I”s 6

Woah!  When was the last time I read this?  2006?  All right.  It’s one of my roommate’s favorites, but I set it aside at the time because I was reading Video Girl Ai simultaneously, I liked that better, and they are essentially the same series.  I have it on the same shelf as Oh My Goddess, and recently I had to start moving I”s off for space reasons.  I figured I may as well read it if I was moving it elsewhere.  Sadly, time was not kind to this book.  The pages are very yellow, despite the fact that I’ve kept it on a shelf out of the sun for three years.

I didn’t have much trouble jumping back into the plot.  I would have been concerned if I did.  Ichitaka decides he’d like to start dating Itsuki, but after circumstances (an attack disguised as a swimsuit photo shoot, a common Katsura plot device) make his mind continuously wander back to Iori during their date, Itsuki tells him to pursue his true love.  Ichitaka is heartbroken.  Later, Ichitaka, Iori, and a group of friends hang out together at someone’s house and play a game called “Kings” which eventually leads to kissing, stripping, et cetera.

The thing about I”s is that it is somehow more tasteful than most shounen romances while engaging in the exact same activities.  I would argue that this is because Masakazu Katsura is some sort of Picasso when it comes to fanservice.  Not only are his lovingly rendered panty shots the highlight of my reading experience (they appear when you least expect it, sometimes in the middle of a fairly serious scene), but he somehow keeps me interested in a plot that, admittedly, could be found in any number of other series.  Somehow, he also incorporates fanservice into the plot in a tasteful way, rather than having it interrupt continuously, something that a lot of other shounen romance have a problem with.  The interesting plot is probably a direct result of the well-written characters.  I like Ichitaka, and I like that he has good friends and realistic relationships with any number of people his own age, not just the object of his obsession.

Katsura is a master, it’s true.  Why else would I have loved that game of Kings as much as I did?  I took real pleasure in the slow way that whole scene unraveled.  You could see it coming a mile away, but it was still awesome all the same.  I can’t explain it.