Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5
Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo)
Volumes: 10
Spoilers?: Some/Nothing Major.
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble (on Nook). Powells. (Almost Out-of-Print)
Goodreads Synopsis:
Coy and self-conscious
high school student Karin Karino never paid much attention to boys until
she met Kiriya, a popular student from a nearby boys' school. Karin and
Kiriya embark on a romantic journey despite Karin's classmate Yuka's
best efforts to sabotage their relationship, but Karin soon learns that
living happily ever after isn't on the curriculum when she becomes
Kiriya's centre of attention, as well as embittered Yuka's bull's-eye on
her dartboard of hate. Karin and her friends begin preparations for
their trip to Okinawa, and Kiriya's past slowly unravels after his
father forbids him to go on the trip. Karin and Kiriya's relationship
blossoms, but intimacy rises to the surface of their turbulent sea of
young love as the pressure to give in torments romance newbie Karin.
Review:
I am still simply
enjoying this series at the moment, even with all its clichéd stereotypical
glory. It’s just a good, drama-filled, fun read.
Most of this volume
was about the group going to the beach, and S-E-X. S-E-X was a big part of it,
if not the main part, really.
So, at the start of
the volume, Karin gets a job to help pay for the trip, where she ends up
working with Yuka, who seems to be ever present in her life (she’s shows up
again at the end of the volume, too). Then Kiriya’s family has a freak out over
their trip, and Kiriya’s camera ends up broken while he’s gone, and Karin pays
to fix it. Then they finally go on the trip, and we find out that the reason
Kiriya’s family was so freaked, and why he’s been so odd, is because his
brother used to come there all the time, and it’s where he drowned, trying to
save Kiriya. This is a rather big step in their relationship, in a good way,
and gives the reader a good amount of insight into Kiriya.
Then there’s the
S-E-X bit. So, Kiriya tries to make a move but Karin freaks out over it, then
gets drunk on one of their nights there. So, pretty much, nothing happens
between them during the trip. Then, when they get back, they have a fight over
sex, and how he doesn’t want to wait forever but she’s not ready yet. And, at
the end, after their fight, she hears that the guys from his class (maybe
including him, she doesn’t know yet) joined Yuka and her friends out.
My biggest problem
is the way sex is handled in this. Karin is constantly freaking out over the
fact she’s not ready yet, and the fact that that’s so abnormal, and then the
fact that Kiriya wants to have sex and doesn’t want to wait forever. First of
all, there is nothing wrong with waiting to have sex. You wait however the fuck
long you want to wait; you wait until you, yourself, are ready. That’s all there
is to it. Then there’s the fact that Kiriya is pushing it so much, which is
just him being a dick, really, and nothing else, and he needs to stop that. And
Karin needs to get mad about it, which she won’t. The only good way sex is
handled in this is by Nanri, who tells Karin that Kiriya shouldn’t push, and if
he is then she can find someone else to be with. She also tells Karin that, I
guess, it is kind of normal to be having sex already, and she does push Kiriya
and Karin together, but I would like to believe that she’s doing it under the
impression that Karin does actually want to have sex and is just freaking out
over it, which is kind of true. But I also think that she’s just not ready, and
so everyone needs to just stop pushing her, and she needs to stop letting them.
That’s my biggest
problem with Karin, too, is that she’s so weak. She’s the stereotypical weak,
damsel in distress, heroine, and I hate that. I can overlook it here, though,
because I’m liking the series.
Oh, another thing:
this series is a lot like Mars. I
love Mars, and it is very much the
stronger of the two series, but this one has its differences—I think a big part
is that this one falls into a lot more stereotypical tropes than Mars does. But there are a lot of
similarities, including the fact that there is a scene in this volume that is
almost identical to one in Mars, which
makes me a little uneasy.
Anyway. I’m
enjoying this series. I’ve got one more volume at the moment, and plan to get
the others very soon, and am looking forward to reading more.
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