My Cute Little Kitten volume 2 (manga review)

     My Cute Little Kitten volume 2 can best be summed up as relatively trashy but also at least attempting some level of introspection into the characters. Yuna is proving to be quite complex in her head and volume 2 spends it's time with her spinning over a variety of things, however, some progress is made by the end of the volume. Volume 3 isn't out yet, but volume 2 definitely isn't the end of the series either.

    It's very fast paced which doesn't give as much time to understand the somewhat drastic swings in mood of Yuna. It's relatively light overall. I wouldn't even call the internal drama really dramatic. The series has so much light comedy, sex, and fast pacing that it doesn't actually feel dramatic even when it should. 

    I'm not a huge fan of Milk Morinaga's art, but it's consistent across all their works. Something about the faces aren't quite right to me, but whatever. There's also lots of sex, I mean LOTS of sex. And just about everything is depicted (with just the most sensitive parts left ambiguous). This is not for children by any means.  

    Are you a fan of Milk Morinaga? If so, then you're probably already reading this series. If not, this wouldn't be my first recommendation into their oeuvre. My personal favorite (and I'm sure I'm in the minority) is their work "Secret of the Princess" but there are others considered more classics too if you want to start somewhere. However, if you're new to yuri or looking for high quality yuri, Milk Morinaga isn't probably the place to start. And certainly My Cute Little Kitten isn't either.

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Please legitimately purchase or borrow manga and anime. Never read scanlations or watch fansubs. Those rob the creators of the income they need to survive and reduce the chance of manga and anime being legitimately released in English.

All comments are moderated by a real person who only checks them once a day. Therefore, comments may take a while before they show up. Thanks for understanding. It's how we keep this a community of lovingkindness.

My Cute Little Kitten volume 1 (manga Review)

    Have you read Milk Morinaga's other works? Do you like Milk Morinaga's other works? I think those are probably pretty crucial questions to answer before deciding to read "My Cute Little Kitten" volume 1.

    For those uninitiated, Milk Morinaga writes yuri manga that features explicit dating and romance between high-school or adult female characters. The fact that Morinaga-san makes these relationships explicit and clear is a huge plus compared to a lot of the wishy-washy yuri out there. And some of Morinaga-san's work is generally quite good ("Girl Friends," some of the stories in "Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink," and my favorite: "Secret of the Princess"). But some of her series are a bit lack-luster compared to others and frankly, "My Cute Little Kitten" doesn't start super strong.

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon Volume 3 (manga review)

    Ughhhh, such a frustrating volume. "Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon" is quickly becoming the worst type of the "new" explosion of "yuri" (it deserves the quotes here) manga. 

    In "Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon" volume 3 (and forgive me, but I hate that it's spelled that way and not "donuts"), Hinako can't figure out what she feels for Asahi or what she wants them to be: friends or something more? But not in the "am I attracted to this person or do I want to just be friends" sort of way that we might assume. NOOOOO, this is just dithering, completely unrealistic, drivel that has none of the classic "will-they-won't-they" tension nor anything valid to say about the LGBTQ+ experience from what I can tell so far.

    Let me break that down a bit more. Starting with why I put quotes around "yuri" in my opening paragraph. I want one of two things from yuri, either 1) actual LGBTQ+ representation/meaningful storytelling and/or 2) deeply intimate emotional connections between women (whether sexual, romantic, or not - such as friends/sisters). 

    But much yuri of the past few years seems to be populist dreck designed to appeal to those who are not ready for actual LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream manga OR who want the superficial trappings of it with none of the actual writerly craft it takes to have fully realized characters with deep and complex inner worlds who have actual feelings. 

    So much modern yuri, at least what is making it in official translations in to the US recently, is bland, unwilling to commit, and so poorly written. These series confuse characters who have "never thought about it" (romance, sex, etc...) with actual people who really do struggle with understanding who they are and how they fit into the world - you know, the way actually every human being does think about those things! Even if you are on the aro/ace spectrum, you have pondered why other people feel and think and perceived differently than you. You are not unaware. But so much modern yuri seems to focus on teens and twenty-somethings who seem like they have no concept that they or others have inner selves at all. And while there are some actual conditions in which a person cannot understand that another person has an inner-self, a "theory of mind" if you will, that is not what these character's stories and traits are about. This is shoddy, manipulative, and/or spineless writing.

    "Doughnuts" is quickly becoming emblematic of that wishy-washy version of yuri.  And I, for one, am no longer so desperate for representation, that I will accept anything with two women in it who might even vaguely be interested in one another. (Quick reminder: you are allowed to disagree with me, you are allowed to like or even love this manga, you are allowed to be moved by this writing. It is completely normal and a good thing if we disagree. Your feelings about it are just as valid as mine and I would like to know if it did affect you differently, please leave a comment!). I love a good story where nothing happens but two women stare at each other, blush at each other, yearn desperately for each other. But that's not this series either.

    In this volume, Hinako knows she wants to be around Asahi and spend time with her. When Asahi's friend Fuuka shows up, it creates some stirrings of what might be jealousy. But for being an adult twenty-something, Hinako is either: 1) completely unrealistically written as to have absolutely no sense of self, 2) maybe on the asexual spectrum (not that they'll ever do anything interesting with that like how "Bloom Into You" tackled it), and/or 3) written so that the author never has to actually commit to what romantic and sexual love between women looks like in order to keep this as middle-of-the-road, won't-offend-anyone as possible. 

    I don't know anything about the mangaka, Shio Usui, but it seems to me as if this series is written by someone who has no idea how women actually think or feel, and no idea that love between lesbians is just like any other romantic/sexual love. These characters in no way think, talk, act, feel like actual 20-somethings (or even humans for that matter - just bad writing). Hinako's lack of personal clarity isn't some sort of complex coming out story, figuring out who you truly are and what you truly want. Nope. This is just superficial angst pretending to be exploring sexuality and female relationships. This volume feels incredibly inauthentic. It's almost like a child playing with dolls. Even Fuuka, who actually seems to know she is romantically and sexually attracted to women isn't written convincingly. I'm worried that this might be another mangaka and/or editor and/or publisher who found a way to cash in on the yuri craze. 

    Now, the only other thing I can think of, to try and offer another point of view, might be that with Japanese society still largely hostile to LGBTQ+ people (forced sterilization of trans people who want certain legal recognitions, no gay marriage, etc...) maybe, just maybe, Hinako is so repressed by society that she really hasn't ever thought about her feelings for women and really is actually so not in touch with her own body and mind that she is oblivious to romance and sexuality. Maybe. But then we'd expect better writing to make that linkage clear. I don't think this series has any intention of exploring any actual feelings, issues, etc... 

    And yes, I know it's a light romantic comedy, so I'm not expecting deep dark treatises on sexuality, misogyny, homophobia, or other forms of oppression. But these characters are simply not three-dimensional people, these are not how people actually think or feel or talk. Even in a comedy. 

    So let us compare it to a completely unrelated series that is unmistakably yuri and a comedy (I know that most people would gag that I love it): "Sakura Trick" (and I'll specifically reference the anime here since I haven't read the manga). "Sakura Trick" is a comedy, a broad comedy. A comedy with male gaze and a horny camera operator. It is not deep. It does not tackle any social issues. But it doesn't shy away from actual intimacy between characters (and I'm not talking about sex or making out). As broadly played as "Sakura Trick" is, we can actually identify with these characters. We care about them. Their actions feel plausible (in the context and style of the series, and for their ages). And there is no shyness about it being girls who really really really like girls. So while "Sakura Trick" is much broader than the comedy in "Doughnuts" it shows that you don't have to always be "Maria-sama" or "Sweet Blue Flowers" or "Nana" - you can do light comedy and light romance. But you do have to commit to being honest in any genre.

    I'll probably read the fourth volume to see if it's going to go anywhere. But even if it does, it won't excuse the poor writing to this point. Volume 3 is non-committal fluff dressed up as yuri with no intention of going anywhere interesting. 

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Please legitimately purchase or borrow manga and anime. Never read scanlations or watch fansubs. Those rob the creators of the income they need to survive and reduce the chance of manga and anime being legitimately released in English.

All comments are moderated by a real person who only checks them once a day. Therefore, comments may take a while before they show up. Thanks for understanding. It's how we keep this a community of lovingkindness.

Metal Lords (movie review)

    Random movie review: "Metal Lords." I was bored, it was on Netflix, so I watched it. And, it was actually pretty decent. How to describe it? It's a light teen comedy/drama movie about metal and friendship and growing up. It definitely doesn't have the realism of something like "We Are the Best" and it doesn't have the quite the emotional depth of "Edge of Seventeen" (2016 - god I love that movie). But it's also not as funny nor as sweet as "School of Rock." But despite some uneven parts and some unnecessary gross-out moments, there were enough genuine laughs and bright spots to be worth watching for anyone who likes light teen movies and likes music. 

    The basic premise is that there are two high-school best friend outcasts, one who is domineering (but deeply hurting inside) who loves metal and plays the guitar, and the more emotionally centered kid he had previously befriended (and who is the fulcrum, so to speak, for the movie) who plays drums. They form a "band" if you could call it that. The guitarist is determined to enter the school's battle of the bands to show everyone that they are "somebodies" and become stars like a prior metal band that came out of the school.

    But can they do it as a duo? And therein lies some of the best moments of the movie. Our drummer watches as a girl in the marching band goes ape-shit crazy on a teacher and then stumbles on her later playing cello - and she's good. Couldn't she join the band? Not if the guitarist has anything to say about it. 

    So we get a burgeoning teen love (drummer and cellist) that conflicts with an old friendship (guitarist and drummer) and that conflict propels some emotional growth in all three. But oh, the conflict between the guitarist and cellist reaches a peak in one of the best scenes in the movie (I won't spoil it).

    There's also healing family wounds, coming out of your shell, and romance. Unfortunately, for all the good, there are a few uneven moments, and the film as a whole has a less-than-believable overall tone. But that's not to say it doesn't work, it's just light, fun, fare - and that's okay.

    All three leads are wonderfully cast. There are some funny cameos from actual metal musicians and there's a great twist with a psychiatrist. There are also some interesting moments with the "rival" band - showing how as douchey as their music is, they're actually decent people. It's nice to see a teen movie where there is a mix of personalities, not just the good ones and the bad ones. But a whole bunch of average people being somewhat decent.

    Interestingly, there is also the regular appearance of a side character with Down Syndrome, played by an actor who has Down Syndrome. I'm a bit torn about this character, and I would be interested in hearing from some folks with even greater knowledge of disabilities than I do as to whether it is positive representation. My hunch is that, it is. The scenes with that character and the guitarist have a gentleness and humanity that I liked, it didn't feel forced to me, it didn't feel exploitative, and I think visibility is great. But, I also might be missing things that might have bothered others about that role (or maybe not, maybe it was good representation?). At the very least they tried and that's something too.

    Other kvetches: it didn't pass the Bechdel Test. There was only one female lead. She did not interact with any other female. There was another girl thrown in just to tempt the drummer. There was no interaction between any female characters at all. 

    And on another note, there was one gay joke. It started really badly with the guitarist calling having the girl in the band "gay." But then the other two look around at posters in the guitarist's room and the sight gag of all those singers with makeup, tight pants, and crotches packed with socks poked fun at the machismo of metal mixed with the innate queerness of many metal bands - and their infatuation with dicks. It was a funny turnaround to be sure. But that's still an uneven commentary on using "gay" as a pejorative. While they did manage to turn it back on the person who said it, it didn't quite resolve in a way that makes being gay okay. All it basically said is that all metal is gay, not that it's not okay to call things "gay" to demean them. On the whole, I wish they didn't make that joke, but there's been worse. 

    So on the whole, the movie was nice, it was sweet, but it isn't one I'm likely to watch again. There really were some laugh-out-loud moments, and the cellist's explosive temper is so well done by the actress. The overall tone was a bit mixed - veering more towards light teen comedy than anything really meaningful - but uneven at times too. And yet, there was some growth in several characters. So as imperfect as it is, if you're bored, like music, and like teen comedies, it might be worth watching.

    

✩🚺

Please legitimately purchase or borrow manga and anime. Never read scanlations or watch fansubs. Those rob the creators of the income they need to survive and reduce the chance of manga and anime being legitimately released in English.

All comments are moderated by a real person who only checks them once a day. Therefore, comments may take a while before they show up. Thanks for understanding. It's how we keep this a community of lovingkindness.

Eclair Bleue, Eclair Rouge, and Eclair Orange (manga reviews)

    During the period where I took a hiatus from blogging, I also had to decrease my manga purchases, and so as a result after reading the first two volumes of the Eclair series (Elcair and Eclair Blanc) I didn't purchase the final three (Rouge, Bleue, and Orange) [published by Yen Press]. I'm finally beginning to chip away at my backlog and given the nature of these volumes, it made sense to just talk about all three at once. And frankly, there isn't much to say.

    Do you like middling, repetitious, and tropy yuri stories that are way too brief, relatively simplistic, and often have an unresolved tone to the ending? Well then you're in luck, cause that's about all you get with these three. And BTW, if it wasn't clear, I'm not a super huge fan of this series.

    Let's start with the format. Each story is very short, shorter than your average chapter of a serialized manga. It's interesting to me, because while I don't enjoy reading short stories (literary fiction short stories), I have found that I do enjoy writing them. So with that growing understanding of what I like about my own writing of short stories, it has made me even more suspect of the one-off stories in manga. And frankly, these don't have much to say. A great short-story provides amazing depth on the characters, time, and setting without ever spending any time on it. The writing hints, implies, or at least provides fertilizer for the mind to imagine all that came before and all that will follow. You'll find very little writing on that level here. Further, a great short story manages to either really give meaningful insight into a character, situation, or event or actually transform (even if minutely) the character in the space of the short story. Again, you'll find very little of that in these stories.

Missed it Monday - Love at Fourteen vol. 8 (Manga Review)

"Missed it Monday" is the regular column where I review anime/manga that I didn't get to watch/read when they first came out.

Love at Fourteen vol. 8 - 3.5/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

I think, in many ways, this series may have finally fallen off the cliff. I've had concerns that it was framing one relationship between a student and a teacher a little too positively, but after reading this volume, it seems to me that ALL the relationships are suddenly about adults and kids. And I'm just not cool with that.

In volume 8, the only storyline having to do with our "main" couple (who appear less and less in the volumes as this series has progressed) has Kazuki pretending to be the boyfriend of another girl so that she can prove she has an older boyfriend to her friends. He only does this to help out his friend Kato. And at least Kazuki tells Kanata about it. Making this story worse, the girl Kato is interested in ends up being in elementary school, like a 5th grader or something and he's ostensibly 14. So I'm WAY NOT OKAY when they start dating. Ughhhh. Just when I thought the adult/middle-schooler stories couldn't get worse, they throw in a middle-schooler/elementary-schooler romance. Jeez.

Éclair Blanche: a predictably mixed batch of yuri stories (Manga Review)

Éclair Blanche - 6/10

I'm not a huge fan of one-shot manga, so anthology collections like Éclair Blanche (Yen Press) aren't meant for me. So before reading my review, feel free to read Erika's over on Okazu since she both can talk about the important history of anthologies in women's literature in Japan as well as being a fan of anthologies in yuri manga. Since I know I'm biased against one-shots, Erika's review serves as a nice counter-point to mine.

Éclair Blanche is the second in the series of Éclair anthologies to be released in English. Like most anthologies, it is many individual stories by many mangakas. Some are cute, some are bittersweet, some are sad. But more to my main point, some are well done, and some...not so much. I enjoyed it none-the-less, but not because it was a consistently high quality collection. I enjoyed it because of the ones I liked and in spite of the ones that were either middling or outright problematic.

Missed it Monday - Tokyo Tarareba Girls Volume 2 (Manga Review)

"Missed it Monday" is the ongoing column where I review manga/anime that I didn't get to read/watch when they first came out.

Tokyo Tarareba Girls vol. 2 - 8/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

Tokyo Tarareba Girls is like "Sex in the City" if the characters were actually working on recognizing and self-reflecting on what not great people they were. This is taken up a notch in volume 2 (Kodansha Comics) where we learn more about Koyuki and Kaori than we did in volume 1, and all three women get themselves into some uncomfortable and complex romantic messes.

In volume 1 we were introduced to three thirty-something and single young women, Rinko, Kaori, and Koyuki. In volume 2, Rinko has just slept with Key, the younger male model, and she's not sure what this means. Key is also seen visiting a grave repeatedly.

We also learn about the one who "got away" (or should we say, was let go) by Kaori. Ryo was an aspiring musician whom she thought wouldn't make it big. Naturally, Key is the model in the videos for Ryo's new, fast rising, band. When they meet again, Ryo is very friendly towards Kaori despite having a girlfriend, and things lead where they lead.

Koyuki meets a man at the restaurant her family owns. As they begin to hit it off, he reveals that he is married, and she consents to an affair anyway.

Hatsu*Haru volume 11 is wholesome (Manga Review)

Hatsu*Haru vol. 11 - 7.5/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

Hatsu*Haru (Yen Press) started off strong as a series, and has settled into a nice, but conventional middle-age. As it nears its inevitable conclusion, Volume 11 focuses on getting some of the last remaining pairs of teens together in a relationship. It's absolutely kind, sweet, cute, funny, and risk-free. No complaints, I think I've accepted that this series which started with so much promise to exceed expectations is just happy to meet them instead. And that's okay too.

It's the new year, which means new classes. Kai and Riko are split up and Kai is certain that if he's not around, that Riko will forget she even has a boyfriend and just go about her business, given how un-romantic she typically is anyway.

As this is unfolding, it seems like he's forgotten her birthday. But instead, he has spent so much time working on it, only to get distracted at the last minute. When he finally shares with her all that he's been thinking and working on for her, he finally gets the deep loving acknowledgement of their relationship that he's been longing for. It's a really sweet moment.

The Conditions of Paradise was actually decent (Manga Review)

The Conditions of Paradise - 6/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

I know I sound a bit surprised in the headline, and honestly I was. The Conditions of Paradise (Seven Seas) is a stand-alone collection of yuri stories, many originally published in Comic Yuri Hime. I wasn't expecting much, I don't tend to like one-shots or brief series, and the nudity on the cover had me highly skeptical about the authenticity of the volume. I'm also not a fan of Akiko Morishima's work Yurikuma Arashi. But while far from perfect, it was better than I expected and some of it was pretty enjoyable. More than anything, it is a yuri manga about adult women! YAY!

The first three stories focus on long-time friends who finally come together romantically. One is a traveling, free-lance journalist who has loved the other one since high-school. The other has recently broken up with her boyfriend. Through a series of current events and flashbacks, we see them make progress, take the slow first steps together, and then become an intimate and close couple.

Missed it Monday - Takane & Hana volume 5 (Manga Review)

"Missed it Monday" is the regular column where I review manga/anime that I didn't get to read/watch when they first came out.

Takane & Hana vol. 5 - 5/10 (*See full scoring rubric below)

I must admit, I was starting to get bored with Takane & Hana as I was reading volume 5 (Shojo Beat/Viz). By now, we're familiar with their shtick. It's fine, but it is very broad comedy in a very light romance. I do like Takane's tsundere-meets-arrogant jack ass personality against her very strong, self-assured, but still very caring personality. However, what I wasn't expecting was a random transgender character from Takane's past who got introduced late in this volume.

So for the sake of brevity with the main review: The art is simple and broad like the comedy. I still have problems with an adult (Takane) being in an arranged marriage arrangement (because they aren't yet married) with a high-schooler (Hana). But nothing romantic is happening, and at least they are doing it with her family's knowledge so it's a bit less icky for that reason. If you like very very broad romantic comedies and the stuff above doesn't bother you, then Takane & Hana is sure to please. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I feel like every review I write of this series says the same thing. So let's talk about Rino, a transgender woman who appears in this volume.

Missed it Monday - Love at Fourteen volume 7 (Manga Review)

"Missed it Monday" is the ongoing column where I review manga/anime that I didn't get to read/watch when they first came out.

Love at Fourteen vol. 7 - 6.5/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

After the mixed bag that was volume 6 (great Kanata/Kazuki relationship stuff, problematic Nagai/Hinohara-sensei relationship stuff), Love at Fourteen volume 7 (Yen Press) takes a mostly calmer, lower-key stance. At least, until it doesn't. But that big emotional kick comes as Hinohara-sensei appears to finally be wrestling with just how wrong it is that she feels romantically attracted to a fourteen-year-old.

The first major story portion covers the school newspaper researching ghost stories around the school. It's light-hearted, but we get to see an interesting side of Kanata. She's actually pretty scared but won't let on for a while, instead acting quite intensely angry towards Kazuki. This level of intensity is new, but also makes sense for a teen and it's nice to see another facet of her personality (and how they resolve it together).

My Androgynous Boyfriend volume 1 wasn't what I was expecting (Manga Review)

My Androgynous Boyfriend Vol. 1 - 6/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

On first read, I was disappointed with My Androgynous Boyfriend vol. 1 (Seven Seas). It didn't in any way conform to my hopes or expectations given its title. But after knowing that, I read it again.

On second read, reading it for what it was (instead of what I wanted it to be), I found it to be enjoyable, cute, and sweet. It still wasn't what I hoped, but it wasn't bad either. That's the problem with expectations. It's also the problem when you are desperately searching for representation and mirrors in the world. It's hard not to place all your hopes and expectations into someone else's work and expect it to be what you need, rather than what they intended.

I wanted My Androgynous Boyfriend to really focus on a gender non-conforming individual and dig into the inner and social complexities of gender non-conformity and/or the non-binary experience. In many ways, I was hoping for a dramatic piece that would be a combination of the tone of "Our Dreams at Dusk" and the non-binary character Ciel from Sophie Labelle's comic "Assigned Male." I wanted to see that representation, to gain insight into their experience, learn from it, and find parts of my own experience mirrored in it.

Our Wonderful Days volume 2 - who's it for really? (Manga Review)

Our Wonderful Days vol. 2 - 5/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

Our Wonderful Days volume 2 (Seven Seas) really left me wondering who the target audience is. Is it for girls and women who want to explore the intimate friendships and relationships that are possible between women or is it for boys and men who like to think about cute girls getting together?

In many ways, the closest analog I can find for it is the anime Minami-ke (I haven't read the manga, so I can only speak to the show). The Minami-ke manga is a seinen manga, and the show features a trio of sisters and their female friends, with only the occasional male character. It's one of those shows about cute girls doing cute things cutely. There's no real plot to it, sort of a slice of life, but with an underlying titillating tension of knowing that you are objectifying and sexualizing the girls.

Kase-san and Yamada volume 1 is sure to please (Manga Review)

Kase-san and Yamada vol. 1 - 8.5/10 (* see below for full scoring rubric)

Do you like kind, sweet, yuri? Did you like the Kase-san series? Did you wait with baited breath for the Kase-san OVA? Then you'll be happy to know that Kase-san and Yamada volume 1 (Seven Seas) continues in just the same sweet and rewarding fashion.

I for one really liked the prior series and so I was bound to like this too. What's nice, and what I'm excited about as this series continues, is that it is set in college. It's rare enough to have a manga set in college, rarer still for it to be a quality yuri manga, and even more rare to get a series that follows characters long enough to see them grow and change from adolescents into adults. Kase-san and Yamada is poised to cover all that. Will we even get to see them as post-grad adults some day? (yes, I'm already planning their wedding and raising kids, etc...)

In the first half of the volume, Yamada makes a friend at her horticulture school. She's invited to attend a group date and decides to go in order to strengthen her new friendship. As she's telling Kase-san about it, Kase lets her know that she's going on a sports trip during the week. Yamada also hears Kase-san's new roommate in the background. Getting jealous, Yamada insists on going on the group date over Kase-san's objections.

Throwback Thursday - Tokyo Tarareba Girls volume 1 (Manga Review)

Throwback Thursday is a riff on my column Missed It Monday where I review manga/anime that I didn't read/watch when they first came out. Nothing new came out last week for me to review this week, so I'm starting a series I missed when it was released in English in 2018: Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

Tokyo Tarareba Girls vol. 1 - 7.5/10 (*see scoring rubric at the end)

I'm so excited to finally be reading Tokyo Tarareba Girls (Kodansha Comics). Akiko Higashimura is a wonderful mangaka and I've loved both Princess Jellyfish and Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey (her auto-biographical manga). I'm pleased to say that volume 1 of Tokyo Tarareba Girls gets off to a very strong start that is reminiscent of all that I've loved about her other series.

In volume 1, we meet Rinko, a young woman in her early thirties. She's a screenwriter for web series and other small productions. She's also single and very aware of that fact. We are also introduced to her two single female friends. The three spend their time drinking, complaining about being single, and supporting each other emotionally.

Missed It Monday - Love at Fourteen volume 5 (Manga Review)

Missed it Monday is the ongoing column where I review manga/anime that I didn't read/watch when they first came out.

Love at Fourteen vol. 5 - 5.5/10 (*see below for full scoring rubric)

I know you are all tired of hearing me rant about child/adult relationships in manga/anime. But sadly, there are a lot of them in many of the series I'm reading (which I didn't know at first). Rest assured I'm starting some other series soon so hopefully we'll have other stuff to talk about.

With that in mind, Love at Fourteen vol. 5 (Yen Press) gives us more great stories with our lead young couple, but also gives us one adult pursuing a child and four children crushing on adults. It's that focus on adult/child relationships that drives the score so low on this volume. Thankfully none are explicit, they are mostly crushes from a distance, otherwise the score would be lower.

Before we talk about the bad stuff, let's talk about what this volume does right.

Hatsu*Haru volume 10 is fine, fun even, so that's all this series is going to be from now on then? (Manga Review)

Hatsu*Haru vol. 10 - 7/10* (see full scoring rubric below)

When Hatsu*Haru first hit, the initial couple volumes were really strong. Kai was relatively complex as hot-stuff teen boys go. Takanashi was cute, feisty, ass-kicking, and clueless about love (ie the perfect shoujo heroine). AND they were long-time frenemies so you KNEW they would end up together after a whole bunch of complex hi-jinks and almost kisses - which was exactly what the series did!

But then, it suffered what nearly every rom-com in the history of rom-coms has suffered: what to do once they do get together? And so Hatsu*Haru volume 10 (Yen Press) continues with their relationship (and a strong focus on another pair of friends who might become a couple) in fine, but by-the-books, manner. They're still cute together, it's still fun, at least everyone in the series is exceedingly kind to each other (something I LOVE about this series). But it isn't super special as a series anymore. It's still above average, for sure, and I'll gladly keep reading it. But it's just doing its nice thing now.

Missed it Monday - Takane & Hana vol. 4 (Manga Review)

Missed it Monday is the ongoing column where I review anime or manga that I didn't watch or read when they first came out.

Takane & Hana vol. 4 -  7/10 (*see full scoring rubric at the end)

My review of Takane & Hana vol. 4 (Shojo Beat/Viz) could continue my trend of warnings about, and bashing of, recent series which concentrate on adult/student relationships (see If I Could Reach You, O Maidens, Love at Fourteen, Daytime Shooting Star, etc...). But you are no doubt bored of those reviews and my kvetching.

So yes, Takane & Hana is about a high-school girl and an adult (25-ish) man. And yes, you should see that as problematic. But, this series seems deserving finding value in what the series does well while acknowleding the problems it does present. So instead of bashing Takane & Hana volume 4, let's talk about what it does right. Since in many ways, it does so much more right than those other series I mentioned, both relative to the relationship as well as overall.

Missed it Monday - Love at Fourteen vol 4 (Manga Review)

Missed it Monday is the ongoing column where I review anime/manga that I didn't watch/read when they first came out.

Love at Fourteen vol. 4 - 5/10

It really really hurt me to rate this volume so low. In many ways, Love at Fourteen vol. 4 (Yen Press) was just as cute, sweet, and uplifting as the prior volumes. But in other ways, I've really had to rethink the series in light of a side couple's story.

Love at Fourteen follows long-time friends Kazuki and Kanata, who are seen as more mature than the rest of their third-year middle-school peers, and who begin secretly dating. They are incredibly sweet and kind to each other and model students. Theirs is a simple and cute story but that has some surprising emotional resonance. Their story in volume 4 is just as wonderful as in the prior volumes.

It's uniform changing time and Kazuki and Kanata can't get on the same page. They both want to wear the same uniforms as the other, but they keep getting it reversed. The other part of their story focuses on preparations for the school athletic festival where their time is split away from each other but the ways they find to connect anyway. Cute!