Captive Hearts 5
Posted: June 12, 2009 Filed under: Captive Hearts 1 Comment »Well, it ended like any good shoujo manga should, which is about the best thing I can say about Captive Hearts.
It maintained the status quo all the way through. I never really got into the story or characters, and even in this volume a lot of what was happening was silly and repetitive. In China, Megumi and Suzuka run into a village full of people cursed by the dragon god that are looking to seek vengeance. They figure out that Suzuka is protected by it, so lots of attempts to evade capture and get away from the village happen before the climax. Of course Suzuka winds up wanting to save these villagers too, who are nothing but cruel to her and wind up causing Megumi a lot of harm. Lines about breaking the curse and scenes were Suzuka tries to do something and is protected by Megumi are repeated ad nauseum. I thought it was a lot shallower than most comparable shoujo series, but it’s not so bad that it’s unreadable, and I’m sure there’s any number of people who will enjoy it for the love story. It’s just wasn’t really my thing.
I still had a lot of problems with the story’s pacing and setting. Frequently the scene would cut and I wasn’t sure where the characters were or how much time had elapsed. It’s never a huge problem, and it only bothered me at the beginning of the book, but I felt like it was worth mentioning all the same. I was also pretty furious about the total cop-out about Suzuka’s parents we got at the end of the book. I mean… come on.
I did like the scene where the dragon god found his true love at the end though. It was cute, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
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