Kimi ni Todoke 6

Karuho Shiina – Viz – 2010 – 12+ volumes

Holy crap, the Chizu story made me cry. Like, three different times. It was so incredibly bittersweet. I was expecting more of a… I don’t know, a story where Ryu gets his heart broken and it’s some important life lesson for Sawako, who learns that sometimes two people don’t share the same feelings. Chizu and Ryu’s brother have a great dynamic, but I was not expecting the announcement that came. At all. Nor Ryu’s motives behind keeping his brother’s return from Chizu. There were just so many nice elements. Sawako and Yano’s complete loss as to what to do, the way Chizu wrestles with herself, the dynamic between Ryu and Chizu through the whole story, the nice walk with Ryu’s brother and the way he makes things right, and the final conversation with Ryu at the end. All of it was sensitive, touching, and just amazing in general. It nailed everything about those kinds of situations, the anger, the awkwardness, the love, the crushing, the longing, and spun it into something that made it look like a happy part of life rather than the end of the world. It took up most of the volume. I love that even the side characters get this kind of attention lavished on them, and that I like Chizu every bit as much as I like Sawako. What an amazing series.

I still like it’s positive mood. It’s still relatively upbeat, despite the themes in this volume, and I love that the most depressing thing that has happened so far is, at worst, bittersweet. The goodness in the heart of Kimi ni Todoke completely wins the day. I adore things like We Were There, and there’s a lot of emotional turmoil there, but I genuinely enjoy every page of this, it’s a guilt-free enjoyment.

The last story is about a conflict Sawako has about being invited to a Christmas party with her friends, whereas before she always spends it with her parents. I identified with this so much it broke my heart. Choosing your parents or your friends… I don’t know how much of a problem that actually is for most people, but man. That was always hard for me. I couldn’t bear to let my parents down when I still lived at home. I still can’t. Plus, the story had the extra gift-giving element. Sawako is such a sweet girl.

This is such a positive, happy series. It’s like the good twin to We Were There’s dark and somewhat depressing depiction of high school life. Now that we’re caught up on that, I’m happy I can read this to fill the void. I identify with this one a lot more, and it makes me happy to read it, so every volume pushes it a little farther up my list of favorites.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.