Rating (Out of 5): ~3
Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo)
Volumes: 10
Spoilers?: Some.
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. (Almost Out-of-Print)
Goodreads Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old
Karin Karino finds herself torn between keeping the friendship of her
classmate Yuka and entertaining the advances of a boy named Kiriya, who
also happens to be Yuka's object of affection.
Review:
I read several
books in this series a long time ago,
and remembered really liking it. I’ve had my eye on the series for a while,
wanting to read more of it, but just not getting around to getting any of the
volumes. I’ve finally decided to jump on board with it, though, and got a few
volumes the other day, and am in the works of getting the rest of the series.
It’s starting out
similar to what I remember, but so much of it is a blank for me, that I’m enjoying
re-reading it so far. Also, the beginning of the series: not very good in terms
of story and character. It gets better, though (I think?), and I’m excited for that.
So, Karin, our main
character, is a quiet, ‘ugly’, shy, and awkward girl. She’s also holding in a
lot of anger. But she’s ‘friends’ with Yuko, a very ‘pretty’ and popular girl
at her school, who is constantly putting Karin down but making it look like
she’s being nice/it’s all a joke, and also always flirting with boys. Karin
incidentally meets this popular, playboy from another school, who's interested
in Karin from the start, but who Yuko is trying to win over, and yet who Karin is trying to
ignore.
Karin, at this
point, is just okay. I’m not a huge fan, but I don’t dislike her very much at
the moment. She gets better, I believe/hope, but at the moment her anger is a
little over the top, and yet she is also not doing anything about it. Plus, her
reactions are always done so over the top, and that’s just kind of annoying at
the moment.
Kiriya is alright
too. He’s nice, and he’s tough (I guess?), and he has good intentions. We don’t
actually get to know him very well in this volume, so I’m looking forward to
finding out who he actually is as a character.
I don’t like Yuko.
She’s just an over the top bitchy popular girl, in a very stereotypical
fashion, and I’m looking forward to her plot line being finished. Karin is also
starting to interact with another girl in her class, Nanri, who is collected
and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her. I like her. And I’m looking forward
to seeing more of her.
Overall, this volume was a little weak. It’s
falling very easily into the mean girl trope with Yuko, including her already
threatening Karin after finding out she was hanging out with Kiriya. Hopefully
that plot will end in the next volume (or two, at most), and something better
with happen. And I don’t remember how far I got in this series before (about
halfway, I think), but I’m enjoying reading it over again, especially since I
remembered so little, and I’m looking forward to getting to the story that I
don’t remember anything about.
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