Ren discovers Mito's secret -- and asks her out! Meanwhile, Ruka returns to the Land of the Vampires only to be accosted for pursuing Mito rather than searching out his destined partner, which would allow him to claim the title of Lord of the Vampires. However, he is informed of a premonition: he will encounter his destined partner upon his return to the human realm! But can Mito compete for his attentions... against herself?!
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.
Okay, let's break this down. The manga was. . . good? I mean, I didn't hate it. It was well drawn, and I enjoyed the continued plotline. The boys fighting over her was cute, the confusion and frustration she felt between her two selves was completely understandable. However, the twist ending was just wtf, and I'm still recovering.
This volume has a rather large plot twist within it. I am so excited to see what happens in the next volume, as we have quite the cliffhanger in this one, being in the middle of a party.
Ren knows Mito’s secret, Ruka still can’t put two and two together, a chance encounter sends things down a new path and families make everybody crazy in the latest volume of whatever the hell this book is trying to do.
For real, the gender politics of this series are currently muddier than a school kid’s nice clothes on picture day and I’m not sure what the point actually is, or if there even is one, with regards to any statements it’s trying to make about love.
On the upside, you do get some hilariously over the top scenes of Ruka at vampire HQ or whatever they call it. I love how incredibly, pretentiously formal it all is and how flippant Ruka’s dialogue gets as they’re calling him out for chasing Mito. It’s probably the most enjoyable thing here.
There’s also a rather good meeting between Ruka and Mito when the latter ends up out and about as a legitimate female thanks to Ren, which then leads us to Ren...
So I give Ren credit for being a very opportunistic rival and trying his best to subvert things, but that doesn’t mean I like him much. He’s slowly morphing into the villain of the piece, both intentionally with his misguided duplicity (yes, save the girl without giving her a say, that always works out) and unintentionally with his family jerking both him and Mito around.
That whole family sequence goes from cute to what in the ever loving heck very quickly, as once again we get random newly developed vampire lore thrown into the mix just so the author can take the story where they want.
I will say that this might be the one time that this actually works because the consequences of that are... as I often say... something else. Whatever my other thoughts on this volume are, I can’t say I’m not interested in the next one as a result.
The reason I struggle with this book is largely because it just rests completely on a lie that should be obvious, but, even if it isn’t, the way it’s perpetuated is so painfully dumb. Ruka likes Mito and vice-versa, but if she reveals herself they’ll be separated, even though they could then actually be together.
Argh, it’s so annoying when the plot is held together by absolutely nothing and it’s trying to play it totally straight (in that respect at least). I know Toyama is better than this, even if Aoba-Kun’s Confessions was only slightly more believable in the disguise department.
Three stars, sadly. I really miss that second volume when it was being wacky and gay and silly. Now it’s just going this whole other way and isn’t necessarily better for it.
God this series keeps getting more and more ridiculous and I keep reading it. Like how does Ruka not recognize Mito? I liked Ren in the beginning but after the shit he pulled in this one, not anymore.
Vous aimez Ren ? Vous l’adorez ? Alors, attendez-vous comme moi, à le détester dans les prochains tomes…
Dans le dernier tome, que de surprises ! Ren avait découvert la vraie identité de Mito. Dès lors, il se sent responsable de la protéger en devenant son petit ami. De son côté, Luka est parti voir sa famille, il doit reprendre son rôle, il doit trouver son calice. Une voyante lui prédit justement qu’il la rencontrera ce soir…
J’adorais Ren jusqu’alors. Pourtant, dans les deux tomes qui suivent, je peux vous garantir que vous allez le haïr mais avec force ! Son égoïsme va prendre le dessus, on sent clairement qu’il fait des choses non pas pour Mito, mais pour lui, pour son propre plaisir personnel.
D’autre part, nous sommes tristes et désolés pour Luka, qui ne comprend pas ce qui se passe. Autant vous dire, ces deux tomes sont très très fort en émotions !
En bref, je vais devenir complètement dingue. Les deux tomes présents ici m’ont complètement retourné la tête. Je suis tellement impatiente de voir la suite sortir. Cela sera une torture d’attendre !
I think it has an interesting plot line, regarding "destined partners" and "lord of vampires," but the lack of character development gets old. The MC is cute, and has an interesting back story, but she comes off as a flat, unchanging character for me. The whole "Ruka can't know I'm a girl" detail gets kind of old, and Ruka's character gets old for me too.
I'm not sure I'll continue to read this series after this last one. It had promise to me, but it lost me after this back and forth in the love triangle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
J’aime beaucoup cette nouvelle série de Ema Toyama et je suis contente de m’être lancée dans ce tome paru il y a peu de temps.
Ren vient de découvrir que Mito est une fille, elle va donc le supplier de ne pas révéler son secret à Luka.
De son côté, Luka est poussé par son entourage à trouver son âme sœur, qui lui permettra d’atteindre le rôle de chef des vampires…
Pas mal de révélations dans ce tome que j’ai trouvé bien rythmé et que j’ai donc dévoré très vite car j’étais curieuse de connaître la suite de l’histoire.
J’ai beaucoup aimé ce quatrième opus et je me procurerai le prochain à sa sortie au mois de mai prochain ! ♥
I read everything by this author and her series can be hit or miss for me. This series is a miss I think and was I was ready to drop it until I got to the end of the volume.
I was getting to a place where I really wanted Mito to stay falling for Ren. Like, they worked well and he cared about her, able to reconcile his feelings faster than Ruka could or does. Well...if you've read it then you know what I might say next, but won't bc spoilers!
AHHHHHHH, THAT ENDING?!?! such a ridiculous plot point i lost my mind. this manga has me screaming and punching the pillow. its getting better and better, but also more and more unhinged. at this point i cannot stop reading. who knew that crossdressing would get you into so much trouble?
O-M-G ! Comment j’ai pas senti venir ce retournement de situation ! Mais j’ai beaucoup aimé voir d’avantage de l’univers. Heureusement que j’ai le prochain tome sous la main !
Mito and Ruka are both so stupid in this volume that it was painful to read, plus the plot is so predictable and cliché that it is hard to enjoy it anymore.