Slightly Biased Manga

I was bummed that this was the last volume.  I think it probably needed two to wrap up in a satisfactory way, but it did well with what it was given.

The one thing it did all volume that I sort of dislike about the ends of some shoujo series is talk about love in a “deep” way and what love means to each of the characters in the series.  The only series that was ever able to pull this off was Cardcaptor Sakura, and I don’t think it will ever be done successfully again.  I didn’t really know the characters well enough to totally process the lessons they were giving the main character about how he should love and what love means to him.  This took up about a third of the volume, and my eyes were glazed through most of it… though some of it, mostly the stuff from sensei, was good.

The relationships the three main girls were carrying out all ended in various great ways.  You would expect at least one to be drama-tastic, and you would be right.  The characters all crash a wedding, and although it’s not the oldest trick in the book, the tactic used to split up the couple was nonetheless effective and kind of funny.  Sensei and her on-again, off-again boyfriend continue with their relationship, but I thought it felt kind of shoehorned into the end of the series, so I could never quite get myself to believe it was going anywhere.

The main character wound up being my favorite, and not only does he pursue all his dreams, he even gets a happy ending of sorts.  The series wound up being pretty fun, if a little brief.  I always group it and Bird Kiss together since I started them both at the same time, they’re both Korean, and they’re both 5 volumes long, and of the two, I think I prefer Bird Kiss… but this one probably works better for a more grown-up audience.  I wouldn’t call it josei exactly (especially since it’s Korean), but a lot of the relationship focus winds up being on the three older women, so it winds up having a distinctly older female bend to it despite having a high school boy as the main character.  I liked it a lot.