Stolen Hearts 2

Miku Sakamoto – CMX – 2010 – 5+ volumes

Cute cute CUTE STUFF. Wow, this continues to knock my socks off and be one of the most endearing light shoujo titles I’ve read in a long time. We’re talking Venus in Love levels of good, cute stuff going on. And that’s even with a mild conflict in this volume.

The mild conflict was a few chapters that brewed up trouble between Koguma and his older brother, who he looks up to and admires. The older brother was being a little bit of a creep since he was jealous of Shinobu, and Koguma was being a jerk and overreacting to seeing Shinobu doing things like talking to the brother alone. But even that had a happy ending where the grandma smacked all the brothers around and everyone learned a lesson. I didn’t like the conflict, since it seemed out of place and out of character for Koguma to mistrust Shinobu, but seeing them work it out eventually, and Koguma’s larger-than-life sincere apology, almost made it worth it.

Though I didn’t like that particular story development, I loved the introduction of Koguma’s family. He has three older brothers as big as he is, and a mother that’s just as outgoing as the grandma. And a father that’s just as nice as he is, but the father is hardly mentioned. All of them meddle in a way that only a boisterous family of giants can, and Shinobu finds it cute while Koguma finds it exasperating. I was very charmed by all the new characters, and especially loved how all the girls started swooning over them and the grandmother bullied them into the shop.

There’s also just lots of Shinobu and Koguma enjoying being with one another. The minor drama aside, seeing them work together, exchange Christmas presents, acting perfectly natural in domestic settings, and just watching them walk down the street, all of it is a pleasure, both for the characters and for me as a reader. It’s simple fluff, but I’d be hard pressed to find better fluff than this. Koguma and Shinobu are both great characters. Koguma’s gentle, considerate, and absolutely dotes on Shinobu, and Shinobu’s just a nice girl that seems to get along with everyone without any shyness or awkwardness whatsoever. And she doesn’t have eyes for anyone but Koguma. It’s sweet.

My favorite part, however, was the last story, about Shinobu and Koguma taking a train ride by themselves on an old-fashioned train, enjoying each other’s company, the scenery, and angsting at an old-fashioned inn. Quiet stories like that, where the characters are free to be themselves and enjoy the pleasure of their own company, are my absolute favorites in shoujo romance. It’s especially a pleasure in a series like this where the characters are so likable and relatively free of angst and drama, and thus open to reflect on other matters.

I died a little when I saw the quiz in the back that asked which brother suited you. It was cute frosting on my cute cake.