As this blog enters its 13th year, I'm celebrating it in the usual fashion: a month's worth of reviews. This time around, it's all One-Volume Wonders, starting with this collection from notable shojo mangaka Arina Tanemura.
SHORT-TEMPERED MELACHOLIC AND OTHER STORIES (Kanshakudama no Yuutsu), by Arina Tanemura. First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2008.
PLOT:
Kajika is the heir to an old ninja family and is proud to show off the skills her grandfather taught her...at least, until her crush Fujisaki tells her to be more ladylike. Her attempts fail, but after her childhood best friend gets into a fight with Fujisaki for her honor she learns that it's better to be true to herself than to meet some boy's unrealistic expectations. This is followed by other simple tales of teenaged love, including a girl who uses her ditzy best friend as a stand-in during a date with a pen-pal, a girl trying to convince a stubborn boy to not give up on love, and a girl who gets over her crush on her best friend's boyfriend thanks to a particularly persistent admirer.
