Boys Be… 10
February 1, 2008
Bah. The boy got the girl in every single story in this volume. It’s no fun when there’s no fighting and no comic misunderstanding et al. At least give me that.
I actually disliked every single story in this volume except the first story, which takes up two chapters. That one only won because I liked how the characters rode around on bikes and sort of quietly appreciated one another. It was a very sweet one, but it unfortunately set the tone for the rest of the volume, where the stories kind of failed at their get-the-girl formulas. Even the ones where the couple was already dating weren’t too good.
Maybe I just read this too close to Pastel. Shounen romance is good for its sensitive moments, but both Pastel and Boys Be sort of make me mad in the same way. Even with sensitive, fairly genuine emotions, they’re shallow because they sort of feel like they’re going through the motions. Pastel is not as bad about it, but I almost feel like that’s because it’s latching on to some sort of Oh My Goddess vibe. Why OMG escapes my scrutiny most of the time is beyond me, but it’s usually better about these sorts of things, possibly because I think the subplots are more interesting.
But perhaps I should just lay off the shounen romances if I don’t like them. I should have learned my lesson by now.
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