Hal

What if the one dearest to you suddenly passed away in a tragic accident? And what if you didn’t have a chance to say the most important things you would have wanted to say to that person? 

How would you ever be able to move on and forgive yourself? 

Hey guys! Welcome back! I’ll be doing a film review today, on a film that quite grabbed my attention a while back. People online have been saying that this film was really sad and good so I had it bookmarked on my anime list but didn’t watch it immediately because I wasn’t ecstatic to be in the sad emotional mood haha. And yes, the story is pretty sad and heartbreaking.

So anyway, the film is rather short (for a film), timed at around an hour or so and is entitled Hal. Its characters were designed by Sakisaka Io, the mangaka of Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge and their voice actors are fantastic, contributing to a world that you can be absorbed into to fully appreciate.

So let’s go into the film:

---

The story starts off with the explosion of a plane in the sky that has just taken off. Locals on the ground look up in horror as the tragedy takes it course and an old man collapses to the ground after receiving and reading a notification on his phone.

We’re told that Hal has died and that because of that, Kurumi is unable to eat, sleep or cry. In despair, the old man, most probably the grandfather of either Kurumi or Hal tells his robot, Q01 to “save that child”.

And so Q01 becomes Hal and goes on his way to Kurumi and the original Hal’s house. As a robot, Hal doesn’t know what it means to “feel” and makes his way to the house, observing his surroundings and the people around him. His mission now is to help Kurumi feel what it’s like to live again and is given a parting gift from his care centre doctor: a Rubik’s cube that once belonged to Hal.

When Q01 Hal reaches the home of Kurumi and Hal, he tries to talk to her and introduces himself to her. However, Kurumi is closed off to the world and without saying much, clearly indicates to him that she wants to be left alone. Q01 Hal gets the point and leaves but sticks around to clean and tidy up the house a little. While cleaning, he comes upon the Rubik’s cube again and decides to solve it to decipher the messages written on each side. He then cooks a meal for Kurumi, leaves it outside her room and tells her that he would return the next day.

Upon returning the following day, Q01 Hal greets Kurumi and discovers that the food he’d left outside her room was left untouched. Kindly, he asks her if there’s anything she desires and goes out into the streets to do some shopping. On the way, he interacts with other people and gets the help of little kids to help him solve another side of the Rubik’s cube. The message on the side of the Rubik’s cube that the kids solve state: “I want a pet giraffe” and so Q01 Hal goes in search of a giraffe that he can bring back (haha so cute!)

He tries to take back a decorative giraffe that belongs to an old man but fails after getting scolded by him and relates the story to his doctor and some old ladies. The doctor states that the giraffe was listed as $0 not because it was of no value but because it was priceless. Q01 Hal interacts with the old ladies in the centre and gets the help from one of them to call up the owner of the decorative giraffe to let it go. The owner accepts and Q01 Hal and the doctor go over to carry it to Kurumi’s house.

When Kurumi sees that Q01 Hal had brought back a pet giraffe, she leaves a note by the door with the words “Thank you robot Hal”, making him surprised and glad. The doctor also encourages him, telling him that he did good. From then on, Q01 Hal continues to solve the rest of the Rubik’s cube sides and go about his daily routine of looking after Kurumi.

One day, while doing grocery shopping, he bumps into one of Hal’s friends Ryu, who greets him as though he was never gone (or rather, never died…) but he doesn’t stick around for long before he is chased by two men in white suits and is forced to run to escape from them.

When Q01 Hal returns to Kurumi’s house, he asks her if Hal ever abused her, seeing as the Rubik’s cube newly solved side reveals Kurumi’s wish for Hal to stop using violence. She reveals that she and Hal had a fight before and then shows him flashback memories of the fight projected on a screen. When the memories end, Kurumi states, “If only human emotions could be displayed like data” and Q01 Hal apologises to her for hurting her feelings and failing to understand her more. But Kurumi admits that she was at fault too for failing to fully understand Hal’s grievances.

Q01 Hal manages to solve another side of the Rubik’s cube with help from the centre’s old ladies and this time, Kurumi’s wish is to go to a festival in a yukata. In order to obtain yukatas, Q01 Hal goes to visit Kurumi’s grandfather according to instructions given to him by his doctor. Here, we see that the old man from the beginning of the story was in fact, Kurumi’s grandfather and he gives two sets of yukata to Q01 Hal, one for Kurumi and the other for himself, one that Kurumi had made for Hal.

Q01 Hal invites Kurumi to go to the festival with him and after apologising to him for not being able to understand him, she agrees to his invitation. On the day of the festival, Kurumi spots a few Rubik’s cubes on the table and decides to write a message on one of its unused sides.

Kurumi and Q01 Hal then go on their festival date doing festival things and end up playing at the river. It is then Ryu appears with two others and tells Q01 Hal that they made a huge loss of late and proposes that they cash Kurumi in to regain what they had lost. Angered, Kurumi pushes Ryu into the river and yells for Q01 Hal to run.

A chase ensues and rain begins to fall from the sky as the day shifts into night. While running on some wooden planks of a house, Kurumi falls through them and into the river below. Q01 Hal tries to save her but is pounced on by Ryu, who had caught up. Ryu punches Q01 Hal, yelling at him to wake up and to try and remember. Q01 Hal begins to recall his memories and we’re taken back to the fight Hal and Kurumi had before the flight took off.

In the flashback, Kurumi stands up and angrily takes her luggage in hand and heads for the departure gate of the fated plane and we realise in horror that the one who died, was in fact Kurumi.

---

MY THOUGHTS 

*spoilers included, read at your own discretion*

Even though I knew that Hal was going to be a sad, tragic story with a plot twist (since everyone said so), I totally failed to notice all the tiny hints that were being dropped throughout the show and was completely stunned when the plot twist was revealed. Right after the plot twist was revealed, I was wondering to myself why didn’t I see it coming?? and then realised how very clever and vague the story had been all along, right from the start.

It isn’t the end for Hal after he realises that Kurumi was already dead and he struggles to come to terms with reality for a while after that. He has a little talk with Kurumi’s grandfather, who tells him that the dead will always be with them and that he often talks to them. In the end, we see Hal eating a meal by himself at home and after taking a bite, he says to Kurumi that the food is delicious.

BUT DON’T GO AWAY AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL because right after that, there’s a little scene that shows us Kurumi’s Rubik’s cube pile. And the shot zooms in for us to see the message that Q01 Kurumi had written on the day of the festival, making us all teary-eyed.

Honestly, that last bit was a killer, it was so touching.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching Hal even though I didn’t know where the story was going half the time and just went along with it. But because I did, I got to feel the full impact of feels the people behind Hal intended their audience to feel. Yes, it’s a tragic story but I think that it addresses a very real situation in which a loved one dies and the ones left behind are left emotionally shattered. And finding the will to live again is something that deserves a whole lot of praise to me. Well done production team 🙂

As for the robot therapy used in the story whereby a robot takes the place of the dead loved one, I would like to know your thoughts on it. Would you use robot therapy yourself? What do you think are the pros and cons of such a method? Is it of more good than bad on the already traumatised loved one or the other way around? Let me know what you think on this!

Character likeability / Character background: 8/10 (Despite feeling completely lost as to who the characters are, details on them are carefully and wonderfully laid out and unfolded as the story goes by like a jigsaw puzzle)

Overall story: 8/10 (It was cleverly thought out, had great animation – nice work choosing Sakisaka Io! – and a brilliant soundtrack that greatly contributed to the mood of the story)

Re-watchability: 8/10 (Although it’s sad and a little slow-paced, it’s touching and I wouldn’t mind re-watching Hal again to better understand the story now that I can watch it from a different perspective)

Final Thoughts: Ao Haru Ride

Hey guys!

Welcome back to a Final Thoughts post, seeing as yet another great shoujo manga has just ended and that manga is none other than Sakisaka Io’s Ao Haru Ride.

I’ve followed Ao Haru Ride since it was released so the announcement that it was coming to an end made me a little emotional – just like all other manga that I have followed since their very beginning. After following the characters through all sorts of obstacles, seeing them getting hurt and getting back up again, you tend to form some kind of attachment to them. Saying goodbye a great series always isn’t easy.

So a brief summary and recap on what Ao Haru Ride is about:

Ao Haru Ride centres on the life of Yoshioka Futaba, a high school girl who has only fallen in love only once – with a boy from her middle school from a neighbouring class called Tanaka Kou. Kou attracted her because he was different from the other boys – gentle and not rowdy. The two arranged to go on a date and agreed to meet at Sankaku Park at 8pm one day. Futaba waited for Kou to arrive but he never came and she went home upset that she was stood up.

Now in high school, Futaba decides to be as un-girly as possible in order to be able to make female friends and deter boys from liking her. She also meets a boy who looks a lot like the boy she used to love but this boy is cold and aloof, nothing like the Tanaka Kou that she knew. In addition, the boy says his name is Mabuchi.

From there on, Futaba works to find out what happened to him all those years he was gone and slowly grows to fall in love with the present Kou. Her persistence at never giving up on him changes Kou bit by bit and he slowly begins to smile more as his heart heals. He realises his feelings for her too late though as by this time, Futaba has gotten a boyfriend and Kou works to move her heart and get her back. His sincerity moves her and Futaba eventually returns to Kou’s side, finally starting their love from many years ago.

---

I’m rather satisfied with the way everything ended, the way the story was wrapped up – there just was this sense of conclusion and ending that yup, it’s time this story came to an end. Kou and Futaba got their happy ending and the end also illustrates it. It parallels them coming back to a shrine during a downpour but this time as a couple and saying the same words that they had said back then when they were middle schoolers, indicating that our protagonists have now come a full circle. And I’m happy for them ^^

Another thing that I’m glad about is that the mangaka made Kou change his surname back to “Tanaka”, something that I was already guessing after reading the first few pages of the last chapter. This is because it kind of shows that Kou has forgiven himself, as well as his father and brother and is ready to allow himself to be happy again. That was a nice touch to end off Kou’s personal journey of discovering himself, which was an issue running almost throughout the entire manga.

Futaba has also grown throughout the series – she is no longer the naive little girl she was back then and from her time dating Touma to discovering who it was she really loved, Futaba really had to make some hard decisions and it was heartwarming to see her mature into a fine person.

As for the Shuuko and Kominato, I’m really happy that that couple worked out because halfway through the series, it was kind of obvious that Shuuko’s feelings for Tanaka sensei were drifting and Kominato had worked really hard to obtain her affections throughout the whole series. It’d be a shame if Shuuko still hadn’t felt anything for him even at the end of the series hahaha.

Finally, I’d like to talk about Touma just a little. I know a bunch of people think that Touma’s way better and that Futaba should’ve just stayed with him and that right from the start he was bound to have his heart broken because the female protagonist always ends up with the male protagonist. I don’t think that’s always the case for the last point – look how Hirunaka no Ryuusei ended and it was really sweet too, though yes, I’d have liked it if it was Shishio who Suzume chose in the end too.

I think dating Touma was necessary for Futaba. It was a period of time whereby she experience a time away from Kou and could discover for herself if Kou was really who she thought she loved. Being with Touma also helped her to learn new things and mature because being with him was easy, like breathing. He was always sweet, considerate and gentle and she knew it. But once she realised that Kou was the one she wanted to be with, she had to break up with him because it wouldn’t be fair to keep taking advantage of his kindness. And that was basically all Touma was – a rebound guy to help Futaba decide what her feelings were until then. That’s his role in the story and that’s why he’s essential. I did like Touma’s character though, a guy like that is faultless but is inevitably bound to get his heart broken for wanting to date a girl who was already in love with another. It was cute how the mangaka wrapped up the story for him in the last chapter with the prospect of Kominato’s sister taking a liking to him haha 🙂

That’s about it for my final thoughts on Ao Haru Ride as we close yet another chapter on a great series. I’m satisfied at the series’ ending and glad that I have followed the series and all its characters on this amazing journey of waiting and angsting and indecisiveness but that’s what growing up is all about right?

Let me know what are your thoughts on the ending of Ao Haru Ride in the comments below and until then, I’ll see you all again next time!

Guide to Shoujo manga: Authors version

Hey guys!

As I said before, I thought I’d do a post on a Guide to Shoujo mangas, authors version because I had a sudden thought that searching for mangas based on the author would be interesting instead of the usual of searching based on story itself. I did think of making this a page by itself but then I finally decided not to so here it is in ‘post’ form haha.

You know how after you’ve finished reading a good manga, you feel so good about it that you just automatically start searching for other mangas by the same author? Yep I’m no exception here. I’m going to give a brief description on the mangakas and their style of stories as well as some of my comments and opinions on their artwork and list down their most frequently used genre.

*Note that almost all of the authors listed below use the shoujo genre.

Let’s start with the more well-known ones.

Suzuki Julietta

Suzuki Julietta is famous for Kamisama Hajimemashita and the lesser known Akuma to Dolce. Her preferred story genres seem to be school life and supernatural, as well as comedy, which she is really good at especially for the former mentioned. So far, I’ve only read these two mangas of hers and I’m already pretty much satisfied with Kamisama Hajimemashita because of the wonderfully crafted out story line. I was amazed when everything fell into place at the revelation like pieces of a puzzle. For artwork, Suzuki Julietta’s is a bit rough and sketchy (I don’t know how else to call it) but for her mangas, I think that’s not the main focus as she manages to draw you away from that to turn your attention to the comedy and the story instead. When her characters have touching moments though, they look especially attractive and beautiful.

Hino Matsuri 

Hino Matsuri is famous for Vampire Knight and Merupuri. Some of you may also even know WANTED, which was also written and illustrated by her. Her preferred genres seem to be supernatural, school life and romance. I would say that her stories have interesting story lines. Vampire Knight was a dark story with a complicated plot and character secrets but I guess she unfolded all those pretty well in the end. Merupuri wasn’t so dark but it leaned more on the borderline of seriousness and comedy back and forth. As for WANTED, it was mostly comedy I’d say, as it is a short one-shot manga. Also, the thing about Hino Matsuri’s mangas is the attractive artwork of her characters; they mostly have long curly hair with deep-set eyes and serious looking faces but when they smile, they become so attractive.

Kamio Youko

Kamio Youko is famous for Hana Yori Dango and Cat Street, both of which are really good. Her preferred genres seem to be romance and school life. The comedy in her stories are pretty good too, more obvious and profound in Hana Yori Dango, which I remember made me laugh quite a lot during the time I was reading it. Both Hana Yori Dango and Cat Street are about society and real-life problems that people face (it’s brilliant that Kamio Youko addresses these problems in her stories) and I like how she manages to create admirable characters that people can relate to and also look up to. Both Makino Tsukushi and Aoyama Keito are similar to many girls in the sense that they’ve been bullied, left out and lost trust in the people around them. Creating such normal, human characters that young girls everywhere can relate to is this author’s winning point and she probably knows it too.

Touyama Ema

Touyama Ema is famous for Watashi ni xx Shinasai!, a story about a high school girl who is also a cellphone novelist and her relationship with the most popular boy in her class as she learns more about love. I really like Watashi ni xx Shinasai! because of the art and the relationship between Yukina and Shigure, the two main leads. To be honest, I even had a thing for Shigure at some point hahaha. The characters are what drive the story but the main story line has somewhat slowed down, with not much kick to it or anything to look forward to, except the development of Yukina and Shigure’s relationship. A lesser known manga of Touyama Ema’s is Koko Ni Iru Yo!, which was a little more relatable I think. The common genres used are drama, romance and school life. One thing that struck me about Watashi ni xx Shinasai! was that Yukina wears glasses, which is something rare about a female lead. How many shoujo female protagonists actually wear glasses? Not many. And I like that about her character. Touyama Ema likes to draw her girls with similar (same) hairstyles and somewhat round faces (Hikage and Yukina). Her guys are drawn similarly too (Hinata and Shigure) and it seems that the dark-haired guys are her preferred guys of getting the girls.

Motomi Kyousuke

Motomi Kyousuke is famous for Dengeki Daisy, a story that I really, really love because of its leads Teru and Kurosaki Tasuku. Dengeki Daisy is pretty dark-ish though and much of it supplies us with a lot of information on computer tech and most of everything is shrouded in mystery in the beginning. But as the story unfolds, everything slowly starts to somehow fall in place and the characters become so endearing and sweet that you just wish that Kurosaki Tasuku was real. Some other works that I’ve read by Motomi Kyousuke are Beast Master and Purikyu, which are both good too in their own way. The common genres are comedy, romance and school life and the mangaka does a great take on the comedy – it is just hilarious. I like the way she develops the relationships between her main leads as they come through from understanding one another to later on realising that they need each other. Motomi Kyousuke’s art is beautiful and her stories are brilliant, she’s easily in my top ten favourite mangakas’ list.

Sakisaka Io

Sakisaka Io was my favourite mangaka at one point because of Strobe Edge. I then went on to read her popular Ao Haru Ride, which is going to be adapted into a live-action movie. The common genres of Sakisaka Io’s stories are romance and school life. A significant trait of Sakisaka Io’s stories is that the romance development in her stories are all gradual and her characters are all somewhat more realistic than others in the sense that they are all shy to confess their feelings. This characterisation, though more realistic, makes the story slower and draggy, which can get pretty annoying and generate impatience on the reader’s part. Her One Shot, Sono Omokage o Shitteru wasn’t too bad and since it’s a One Shot, the romance part was speeded up to fit in and be finished within a chapter. As for the art, the girls are typically drawn petite, with huge round eyes and the guys are drawn with long, messy hair. The guy leads tend to have the same personalities, with the cool aura and generally not very good at being true to themselves and expressing their feelings.

Minami Kanan

Minami Kanan’s famous works are Honey X Honey Drops (which I read first) and Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu. Her lesser known works are Ren-Ai Shijou Shuji and Rhapsody in Heaven, which aren’t that far in difference from the first two I mentioned. Minami Kanan is well-known for doing romance, school life and smut stories and most of them involve her female protagonists getting raped and the male protagonists as bold perverts. The relationships somehow work out in the end, of course. I do have a teensy bit of complaint about her characterisation of her female leads though – they always seem to be promising about standing up for themselves but then when a situation calls for it, they turn into helpless little girls who only know how to call for their love interests for help and hope that they magically appear right there and then to save them in shining armour (which they do, tsk). The art of her characters are such that the girls all have long hair with oval shaped faces and the guys are all broad-shouldered with generally long hair for guys.

Watanabe Ayu

When I first came across Watanabe Ayu’s L-DK and decided that I wanted to read it, it was because of the beautiful art that drew me to it. L-DK is a popular manga that has booted itself its own live-action drama starring Gouriki Ayame and Yamazaki Kento as Aoi and Shuusei, respectively. I liked the story line of L-DK, though at some point, I started to think that it was getting a bit slow and draggy. The characters are likeable enough but I kind of think that Shuusei is a little hard to understand and that Aoi is starting to become a noble idiot too in the recent chapters. The two’s relationship overall, is cute though. Watanabe Ayu’s common genres are drama, romance and school life. Another manga of hers that I’ve read is Kimi ga Suki, which was a little painful to read with a high level of noble idiocy in that story but was still passable by redeeming itself in the final chapters. The draw factor to this mangaka’s stories for me is her art, without a doubt. Anyone who sees Kugayama Shuusei would agree. I’m pretty interested to read Otome Gokoro and Dear Friends by her next, to see if they can up my love meter on Watanabe Ayu.

Hazuki Kanae

Hazuki Kanae is famous for her manga Suki-tte Ii na yo and its anime adaptation of it. I’ve also read her other works, Love Capsule, Love Stalking and Horikou Hanemono Ranger and they’re all good too. These three however, have smut in them, unlike Suki-tte Ii na yo. The common genres though, are romance and school life. Just a heads-up, the smut in the three I mentioned above are a little different from the usual ones. You’ll see what I mean if you read them. Generally, the story lines in Hazuki Kanae’s stories are about daily lives and people’s inner problems and their relationship with the people around them. The stories don’t have much drama in them because the characters are really mostly normal people. I really like Yamato and Mei as a couple in Suki-tte Ii na yo because they’re a pretty unusual pair, considering how they first met and eventually became a couple. The art is good and it kind of seems like Hazuki Kanae likes drawing guys with long hair, so long that she can draw them with ponytails. And it also seems like she likes having at least one ‘bad boy’ in her stories.

Kurumatani Haruko

Kurumatani Haruko has a long list of manga in her book. The good ones that I’ve read so far include Kiken Junai D.N.A., Bishounen no Oheya, Akutou Danshi Collection, Bokura no Koi wa Shi ni Itaru Yamai no You de, Shounen wa Amaku Aisu, Kindan Wedding and Zenbu Chodai. The commonly used genres are comedy, romance and school life. I love authors who can come up with good comedic scenes that actually make me smile to myself or even laugh because hard as it is, comedy is not a genre that is easily executed out due to different people’s sense of humour. Some manga comedy can be really weak, poor and even lame such that I feel a little irritated after reading them. Kurumatani Haruko’s manga comedy is pretty good, usually coupled with embarrassing, awkward moments that result in huge uproars from the affected characters. Her stories are mostly light and cute but Bokura no Koi wa Shi ni Itaru Yamai no You de is an exception. I was really intrigued when I read it and I felt so sad for the female lead throughout the first few chapters. I feel that the art in most of her stories are drawn the cute way, with the girls having roundish-heart shaped faces and big eyes, as well as the guys. But in Bokura no Koi wa Shi ni Itaru Yamai no You de, I felt that the art was a little different, a little more mature. The characters had that feel and since I guess this one didn’t have comedy in it, there was no need to make them look so cartoonish and cute-looking like how she’d drawn her usual characters. I highly recommend reading manga by this author because her stories are light, cute, funny and you’ll just love them.

Mitsuki Miko

Let me say this first: Mitsuki Miko draws one of the most beautiful art I have ever seen for manga. The first manga of hers that I ever read was Aoi Kiseki and its story line and art blew me away in an instant. One particular drawing of Wakatsuki Ran in this story was so beautiful that it melted my heart when I saw it. Okay back to other works by Mitsuki Miko. Other good ones by her that I’ve read include Koi, Hirari, Love Knife, Koiiro Senritsu Double Ouji, Rensou no Aria and Mitsu Aji Blood. The common genres among most of her manga are drama and romance. The general story lines that Mitsuki Miko goes for are light-hearted cute stories with some drama. The romance can get you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside and feel touched by the characters’ determination and tenacity. The drama isn’t extreme so Mitsuki Miko’s stories are the ones I go for to feel happy and fuzzy inside because of the gorgeous art. Of course, a little heartbreak and drama wouldn’t hurt. But yes, like Mitsuki Kako, the stories they go for are similar and the art are both equally lovely so I really recommend going for her manga.

Amano Shinobu

Amano Shinobu is famous for her manga LAST GAME, which I enjoy very much because the two main leads in that story are so cute together. I find the moments they have together rather cute and adorable too because even though their conversations clearly show each other more care and concern, the female lead is unaware of any further meaning to them. Some other works that I’ve read by her include Katakoi Triangle and Natsu no Kakera. The genres that her works have in common are romance and school life with comedy coming close behind. The story lines used according to what I’ve read so far are rather simple. The ‘flavouring’ to them are the characters’ interactions with one another with sweet gestures and funny, comedic moments. Amano Shinobu’s art kind of gives me the impression that her characters are all short (for some reason) and they all look kind of kiddish, if I might say. The teenage characters such as Yanagi and Kujou (who are supposed to be in college) actually look like taller/longer versions of themselves as kids. Not that I dislike it but the art just makes them seem that way to me. Natsu no Kakera was surprisingly enjoyable to read, it reminded me of Koizora by Mika.

Mitsuki Kako

Mitsuki Kako specialises in romance and school life stories and although I don’t think she’s very well known, her works are fabulous. Her art is GORGEOUS and some of her stories are really, really good. The art looks somewhat similar to Mitsuki Miko’s so I kind of wonder if these two are sisters or something. The ones I personally like are Kiss/Hug, Sora Log and Fly High!. Even though Fly High! was a One Shot and I don’t usually like One Shots, I didn’t expect to like it so much – after reading it, I was so intrigued by the use of volleyball in the story that I actually went to read up on the sport. Her stories are easy to read, without a high level of angst such that you wish you hit/murder somebody, which I like, on days when I just feel like reading a sweet romance story. A little more detail on Mitsuki Kako’s art: the guys’ faces are drawn kind of angular with sepet slit-like eyes like a cat’s and girls have heart-shaped faces with round eyes that aren’t too big, which actually makes them look cute.

Aikawa Saki

Aikawa Saki has a few good stories that I enjoyed pretty much and the thing that drew me to my first manga that was by her was the art. Though not very beautiful, it was attractive enough to catch my attention. Boku kara Kimi ga Kienai, Iinchou no Himegoto, Ore-sama Ouji, Koyoi, Renai Joujou, Kimi to Kiss no Chigiri o and 16 Life are a few of the good stories I’ve read by her and they all contain romance with school life coming in next as the second most commonly used genre. Aikawa Saki’s stories mostly revolve around romance and the relationship developments are all pretty fast, making her kind of stories lean more towards the ‘unrealistic’ side. The character art looks more child-like so the characters actually don’t look very mature. Don’t let that deter you from reading her stories though, some of them have pretty good drama story lines in them. Overall, Aikawa Saki’s stories move at a relatively fast pace, so if you’re the impatient sort then I suggest that you go for this mangaka’s manga.

Yoshioka Ririko

Yoshioka Ririko is the author/artist of Kare wa Tomodachi, a manga that twisted my heart and gave me a whole lot of heartbreak because of the unfortunate timeliness of things that happen in that story. I found it really good though, one of the better drama manga stories I’ve ever read and from there, I began to read up on the mangaka’s other works. A few that I’ve read include 99% Cacao and Tsuki to Taiyou no Piece. The commonly used genres are romance and school life with drama coming in after those. Currently, my only favourite from Yoshioka Ririko is Kare wa Tomodachi, as it is a developed and completed story but I’ll be eyeing Shiro no Eden next, another manga by her. I find the stories simple and sweet because the love portrayed in the stories between the main leads are the simple, innocent kind (with the exception of side characters). And with this kind of innocent, pure love, what’s there not to like? The art is kind of sketchy but attractive enough for me. The girls tend to have big eyes and similar personalities – shy, sweet and likeable. The guys aren’t very handsome when compared to other mangakas’ art but I guess their personalities score better.

So that’s my Guide to Shoujo manga: Authors version! I’m sorry it took so long to deliver this to you guys but let me know what you think about this guide and please don’t hesitate to give me your feedback on this. I hope you liked the guide and found it helpful and I’ll see you guys again probably next week ^^

Preview: Strobe Edge

Hi guys~!

I’m going to give you guys a preview of a manga I’m currently reading, Strobe Edge by Sakisaka Io, who is the author of Ao Haru Ride. I discovered Strobe Edge after searching for other mangas done by Sakisaka Io when I was done with Ao Haru Ride because I love the art by her. I also liked the story of Ao Haru Ride so I thought that she would have other stories with similar themes (school life, drama, slice of life, shoujo) and I was right. I’m so glad to have discovered Strobe Edge but it took me a while before I finally started reading it because I currently have A LOT of mangas in my memory card and they’re taking up so much space so I was trying to multi-task and read a few mangas at once choosing which one to read depending on my mood (Vampire Knight, re-reading Sukitte Ii na yo and even contemplating if I should start reading Faster Than A Kiss)

I don’t usually like starting on new mangas unless they’re highly recommended to me personally so this one took some guts to start on it. But once I started reading Strobe Edge, I was hooked!

This story is about a girl, Kinoshita Ninako who wonders what love is like. What is love? What does it feel like to be in love? What does it feel like to have the person you like say they love you?

One day, while going home from school on the train, she sees the school idol, Ichinose Ren sleeping a seat away from hers. As she takes out her handphone to type a frantic emergency message to her friends that the school idol is in the same train carriage as her, Ren gets up to get off at the current station and accidentally knocks Ninako’s handphone out of her hands. Furthermore, he accidentally steps on her phone strap trinket, breaking it.

Realising what had happened, Ren apologises and offers to compensate Ninako for breaking her phone strap trinket. When Ninako tries to assure him that it’s fine and that the trinket came from a juice bonus a long time ago, Ren just seems more troubled due to the fact that she won’t be able to get another one of the same kind. Eventually realising that he has to get off the train, he asks Ninako what year and class she’s in before leaving.

Back at school the next day, Ninako’s friend Daiki realises that the  phone strap he gave her is missing and asks her what happened to it. Ninako explains that it got stepped on and broke and Daiki shrugs it off, saying that it was ‘just a souvenir’.

While coming out of the ladies’ toilet, Ren sees Ninako and gives her a phone strap to replace the one he broke, saying he couldn’t find the same one he broke but to please accept this one instead. The phone strap has a really pretty butterfly on it and Ninako describes it as ‘really girly’.

We later see that even though it’s not her usual style as she doesn’t usually like gaudy things, she likes it very much, saying it to Daiki who notes the new phone strap. In the background, Ren overhears their conversation and worries that the trinket wasn’t to Ninako’s taste and liking.

On the way home, Ninako sees Ren sleeping on the train again. She goes and sits next to him, feeling more nervous by the second due to their close proximity. When Ren wakes up, he tells Ninako that she needn’t force herself to use it because when he was buying a phone strap, he just decided to choose that one but didn’t know why. Ninako exclaims that the phone strap isn’t ‘that thing’ as he refers it to and that ‘if someone does something just for me, even if it’s just small and insignificant, I’ll be happy, that’s why I won’t take it off!’

After that outburst, for the first time, Ninako sees Ren’s smile.

So yup that’s the short preview I have of Strobe Edge for you guys today! I’ll continue the review of this manga another time as soon as my school work load is lifted ^^