Love Hotel Princess 02

Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai #2

by Ema Tōyama

Für Leila wird es immer schwieriger ihr Geheimnis zu schützen. Owaru bedrängt sie bei jeder sich bietenden Gelegenheit und Rikka beobachtet die beiden auf Schritt und Tritt.
Als Leila dann noch verdächtigt wird, eine unangemessene Beziehung zum anderen Geschlecht zu haben, platzt ihr endgültig der Kragen und sie schmeißt Owaru aus dem SV-Raum. Dieser übernachtet daraufhin nicht mehr im Love Hotel, sondern abwechselnd bei anderen Mädchen.
Das passt Leila ganz und gar nicht…

Genres: Manga

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2015

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

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for complete series



Leila has worked hard to become head girl and enjoys a spotless reputation. Given her school's strict rules, it's an image she must uphold. That means she must keep her home a secret at all costs, for her mother runs a love hotel which also connects to their apartment. Leila's classmate Owaru finds out about her secret and makes a deal: let him live rent-free at the love hotel and he will keep her secret.

Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai is a tricky one. I will start off by saying that I liked it, but there's a lot of bizarre and unsettling content. Given that the plot includes a love hotel, one can imagine that sex is a topic. And I have to say that the matter of the love hotel was actually handled really well. Leila used to love her home because she thought it looked like a castle. It was only when she got older and started to understand what exactly is going on in her parents' business that she began to feel ashamed of it. And I can fully understand that - who would want to brag around at school for living in and running a love hotel. On the other hand, this story reminds us that obviously people who run love hotels - or similar establishments - are just regular people. They live regular lives like anyone else and also have children. Leila, who loves her mother, also comes to feel a certain pride and eventually learns that her living conditions shouldn't be considered shameful - this is noting that her home is attached to the love hotel, she doesn't actually live inside it and her mother originally keeps her away from the going ons in there.

I found Leila to be a very likeable main character. In fact, I loved both her and Owaru and they are a big reason why I enjoyed this series. They're an opposites attract kind of couple and, while Owaru starts off with a bit of blackmail, I genuinely enjoyed how their relationship developed. They had a few funny moments, a bit of bickering, but mostly they were really caring and looking out for each other despite all their differences. I think Owaru was an important character for Leila to relax a bit more around her family situation and being less rigid in her role as head girl.

Owaru starts off as an overly happy and optimistic character but it's clear from the start that something isn't quite right about his situation. He ran away from home which is also his main motivation to get a room at Leila's love hotel. He has a bit of a strange approach to sex, mainly in that he thinks that he can't fall in love with someone without having a physical relationship of sorts beforehand. He also states that he doesn't believe he'll ever find genuine love. A lot of what is behind his thoughts and behaviour is left obscure until the end, and I guess that's where we start getting into the icky side of things.

But before we go there, I enjoyed the supporting characters, that is to say the rest of the school council and Leila's mum. It's another one of Tōyama's best works in terms of art and I love Leila's design. There are lots of funny moments, weird misunderstandings, and I just generally enjoyed the school setting.

On the downside, though, Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai incorporates one of my most disliked manga tropes: odd body reactions when touched by someone from the opposite sex. I've never liked this and I don't get why it's so common. I'm talking about someone having just the briefest physical contact and suddenly developing a skin rash or something similar. When it comes to manga, there's always a certain amount of disbelief to be thrown out the window but I always found this trope hard to accept. This manga could have gotten it right but didn't. Leila becomes extremely nervous around men and breaks out in a sweat - nothing unusual there, some people really can sweat excessively if they are nervous about something. But Leila's case is so over the top that it's simply unrealistic, I mean, she's practically sweating a big puddle at her feet. I think toning it down a bit would have had the same effect while still keeping it believable.

As for the less savoury parts of the story, I'll keep this vague so as not to spoil things, but there were some surprisingly heavy themes running in the background. Nothing is ever spelt out but it's heavily implied that there's been sexual abuse and neglect of some kind. Some characters were treated horribly and while the plot does highlight that these are criminal activities, it's kind of brushed under the rug. Even though it's all very vague, the things that were happening were really disturbing and the consequences should have been better addressed. There's also some incest implied which comes across as quite casual.

I found that these darker themes didn't go all that well with how the story started out. On one hand, it actually made me care even more about the characters in the sense that I really wished them happiness. But then it just also felt very wrong and awkward - a mash-up of things that simply didn't go well together. Had I not liked Leila and Owaru so much, I think I would have enjoyed this manga a good deal less. I guess that just comes to show what you can achieve with a good set of characters.

[Les passions de Meline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cette suite m’a bien fait rire. J’ai apprécié Rikka qui est un garçon bien trop sûr de lui et qui risque de perdre la bataille avant même qu’elle n’est commencé …

Leila est perdu depuis que Owaru a découvert tous ces secrets. Mais, Rikka ne semble pas se laisser faire par Owaru et va tenter de le dresser à sa manière.

Après avoir lu Love mission de Ema Toyama, je n’ai pas hésité à me lancer dans un autre manga de l’autrice. Même si la trame n’est pas la même, j’aime les traits des personnages ainsi que l’histoire mit en place.

Leila semble prise au piège par Owaru. Elle tente de s’en dépêtrer mais découvre rapidement qu’elle s’est attaché à lui. Puis, Rikka ne semble pas aimé cette nouvelle amitié entre Leila et Owaru et va tout faire pour éloigner Owaru de Leila sans savoir qu’il y a anguille sous roche.
J’ai aimé découvrir un nouveau visage plus dur. Il faut croire que Rikka n’est pas près à se laisser marcher sur ses plates bandes. D’un autre côté, Owaru s’en amuse. Il sait quelques petits secrets et le connaissant maintenant un peu, il va en profiter pour en jouer.
La fin ne laisse rien présager de bon. Leila risque de s’en mordre les doigts.

Un deuxième tome assez amusant qui met en avant Rikka et sa subtilité à défendre Leila mais aussi Owaru qui semble un peu perdu sur son avenir …

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le premier tome avait été une lecture sympathique et dès que j’ai pu me procurer ce tome 2, je l’ai lu dans la foulée.

Dans cette suite, les personnages se dévoilent et c’est ce que j’attendais alors que le premier survolait un peu plus les sentiments.

On se rend rapidement compte qu’on se trouve face à un triangle amoureux. Rikka et Sangatsu sont tous les deux attirés par Watanuki mais ne l’expriment pas de la même façon. Rikka est plutôt protecteur, tandis que Sangatsu est assez insistant.

La fin nous laisse sur un suspense qui me donne envie de rapidement me procurer le tome 3 ! Un série agréable qui se lit rapidement et que je vous conseille si vous aimez les Shôjos ! ♥

http://www.gamesofbooks.com/2018/04/2...

[Shiritaku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das geht ja so verrückt weiter, alter Falter 😂
Also ja, scheinbar hat alles schon einen tieferen Sinn.. jedoch ist der auch etwas strange und die Auswirkungen extrem 😅
Und der Schluss…? Hallo? What’s going on!? 😂