Merry Month of Shojo Review #5: MAID IN HEAVEN

 I swear, I'm not always trying to pick on Kodansha and their digital shojo offerings.  It's just that they keep picking up the most questionable titles...

MAID IN HEAVEN (Meido in Hani), by Mari Yoshino.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2020.

PLOT:

Niko Nanase seems like just another student at her private high school, but she couldn't be any more different from the rich kids and teen actors that surround her.  She has to scrimp and save every yen she gets from her multiple part-time jobs just to support herself and her younger twin sisters.  Her hope is to meet some pleasant rich boy so she can marry him for his money.  What she couldn't have anticipated was that the rising teen star/resident hearththrob Leon would take an interest in her, offering to pay her generously to be his part-time housemaid.  Niko reluctantly accepts, even if doing so brings her not only unwanted attention from the other girls in class but Leon as well.

Merry Month of Shojo Review #4: KARAKURI ODETTE

 Sci-fi and shojo is a combination we don't see a lot of in English, and that's a real shame because this series demonstrates just what kind of potential it has.

KARAKURI ODETTE, by Julietta Suzuki  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Professor Yoshizawa created Odette to be his most advanced android yet, but he never could have anticipated the day Odette asked to go to school like human children do.  It's there that she begins to better understand the full range of human emotion as she tries to make friends and escape danger without revealing her robotic nature to the world.

Merry Month of Shojo Review #3: CANON

It figures when I need to talk about a good but overlooked shojo manga from the past, I can always turn to CMX.

CANON (Kanon), by Chika Shiomi.  First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

Six months ago, Canon’s classroom was attacked by a mysterious vampire.  All of her classmates were drained in an instant, while Canon was transformed to a vampire.  Through sheer willpower, she has managed to contain her hunger and now uses her supernatural powers to save others and hunt down the man who transformed her.  The only ones able to help her are Fui, a sassy vampiric crow, and Sakaki, a fellow vampire with an agenda of his own.

Merry Month of Shojo Review #2: THE FIANCEE CHOSEN BY THE RING

 One of the few upshots of the rise in villainess isekai stories is that it's allowed a small but particular subset of romance manga to get licensed - frothy light-novel-based romances that are lightly fantastical, vaguely historical, free of any actual isekai tropes, and a welcome change of pace for yours truly.

THE FIANCEE CHOSEN BY THE RING (Yubiwa no Eranda Konyakusha), based on the light novels by Yue Matsuyuki and character designs by Yasuyuki Torikai with art by Jyun Hayase.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Aurora el la Porta is a quiet young noblewoman with a deep love of embroidery but not much else to distinguish her from her peers.  That all changes when she's beaned in the head with a ring at a party.  The ring belongs to Felix il le Clavis, a promising (if anxious) young knight who threw the ring in a bid to stop his sister from trying to set him up with every young woman in their acquaintance.  He drunkenly declared that whomever caught the ring would be his bride, so now he and Aurora are caught up in an engagement neither really asked for.  As the two grow closer, Aurora learns not just more about Felix but that her and her embroidery may not be as ordinary as she always presumed.

Merry Month of Shojo Review #1: SKIP BEAT

The Manga Test Drive turns 11 this year!  To celebrate this blog's entry into its pre-teens, we're once again going to enjoy an entire Merry Month of Manga Reviews!  Once again, we're dedicating this one to spotlighting some of the many shojo titles in our collection, starting with this.

SKIP BEAT! (Sukippo Bito!), by Yoshiki Nakamura.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

Kyoko thought she was living the dream: living together with her childhood best friend Sho, helping him live out his dreams of stardom in Tokyo.  Sure, that dream requires her to work three part-time jobs, consumes all of her spare time, energy, and personal desires, and left her waiting hand and foot on him on the rare occasion Sho is even home, but she's just happy to be needed!

At least, until she catches Sho with another girl.

Furious, Kyoko vows to beat Sho at his own game.  She's going to join his agency and become a bigger star than Sho could ever be, no matter how much she might have to grovel and work just to get her foot in the door.