I”s 12
Posted: September 27, 2009 Filed under: I"s Leave a comment »Masakazu Katsura – Viz – 2007 – 15 volumes
After reading a good volume of Pastel, I thought I would dip back into one of the better series in the shounen romantic comedy genre. It didn’t disappoint.
This went from being a wussy “does she or doesn’t she” series for ten volumes to getting all hot and heavy after the confession. I couldn’t believe there was a real, no tricks shower scene at the beginning of this volume. And there was even a little bit of a bed scene later. It didn’t go as far as I thought it was going to, but it went a lot farther than I”s has any business going, and I commend it for that.
Even better, both of the scenes in the first half of the volume are handled with way more sensitivity than you’d normally expect or find in these types of series. Much like the confession was absolutely perfect after taking so long to get there, both sides of the couple had their reservations about what was going on, and both scenes were incredibly tender (or as tender as they could be). Ichitaka’s thoughts of Iori, which are conveyed in a gigtantic 2-page montage at the height of the action, are quite sincere, and I liked I”s a whole lot more after this volume.
Even better was the fact that those scenes ended with the two characters going to find their friends, another strength of this series (normally such friends are kind of jerks… the friends here meddle, but they aren’t nearly as bad as, say, Pastel). The series passes over another group party scene in favor of a talk between Teratani and Ichitaka. Now, Teratani is alternately irritating and awesome, sometimes both, but he is certainly the best friend Ichitaka could possibly have. Ichitaka seeks out his opinion once again, and he gives some really solid advice. You can feel the love. And even when he follows it up with his usual pervy comment, I couldn’t help but like Teratani.
But then… Izumi. Ugh. We gotta deal with this now. This is the story venturing back into romantic comedy territory, though things are more promising at the end of the volume. Maybe Izumi will finally go away. That doesn’t stop whatever weird thing is going on in Iori’s room, though.
