together in such a scattershot matter that it's hard to follow just what is going on.  It's only when she lets things calm down that any sort of charm can come through, something that's made all the more evidence in the side story.

PRESENTATION:

Kitafuku's debut story, "Giselle's Flash," is included here.  It's the story of a hapless teen ballerina who overcomes bullies at the dance studio and every sign pointing to her having no real talent for ballet through the usual hard work and perseverance.  It's OK.

RATING:

I want to go along with what Primitive Boyfriend is trying to offer, but I don't think it was poor research alone that put me off of it.  It feels like it should all be a big joke, but I don't think this series is quite sure what the punchline should be and the mangaka doesn't have the art skills to make it cute or funny or even all that interesting visually.  It's just there, being neither weird enough to recommend nor bad enough to fully shun.

This series is published by Seven Seas.  This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available.  All 3 have been published and are currently in print.

Review: THE TYRANT FALLS IN LOVE

As always, BL doesn't want for bad romances and today I think it's finally time to discuss what might just be the guiltiest pleasure sitting on my shelves.

THE TYRANT FALLS IN LOVE (Koisuru Bokun), by Hinako Takanaga.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

For the last five years, Morinaga has been pining for his lab partner and fellow graduate student, the extremely tempermental, homophobic, and generally grumpy Souchi.  This emotional stalemate might have lasted forever, if not for Tatsumi going on an angry drunken bender and accidentally drinking an aphrodisiac forced upon Morinaga by a friend.

Morinaga takes full advantage of the situation, but afterwards Souchi's seemingly back to his old self.  But what will he do when Morinaga tries to quit school and slink away in shame?

Review: CROWN OF LOVE

Just because a romance is bad (in the sense of it being unhealthy for the participants) doesn't necessarily mean that a manga portraying has to be bad as well.  This series is a good example of that from a mangaka who seems to specialize in these sorts of complicated relationships.

CROWN OF LOVE (Renai Crown), by Yun Kouga.  First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

Hisayoshi Tajima seems to have it all.  He's a talented music student at Hakuo High School, beloved by all the girls in class, and well on his way towards taking up a respectable classical music career like his father.  No one seems to have any notion of just how indifferent Hisayoshi has become to it all.  His world comes into focus after a chance encounter on a train with Rima Fujio, a lovely teen idol.  Tajima swiftly falls for her, so much so that he's willing to work with Rima's former manager to become an idol singer himself just to get close to her again, something that his manager may want for his own reasons.

Review: GOU-DERE SORA NAGIHARA

After a bit of a birthday break, I'm back to run through yet another month of bad manga romances!  I'm starting with a doozy of a book, straight from the creator of Heaven's Lost Property and "would have been this season's whipping-boy if not for Interspecies Reviewers" Plunderer!

GOU-DERE SORA NAGIHARA (Go Dere Bishojo Sora Nagihara), by Suu Minazuki.  First published in 2008, and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Shouta Yamakawa is no good at getting girls, so he mostly sticks to 2D girls.  His favorite is Sora Nagihara, the perpetually sweet, sickly, kitty-eared heroine of of his favorite manga Tama X Kiss.  Imagine his surprise when one day, Tama pops right out of the latest issue acting nothing like the demure heroine of his dreams. Brash and perverted, Sora is convinced that Shouta should be king of the world.  Thus she sets out to turn the girls of the school into Shouta's harem by any means necessary.

Review: SUZUKA

To end the month, I wanted to look at something just as notorious as our first selection.  Luckily, the answer was at hand.  Few names strike as much fear into the hearts of shonen readers as Kouji Seo, and if I wanted to understand why I would need to start at the very beginning.

SUZUKA, by Kouji Seo.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

Yamato hopes that by moving from the Hiroshima countryside to Tokyo for high school, he might just be able to change his life for the better.  That's why he was willing to agree to live with his aunt and work in her apartment complex/bathhouse to earn his keep.  It's there that he meets Suzuka, a star high-jumper who quickly takes a hot-and-cold approach to Yamato.  Yamato's smitten with Suzuka's innate coolness, but will the other residents leave him alone long enough to let him say how he feels?

Review: BOND OF DREAMS, BOND OF LOVE

Today's review is a two-for.  Not only does this boys' love story center around a couple with an awkward (and strictly illegal) age gap, but also features a lot of stalking and a guy who won't say no!

*sigh*  Just another day in the world of BL.

BOND OF DREAMS, BOND OF LOVE (Yume Musubi Koi Musubi), by Yaya Sakuragi.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2012.

PLOT:

Ever since he was a little boy, Ao has been utterly smitten with Ryomei, a local Shinto priest.  Many years and one well-time wet dream later, he's finally gathered up enough courage to make his intentions towards Ryomei known. Ryomei is freaked out by Ao's declaration and turns him down, but Ao is not one to let rejection discourage him.  One way or another, he's going to find a way to make Ryomei love him...that is, if Ao's boyish good looks don't change Ryomei's mind before that.