Baby & Me 5

Marimo Ragawa – Viz – 2007 – 18 volumes

This volume tells the story of Seiichi, the kid from across the street who comes back a changed man, but who nobody can see as anything more than the neighborhood bully.  Takuya has no problems with him since he can’t remember being bullied, but Seiichi gets sick of everyone, including his parents, holding his old lifestyle against him.  He’s also brought low by the news of the death of Takuya’s mother.  Takuya’s father initially tells the boys to stay clear of him, but Seiichi’s persistence and general lack of threat means that eventually dad relents and Seiichi stays with the family while he works on being reconciled with his parents.  Of course, there’s more to Seiichi’s story than is initially let on, and we not only end with a sentimental story, we get a new friendly regular to the story.

Seiichi’s story is a bit longer than the usual one-shot chapters, and has a little less of the sentimental polish that the other stories have since it focuses on Seiichi, an adult, rather than the emotional discoveries of the two boys.  The story is still quite good though, and if the formula wasn’t broken every now and again, the stories about Takuya would lose their novelty.

There are one or two one-shot chapters that follow the long story that are just adorable (babies hugging each other, Takuya and Takuya’s father melting at how cute Minoru is), and those more than make up for the lack.

The volume ends with another multi-chapter storyline, this one focusing on Takuya’s mother and her family.  She wasn’t on good terms with them, so Takuya had been unaware that he had relatives.  In the older relative’s desperation to find an heir for her dance school, she tries to emotionally separate Takuya and his father by telling Takuya devastating and untrue news after she “kidnaps” him after school one day.

This story was a lot darker than the usual Baby & Me story, and not only did it have bad feelings from both Takuya and his father, the news that the older relative delivered to Takuya really was sad, and she was very mean-spirited about it.  This story also does a good job of contrasting Takuya and Minoru.  Minoru’s weaknesses are pointed out frequently, and he’s an easy target since he’s just a baby, but Takuya does a good job of pointing out all his good qualities, and how Minoru would act much better than Takuya in a situation like this.

This volume is more of a character study than it is the usual short stories, but I still really liked it.  There’s an awful lot to like about this series, and I think going back and slowly picking up the older volumes is going to be a true joy.