La autora de Marmalade Boy y Somos chicos de menta vuelve a la carga con la historia de Moka, una chica que ansía encontrar a su media naranja. Cuando conoce a Masato cree que ha dado con alguien especial, pero pronto descubre que las apariencias engañan y que es un donjuán que sólo sale con chicas que tienen novio... y las deja cuando las conquista. Moka decide olvidarse de él, pero cuando Masato la ve con su hermano lo toma por su novio y entonces le pide que salgan juntos... ¡Una nueva historia llena de amor y malentendidos de Wataru Yoshizumi!
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.
Micro-série de deux tomes, très sympa. C'est du pur shōjo : une histoire d'amour(s) entre adolescents, avec filles aux yeux immenses, beaux garçons élégants et mystérieux, intrigue sentimentale complexe et entrecroisée. L'auteur présente ça comme une histoire tragique, et c'est vrai que l'héroïne travers quelques épreuves avec abnégation, mais le ton est généralement léger, humoristique, avec de fréquent recours aux expressions caricaturales (et amusantes) de surprise ou autre. Je ne raconte pas l'histoire ici, mais je dirais que j'ai bien aimé, il y avait un angle original à la classique histoire d'amour à sens unique, avec des implications surprenantes...
With her newly discovered interest in art, Moka feels inspired by the artists who used their wives as muses. Now Moka dreams of such a relationship herself and hopes to find a boyfriend who suits her as well as milk suits honey. When she meets the art club member Masato, she thinks she might have found just the right person. Masato, however, is only interested in girls who already have a boyfriend.
Datte Suki Nandamon was much better than I remembered it. The thing with this short series is, the art, characters and pacing are great - Masato not so much. I find it a strange premise that our female lead falls for a guy who only wants to have affairs and drops out as soon as the girls become serious. This isn't unheard of, but that's more something you'd expect of a jerk. However, the author tries to make it look as though Masato's a nice guy with a traumatic past that causes this behaviour. We're supposed to feel sorry for him.
The cause of his trauma never really convinced me at that. However, if one can put that aside - he does have his good characteristics. I mean, he puts friendship before 'lovers'. And while most of the things he does are out of the norm, he does often show good intentions (which actually makes him seem like a pretty oblivious and socially unaware character....).
Despite having such a difficult-to-like male lead, the romance has a very nice and well-paced development. Not just between the main characters, but all couples shown in this series go through the stages of getting to know each other, becoming friends and only then deciding whether or not they would work as a couple.
Most of the characters are very likeable. It's great seeing the platonic relationships between the friends and siblings - there's certainly more going on than just A loves B. The art is adorable and, as usual for this author, Moka is a really cute main character. I love how she cares about her friends and family and that she is an overall optimist who doesn't give in to grief too easily.
Moka Konno è una ragazza delle superiori romantica e sognatrice che vive a Tokyo con la madre, separata ormai da cinque anni dal padre, il quale vive negli USA col fratello minore Megumu. La vita scolastica di Moka scorre abbastanza tranquilla in compagnia dell’amica Mitsumi, con la quale fa parte del club di cucito e il di lei fidanzato Jun Ebisawa detto “Ebi”. Moka non si è ancora innamorata di nessuno, ma sogna di trovare qualcuno con cui stare bene.Il giorno dopo, mentre è in biblioteca a cercare qualche lettura sull'artista, si accorge che l’unico libro disponibile è già nelle mani di un ragazzo, che gentilmente si offre di cederlo prima a lei. Costui da subito sembra colpire favorevolmente Moka che ha il coraggio di chiedergli il nome: si tratta di Masato Yoshii, membro del club d’arte e piuttosto popolare all'interno della scuola. Purtroppo, come ha presto modo di scoprire Moka, la sua popolarità è dovuta ad un fatto piuttosto spiacevole: Yoshii è infatti conosciuto da tutti per avere l’abitudine di frequentare solo ragazze già impegnate sentimentalmente, ma non per rubarle ai loro fidanzati, anzi, quando una delle sue fiamme lascia il proprio compagno per lui, il suo interesse si annulla. Moka comunque non si da per vinta e decide di provare ad essergli amica, e magari a fargli cambiare idea sulla sua strana concezione dell’amore. E' un manga assurdo perché riesce a incuriosire il lettore ma perde di originalità a causa della comune trama quasi simile ad altre opere precedenti anche se per una volta i protagonisti non sono bambini o semi-tali. Darei giusto una mezza stellina in piu'!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
When Moka sees Yoshii, it's love at first sight, but soon she finds out that he only dates girls who already have boyfriends. Of course this turns out to be due to his ~trauma~ at the fact that his brother is dating the girl he had a crush on forever, and so he doesn't really want to get too close to anyone.
The plot was kind of silly in that shoujo manga way, but overall it was enjoyable. Even with cliched plots, I always enjoy Yoshizumi's stuff.
Storia carina e leggera da completare in una sera. Non avevo molte aspettative dato che trame del genere se ne vedono fin troppe, ma ho apprezzato la determinazione di Moka e la scelta di dare più spessore al comportamento di Yoshii
Una historia que me entretuvo, me gustó mucho la personalidad de la protagonista y las otras dos parejas. La historia de amor de los protagonistas estuvo bien.