Love Attack & Otomen

Another batch of manga arrived today and with it arrived my first volume of Love Attack. I'd heard good of Love Attack from someone who was into romance manga, said that it put a unique spin on the genre with the character's personalities, and indeed it made for a fun first volume. Essentially what it is is this girl who gets into lots of fights is asked to try and stop a guy who is infamous for fighting and skipping class etc from continuing to be a delinquint. She accepts, kicks him in the face, and he asks her out. Begin series of fun happinings =D

For me the manga wouldn't have worked if the characters weren't likable, so it's good that they are. They aren't school bullies, on the contrary, the female lead actually fights for the better of those being picked on, and the guy only fights those who start them against him. He's also got explanations for his absence from school, and the two really aren't what they'd appear to be from the outside, which makes it enjoyable to follow along with them because you can like them and root for them. Overall it was a good first volume, and I definitely have in interest in picking up the next one at some point.


Otomen I started reading a while ago, in some random issue of Shojo Beat, where it was advertised as a new series and they ran the first chapter. The concept caught me right off the bat, manly man Asuka is top of the Kendo club at his school and is everything a guy could want to be... but secretly, his true passion is for the most girly of activities (i.e. sewing, cooking, shojo manga etc etc.) He meets Ryo, who isn't good at all at girly things like sewing and who likes manly men. The dynamic implied there doesn't really go anywhere, pretty much right off Ryo finds out that Asuka's actually really girly but it's a very fun read, with likable characters.

Volume 3 just came out and it's a good volume. It's frustrating that the series continues to keep Asuka and Ryo strictly on friends terms but the third volume sort of makes up for lack of development relationship-wise by further developing Asuka's relationship with the other dude instead. What was his name. w/e, the secret Shojo artist. He's tagged along this whole time but there's been barely anything with him and Asuka besides him coaxing Asuka into being more confrontational about wanting to start a relationship, so it's interesting to read Asuka trying to pry into other dude's personal life, where his secret hobby is at risk of being discovered. This only goes on for one chapter but it's a nice change of pace.

The next batch of manga I have arriving will bring me up to date on the latest releases of Strawberry 100% with Volume 9 (I already have all the previous ones) and it'll also round off my collection of Monster, so those two will be popping up here soon when that package arrives. I have a lot to say about them :x