Manga Review: Otomen, Volume 12, by Aya Kanno

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 15+

Goodreads Synopsis:

Asuka Masamune is a guy who loves girly things--sewing, knitting, making cute stuffed animals and reading shojo comics. But in a world where boys are expected to act manly, Asuka must hide his beloved hobbies and play the part of a masculine jock instead. Can Asuka ever show his true self to anyone, much less to Ryo Miyakozuka, the girl that he's falling for?
Secretly taking a baking class for men, Asuka is relieved that there’s a safe haven where he doesn’t need to hide his girly side from his anti-otomen mother. But when she finds out that he’s been attending this class, things get set to explode!

Review:

I generally enjoy this series, but it isn’t my favorite. And, I guess I wasn’t too excited with it (or I was lazy/procrastinative) because I’ve put reviewing it off for several weeks now…

Anyway, the book started with Asuka at his men’s baking class. He’s happily enjoying it, but it doesn’t take long for his mother to find out about it. Instead of there being too big of a show down, though, Asuka comes up with a good excuse, and his mother hesitantly believes it. So then the manga moves onto its main focus: Asuka’s dad.

We find out who it is when he has to stay with Asuka and his mother, who happily take him in, since neither recognizes him. Asuka starts getting closer to him, and then when people take him hostage and his father saves him, he starts feeling love for him. (Although the kidnappers’ motives bother me; it’s sweet, what they want them to do, but they went about it all wrong. I guess they wanted to be all tough about it, but they should have just asked in the first place, especially sense they begged for it later. It was just, kind of a dumb way to bring it all about.) It’s sweet, and I’m glad to get to see Asuka’s father, and for him to be able to get closer to him now. That’s nice, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of that later. And hopefully for the whole thing with his mother to hit a climax soon. And, I guess, for everything between him and Ryo to get fully cleared up, to actually hit a romantic climax or something. Because I guess they’re going out, but they don’t really act like it…

Then there’s a chapter about the poet teacher guy, who I somewhat remembered. He has a poetic interaction with one of his students, which is sweet, I guess. I wasn’t too excited for it, though; probably because I didn’t feel much for the characters.

I don’t know, I’m just not feeling too much for this series. Like I said, it’s just not one of my favorites; and the fact that the volumes are coming quite far in between probably has something to do with it. I’m not saying that I won’t be getting the next one, though, because I will.