Dengeki Daisy 2

Kyousuke Motomi – Viz – 2010 – 10+ volumes

Suddenly, I got in the mood to read another volume of this series. I loved the first, so I’m not sure why it took me so long to get back to it.

Now I do. I read all four of the released volumes one after another. I love it to pieces, and am thoroughly addicted.

The set-up is very simple, that destitute Teru, who has no family to speak of, depends on an e-mail pal named Daisy, recommended by her recently deceased brother. And of course Daisy is the janitor at her high school. And of course she falls in love with the janitor, and has to talk to Daisy about it.

Volume 2 is mostly about Teru and Kurosaki getting used to each other. Since Teru’s apartment was ransacked last volume, she has nobody to turn to except Daisy, and since Kurosaki knows this, well… you know. He’s gotta take her in. This isn’t nearly as creepy, or romantic, as it sounds. Kurosaki seems to enjoy tormenting Teru thoroughly, and tends to send her away when there’s any sort of crack in his bully mask.

It works because the two of them have such a playful friendship going. The way they torment each other is genuinely funny, and although Teru is still kind of a tragic heroine at this point, the terrible fact that she has nobody to rely on save for Kurosaki is downplayed quite a bit. She’s a very bright, cheery girl for how much trouble she causes. And because their face-to-face relationship is so funny and casual, it makes it that much better to see Kurosaki reacting to Teru’s sweet letters to Daisy, and sending his own tender replies.

And Teru does get into a lot of trouble that Kurosaki has to save her from. Her recently deceased brother was a genius software developer, and there’s a subplot in this volume about certain characters close to Teru trying to get ahold of software. Knife fights and car accidents ensue. For being a poor, cheery girl, Teru does attract all sorts of trouble. That’s the one thing I have a little trouble with in this manga. In order to make Kurosaki and Teru’s relationship work, there has to be a lot of dark plot elements that they can pull each other through. Computer hacking stuff is used quite a bit, but it begins to get unbelievable when such dangerous stuff keeps happening to Teru, and all the drama almost seems like it’s spoiling a perfectly good romantic comedy.

But it is necessary, and the fact that it takes the shape of computer hacking is very, very interesting. I do like that about it.

But mostly, it’s all about Teru and Kurosaki. I live for every single moment between those two. There’s another character introduced this volume, named Riko, who knew both Teru’s brother and Kurosaki from the past. She’s also pretty awesome. She’s both hilarious and offers very good advice for Teru.

One thing that I find interesting is that… almost without exception, I hate relationships that involve teachers or big age gaps in series like this. But it doesn’t bother me when it’s Teru and Kurosaki. Perhaps because Kurosaki is such a rough-and-tumble delinquent that seems little better than a student himself, or perhaps because his role as custodian isn’t really one of guidance, like a teacher? But mostly, it’s probably just that the chemistry between them is so good that it doesn’t really matter what their ages are. That’s just one of my quirks, though.

Sorry, this was mostly a collection of general thoughts after reading such a huge chunk of the series. I’ll comment more specifically on the plot next time. But it’s good, and truly addictive. And it only gets better with every volume. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of shoujo manga.