Flower of Life 3
August 20, 2007
So this is the last one I had backlogged for review. I wanted to finish with this, because this is one of the best series I am currently reading. I was thrilled when I found out that there’s one more volume coming out.
What makes this one of the best series I’m reading right now, standing with Jojo and Holic and the like? Unfortunately, I cannot adequately describe to you the charms of this series. It is almost wholly based on conversation and everyday events between high school students, and everything about it is touching and funny and just hits all the right spots for being a really sweet series.
One of the things I admire most about it is that it has not fallen into romance territory at this point. There are two side romances going on, but none of the main characters are really falling in love with each other, and to avoid that plot trap in favor of having Christmas parties is truly a feat. One of the two romances is actually more for comedy’s sake than anything else, and I about DIED when I read the last page of this volume… not only because of the situation, but the perfect joke that was thrown in there as well (not the one about the breasts, the one about the situation). It’s also almost totally aware that it’s a manga, and manages to make snide and perfect geeky commentary on the medium via one character’s shounen ai mangaka hobby and another character’s total otaku-ness.
There’s usually a perfect moment in every volume, and this time around it was a quiet one on a train between two secondary characters where they discuss how Christmas was their favorite time of year because you’ve finally gotten to know everyone in your class, there’s no pressure for exams yet, and the time when you all split up and move on to separate classes and have to start over again getting comfortable with other people is far away. It was bittersweet and just… wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
This series is just perfect. It blows Antique Bakery out of the water, and that’s hard to do.
September 7, 2007 at 2:49 am
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