Baby & Me 13

This series has a really unfortunate (if accurate) title.  I’m not sure why the title sounds so unappealing to me, because otherwise this series has absolutely everything I like about shoujo manga and more in it.  I’m actually going to have to look into getting the rest of the volumes now.

This was actually a really good place to jump in.  While the rest of the series seems to be about Takuya and his little brother Minoru, this volume was mostly a flashback about Takuya’s parents and how they met, with a cute one-shot story at the end that was set in the present.

Harumi and Yukako’s story is actually a really good one, less because it was romantic/dramatic and more because it reads more like something that could happen in real life.  Harumi, who feels smothered by his parents and decides to move out, loses them in an accident not long after he starts college, and the cute Yukako, who he met at a lunch counter, is one of the only people that reaches out to comfort him.  Yukako moves in with Harumi since the apartment where she lives is a creepy dump and Harumi has trouble keeping his parents house up and making ends meet by himself.  The two don’t actually have a romantic relationship at first (Yukako shoots down Harumi’s shallow advances when they first meet), but living together brings them slowly closer and closer together.  Most of what transpires is from Harumi’s point of view and talks about a lot of callous things that he does while he takes Yukako for granted, but eventually he learns to see her as a woman and appreciates everything she does for him.

The good and bad things between them are small things.  Harumi doesn’t call Yukako when he comes home, stuff like that.  Rather than having Yukako overreact and confront Harumi for maximum dramatic impact/romantic makeup potential, the little things just build up over time, and once Harumi realizes himself what a jerk he’s been, the love is the same way.  Neither one really admits their feelings to one another, but apparently neither really feels like it needs to be stated.  This only becomes a problem after Yukako becomes pregnant and isn’t sure how Harumi will take it, but everything works out in the end, of course.

The pregnancy and casual attitude towards sex is something else that was pretty unique about this volume.  Sex isn’t really spoken of, but it’s implied that Harumi sleeps around at first.  Likewise, when Yukako and Harumi start sleeping together, the only evidence is a panel or two of them in bed together.  I like that it’s just handled as another part of life rather than something to freak out over.

The one-shot story at the end was really cute too.  Takuto, Minoru, Harumi, and a few older guys go fishing during the hottest part of summer.  There is some light banter among the characters, Harumi explains how fishing is more about the experience and challenge rather than actually catching the fish, the characters stop to appreciate summer, and there’s even a ghost legend/kappa story that comes up about a certain part of the lake.  I’m an absolute sucker for this type of thing.

This series strikes me as a cross between We Were There and Aria.  A lot of it is about stopping to consider the subtleties of emotions in the everyday occurrences, but it’s character-driven rather than… event/scenery driven like Aria, and it’s got kind of a tragic and serious mood like We Were There.  It’s much, much different than what I expected, and I’m definitely going back and starting at the beginning.  Hopefully the impression I got from this volume is  an accurate one.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.