わたしに××しなさい！（１２）

わたしに××しなさい! / Watashi ni XX shinasai! #12

by Ema Tōyama

晶（あきら）を恋人にえらんだ雪菜（ゆきな）。時雨（しぐれ）とはすれちがったまま、長い夏休みがスタート！　さらにマミが何より恐れる男で時雨の弟・氷雨（ひさめ）が登場。ドSすぎる「ひーくん」の活躍で、浴衣デートどころじゃない雪菜たち。暴走する氷雨のねじれた思いに気づいた雪菜は――！？　大人気ラブ・ミッション、新展開！

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Young Adult, Comics Manga, Contemporary, Manga Romance

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2013

About the author

Japanese Name: 遠山 えま

She made her debut in September 2003 in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi with her story, Tenshi no Tamago ("Angel's Egg", no relation to the anime movie of the same name). Gokkun! Pūcho is considered her best representative work. Tokyopop has licenced it under the title Pixie Pop. All of her works are published by Kodansha, and they are enjoyed mainly by preteen and teen girls. None of her series have yet become anime.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hate it when series just keep going and going and going when they easily could have ended much sooner - have character realize their feelings, confess and BAM! Ending. But in this case we're expected to believe that the lead STILL doesn't understand feelings or what love is. Maybe she has a problem. I mean naivete is one thing, this speaks of an actual condition. I mean. it's not like she doesn't know what love is - look at her parents. Plus, we're still being introduced to new characters. I don't care about new characters - I want resolutions to the main characters stories! I will keep reading until the end, but it's sort of painful more than enjoyable.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I'm still reading this, for crying out loud. I guess I'd just feel bad for suddenly throwing it away like that when I'm already in volume 12. Let's just get this thing over with.

I'm sorry, but Yukina is getting worse as the story progresses. It's been a long time now but she still hasn't sorted out her feelings. Instead, she keeps on venting it out to other people with thinking how this might affect them. Akira, for instance. The other characters aren't getting any better, either. Mami is becoming quite unrealistic, and Akira is slowly disintegrating as well. It's weird, but Hisame seems okay. At least the guy has some substance compared to the others.

P.S. Wow, I can't believe it's been a year and a day since I last read this series.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for the complete series



Yukina's classmates avoid her for the cold look she gives everyone. And that suits her just fine: she loves to observe people as it gives her ideas for the novel she's been writing under the penname Yupina. Yupina's novel has become widely popular but there's one thing her readers are in want of: romance. As this is new terrain for Yukina, she decides she needs some first-hand experience. Coincidently, she finds out that her popular classmate Shigure isn't as nice as he lets on. Yukina decides that he will be the one to teach her romance through her missions of love or else she'll let the school see Shigure's true colours.

Missions of Love is an engrossing and addictive manga whilst also being problematic: people who like to crush things by pointing out all its social and moral impropriety will have a field day with this one. My personal main issue with it, though, is that it suffered from its length. I am very sure that this manga was dragged out after the first volumes proved to be such a success.

This manga starts off very strong in which Yukina and Shigure playing out a perfect high school enemies to lovers scenario. Both of them are strong characters and they're constantly trying to get the upper hand in their power struggle which is also filled with lots of chemistry and tension. At times they are perfectly mean to each other, at other times true feelings start to surface and they begin to care. Rivals are thrown in one after the other and while a lot of people might not like this, I believe it was rather necessary in this particular case as neither Yukina nor Shigure would be willing to confess how they really feel without some jealousy or sense of loss involved.

Tōyama has the tendency to make rival characters come across as creepy psychopaths, it's actually something I never liked about her works. Be that as it may, the first two rivals are Yukina's cousin Akira and Shigure's childhood friend Mami. They are both rather possessive and for the most part feel like meddlers. As the story progresses, though, both of them become more fleshed out and start to move away from their obsessions. This turns both of them into likeable characters who actually have really cute and warm sides to them. Mami in particular really grew on me once she stopped being the little psycho she was introduced as.

I would have much preferred this series to have wrapped up with just those characters and with only half the amount of volumes it actually amounted to. The story seems to progress naturally when suddenly the kindergarten teacher arc is introduced: Yukina's former teacher has left her with insecurities she still struggles with today. Although this was already mentioned early on in the series, the appearance of the teacher seemed to derail the plot. That whole arc feels random and cutting it out wouldn't change the outcome of the series one bit. It almost feels like Tōyama was trying to create new tensions, realised it wasn't going well and opted to drop it in favour of a different plotline. It was over and done with as fast and sudden as it came. I faintly remember even thinking of dropping the series at that stage during my first read.

However, while not as strong as the first volumes, Missions of Love catches itself again and makes a turn for the better - mostly in any case. Another rival character is introduced and it adds both pros and cons to the remainder of the story. Hisame is Shigure's younger brother (through marriage, non-blood related) and boy do they not see eye to eye. This adds some much-needed insight to Shigure's life and why he is the way he is. The problem is that Hisame is yet another psychotic little jerk who, unlike Akira and Mami, stays that way. Sure, he certainly does have a few nice moments and cute scenes, but ultimately, he's a creepy little shit.

Putting aside Hisame's creepy ways, the latter volumes mainly deal with the characters' inner feelings which is particularly important in regard to Yukina. She is a tricky character in the sense that a lot of her behaviour seems odd. I can easily see her coming across as a character who is impossibly oblivious to love when it's standing right in front of her. You could read this manga and ask yourself time and again, why is she being so dense? In that same sense, you might wonder how she can share intimate moments with multiple characters without understanding why it's wrong or why it would bother others. While it's never actually spelt out, it is highly implied that there is more to it than just poor characterisation. I don't know much about the different sexual identities, so I won't go ahead labelling Yukina as something I know nothing of, but it's clear that while Yukina feels sexual attraction, she struggles with the concept of love. She is genuinely trying to understand what's inside her heart and beats herself up over not succeeding. She loves different people around her but she doesn't seem to understand the differences between the love one has for friends, family members and the romantic type.

People who have only read the first few volumes and criticise this manga over Yukina blackmailing Shigure into playing love games, this problem does actually get addressed in the latter volumes. Although Yukina is generally speaking a confident girl, there is something about her that prevents her from reading certain social cues, and I suspect it's the same that prevents her from understanding the different kinds of love. Yukina is often seen doing things that either stand out or just makes others around her feel awkward. She herself doesn't feel any of this awkwardness and it's usually done out of complete innocence. Once again, I am no expert, but there is definitely a complexity behind why Yukina is the way she is and a lot of this manga's ultimate question is whether or not Shigure can love and accept her for who she is.

Missions of Love does have a couple more things sprinkled throughout that rub me the wrong way: I can't get my head around when Yukina, Shigure and Akira get intimate at the same time, I wish there would have been more closure to what became of Mami and Akira (I can't say I care what became of Hisame) and what is it with Yukina's breasts?! I love Tōyama's art but can we take a moment to look at how material hangs over breasts - Yukina seems to have rather large ones but it doesn't mean her clothes should stick to her.

Drawing 101:



Here I'm just nitpicking but Yukina's breasts are definitely drawn like the former.

Missions of Love has it's issues - no doubt there. But it's nicely drawn and really brings out what you'd expect from an enemies to lovers plot. For the most of it, it's an enjoyable read and one that you don't put down easily. I'd definitely recommend it to romance lovers who can turn a blind eye to the issues that come with Yukina and Shigure's story.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am Anfang war Yukina nett und naive. Aber jetzt... Nach 12 Bände steht ihr Roman nicht mehr im Mittelpunkt der Geschichte und sie hat keine Missionen mehr. Shigure taucht nicht in diesem Band auf, weil er im Ferienhaus ist um zu lernen. Aber es gibt ihr jüngerer Bruder, der sehr unangenehm ist. Ich kann nicht verstehen, wie Yukina sich benimmt... Das hat keinen Sinn!

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what to think of Hisame. he is interesting but also very twisted!

[David Doel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a new character who adds only confusion. The expression, "jumped the shark" comes to mind.

[Story of a Book Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

finally a new twisted character, I was missing the early fun toxic vibes

[Judyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5/5

We really get to see what Hisame, Shigure’s brother, is up to. And he’s really quite an asshole. He’s a jerk to Mami, ever since childhood he’s tormented her. He does it in some twisted form of affection, but it’s really not working in his favor.

I really just want Akira to jump in, but I’m strongly rooting for him and Mami, so I’m biased. Plus, I like how her feelings for him are growing, even if he’s too distracted by Yukine to notice.

Surprisingly, Yukine finds Hisame’s feelings more interesting and warranting studying, instead of being afraid or worried when he tries to force himself on her. It makes sense, though, and gives her more insight for her novels.

Her decision regarding Akira still bothers me, though, and I just want Akira to realize what’s happening and do something about it. I’m impressed with Mami here, though.

I want more. I just eat up these books, and these slow releases suck.

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

[Rubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's finally jealous about Akira! Hehehe
Mami is now trying to make Akira see someone can love him for him and not as a backup for Shigure. Akira has been sooo cute when it comes to defending Mami while still hanging out with Yukina. Shigure's little brother is even worse than he is and messes with Mami in cruel ways but Akira is there for her and even Yukina is stepping in, if for no other reason than novel material lol
Things are getting interesting lol

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

at first i feel kinda bored with the story.

but it came out slightly different from other shoujo. so, let's see how it ends. lol

[Yéderith Loner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss Shigure.

[Karina Rari · Rating 3 out of 5]

es war okay aber langsam habe ich das gefühl, dass die geschichte an fahrt verliert

[Célia ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Note : 1 ⭐.
Commentaire : ∅

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely back in stride -- what I love most about this series is Yukina's fairly consistent refusal to play shoujo heroine -- she has the agency here, thank you very much!