Marmalade Boy: Collector's Edition 5

Marmalade Boy #5

by Wataru Yoshizumi

A PERFECT STORM

Miki is blissfully enjoying life with Yuu, but stormy days are on the horizon. When Chiyako-san’s younger brother, Eisaku, shows up with his two daughters, they blow into the house like a hurricane! It’s not long before Miki and Yuu are swept up in their antics—and that’s just the beginning of their turbulent new home life. What secrets does Eisaku have to share!? And what is the shocking true nature of Miki and Yuu’s relationship!? Find out in the final volume of Marmalade Boy !

Genres: Manga, Shojo, Comics Manga, Romance

322 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2024

About the author

Wataru Yoshizumi (吉住渉) is a Japanese mangaka. She was born as Mari Nakai (中井 真里, Nakai Mari) on June 18, 1963 in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated with a degree in economics from Hitotsubashi University.

Yoshizumi started her career as a mangaka while working as an office lady. Her debut manga was a yomikiri (short story) called "Radical Romance" that was published in 1984, in the summer issue of Ribon Original. She is known as a social mangaka, and is a good friend of fellow mangakas Naoko Takeuchi, Ai Yazawa, Miho Obana, and Megumi Mizusawa.

Yoshizumi currently (as of 2007) has her works published in both Ribon and Chorus.

Reviews

[madeleine!! · Rating 1 out of 5]

what the fuck

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It turns out I just can't give up on you. So I've made my decision. Common sense... morals... for you, I'd go against it all!

Yeah, this one goes over the top at times. I appreciate how Yuu and Miki stayed devoted to each other through a rather long breakup, especially since that devotion stands in contrast with their parents, who don't seem able to keep a long-term relationship going. It's nice of them to own up to that, but it really hurt their kids and they needed to be confronted for Yuu to know the truth about his parentage. I liked how the manga treated the very last chapter better than the anime.

The twist of Chiyako's cousin potentially being Yuu's dad felt unnecessary, and it made for a rather weak start to this volume, along with the slightly overlong breakup arc, and sorting out of various couples (sorry, Tsutomu and Miwa!). I liked seeing the kids as they made their way into college, and how some of them mellowed out a bit.

I think the character art in this story is really good. As Nakajo did with Hana-Kimi (which I just finished yesterday), sometimes Yoshizumi relies a little too heavily on screentone to compensate for a lack of art on any given page, but it's easy to overlook when the overall work is so much more pleasant to look at.

It's fun seeing the fashion in these older manga. The big bows are kind of strange, and the layering of t-shirt-like material, i.e. on this edition's front cover, feels very 90s. With some minor modernization, the cottagecore outfits wouldn't be too out of place on a 2020s instagram page, I think. Putting this next to something like Neighborhood Story or Gals, which came out in a similar time frame, I don't see too many similiarities. MB's cute fashion is on the conservative side in comparison.

Wandering off on a tangent like that means that I don't have a lot more to say about this series, so we'll leave things off here. :) It was nice to come back to this story that, in anime form, was one of the first shoujo stories I encountered. I'm still fond of it, though there are a good number of series that have come out in English in the meantime that I'd put higher on the all-time favorites list.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was quite the rollercoaster. We went from pseudo to real back to pseudo in the volume. Was I mad? No. Was it a mess? Yes. It was better than rivals actually to me cause it brought back the who is Yuu's bio dad storyline and closed it. I do wish we had a happy story line for his friend, it seems like everyone got a happy ending but him.

Bottom Line:

The art fantastic. If you don't like step sibling romance, very light drama (this is not on your peach girl or mars level), some inappropriate boy does to girl stuff, crazy parents, or teach student relationships this manga probably isn't for you. It some of this stuff isn't usually for me but it all works for me here.

This is my best old Cassandra liked revist.

[Vivian Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to hate this final volume because it is a happy ending. However, the break up was terrible. Why didn’t Yuu talk to his parents earlier? He loves his secrets because why did he need to hide it from Miki for so long: the reason for the breakup. I am glad they finally did speak with the parents but seriously, marriage doesn’t miraculously fix everything. Speaking of marriage, I hated it. She just graduated high school to become a housewife?!?! He’s an educator; he should at least have her explore college. I do like the side couple. Ginta and Ari are cute. Plus, Kei and Suzu were adorable. Moreover, the clothes were nice. Honestly, this was all too dramatic but I loved it back in the day.

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was so over dramatic at times and the whole Yuu’s father dilemma could’ve been solved a long time ago if he just asked his mom and dad about it!!! The ending made everything seem so annoying and pointless!! But I did enjoy the ride LOL.
And these collector’s editions are beautiful. The art/color pages in this volume were so pretty!!!! I’ll take this over the boring ol Tokyopop singles!!!

[mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall my thoughts were positive, but I was gravely annoyed by the middle where there is an awful time skip and they're kept apart by a contrived last-minute drama, which felt extra unnecessary given the very premise of the manga. Of course, I was happy to get the parents' backstories though. And the art looked extra pretty in this volume.

[camila · Rating 2 out of 5]

extraño a la camila de hace unos días que no recordaba como terminaba la historia de meiko......... el dilema entre miki y yuu es tan ridículo que llega a ser chistoso, al igual que todo el webeo que tienen sus papás, pero bueno gracias marmalade boy por darnos uno de los mejores OST (moment) que existen !! suena en mi cabeza cada vez que me sucede algo mínimamente romántico

[Ellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

well… I read it.

some fun moments in this series, but it hasn’t aged great and doesn’t take advantage of its silly premise to put the characters in interesting situations (until the very end). mostly it’s a pretty generic high school drama and honestly kind of boring.

[georgiaotaku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird.

[Elle David · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute!!!!!

[Korry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it!!

[Mikey The Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tight bow to cap off the series. All angles closed off and done.

[Prakrithi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What in the mortal instruments

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the actual hell? I’ve never been so mad at a character. I have whiplash from this whole series. But man are the outfits cute!