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Category Archives: series review

Watching Lost Season One 18 Years Too Late

23 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by Jessica Wood in Blog, musings, series review, story, tv, tv review

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Tags

fandom, lost, television, tv

Where are they?

I have a strange relationship with pop culture in that I hardly ever seem to follow something when it’s currently being released. I’ll generally get into it years after it’s already ended and the majority of discussion and fandom has dried up and moved onto something else. In a way this has an advantage as there’s plenty of fan content waiting for me, but it also has the disadvantage of feeling like a fandom of 1.

That’s what’s happening to me with Lost right now. Despite being one of the most watched and acclaimed shows ever, I only started watching it a few weeks ago. This wasn’t by choice, mind you. The show was so heavily promoted when it aired in 2004 that I was planning on watching it. But on the night the pilot aired in the UK, my family was going out somewhere so I only caught the first few minutes. Since this was before streaming services, I couldn’t exactly watch it when I got home like I would today. And since the show is so continuity heavy and plot driven, I couldn’t exactly jump in part way through either (and I did try). So, I ended up not watching a staple of modern pop culture for 18 years. I don’t want to be a ‘back in my day’ type of person, but I think a lot of people younger than my own generation don’t realise how lucky they are to live in an age of streaming and watching things whenever you want to.

But now I have started watching the show, I can understand the hype and see what I’ve been missing all these years. It’s incredibly addicting not only to follow the supernatural mystery, but also to see the character relationships develop and find out how they’re going to survive together.

In retrospect, I can now see that certain aspects of the show haven’t aged particularly well, or are a reflection of the time the show was made. And I’m not just talking about the special effects for the polar bear, which must have been bad even by 2004 standards. Sawyer represents the ‘troubled bad boy’ archtype which while still around today, has evolved somewhat from just being an arsehole for no particular reason. Some of the relationships seem to exist purely on the basis of having a man and a woman interacting on a 2000s show. And the less said about the love triangle the better. In a way, it does provide an eye-opening look into how media and representation has changed for the better in the space of 18 years.

The disadvantage of only getting into things super late is that it not only makes it easy to accidently stumble upon spoilers, I can find them without even needing to look. The show has been around for so long by now that many of the big twists are already common knowledge, even to people who have never watched the show. Plus, as engaged as I am with the show, I have heard more than a few rumours that it doesn’t stay this good for the entire run and the supernatural elements get super weird. I’m going into it aware that I could be setting myself up for disappointment.

Even so, I’m still excited to continue watching the show for the characters I’m growing to love so I can finally decide for myself if I agree with the popular opinion. One advantage of getting into things late is that I don’t have to wait for it to finish.

TV Review – Drifting Dragons

18 Monday May 2020

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, Blog, criticism, fantasy, musings, series review, steampunk, story, tv, tv review

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animation, anime, anime review, fantasy, netflix, steampunk, television, tv, tv review

Newbie dragon hunter or ‘draker’ Takita has recently joined the crew of the airship Queen Zaza to work of her debt. But with the price of dragon oil dropping and drakers being treated with increased suspicion, the ship’s crew are barely skimming above the poverty line. Yet to Takita, it is worth it for a life of adventure, new-found friendship, and delicious dragon meat.

What drew me initially to this series was how similar it is to a steampunk series I’m currently writing, so I thought it would be useful research (that’s a good way of justifying procrastination). Yet even if I wasn’t writing steampunk, I would have been drawn to this series anyway by the gorgeous animation, exciting adventure, and the robust cast of amusing characters.

These characters are one of the main draws of the series, being well-rounded and highly likeable. It is almost a shame that the series only lasts for 12 episodes, meaning there isn’t enough time to flesh out all of them. I can only hope that a second season will give some of them more focus.

Food and cooking are a common theme throughout the series, and it is heartwarming to see how cooking up the dragon meat brings the cast together. Even as a vegetarian, a small part of me wants to try the dragon meat!

As a rookie, Takita helps to ease the audience into the world of draking. It also helps that there are several one-off episodes to ease the viewer in before the series gets to the darker and more dramatic multi-episode story arcs.

The stylish animation looks as if it came straight out of Studio Ghibli. The dragons each have unique designs and terrifying powers which sets them apart from the standard fantasy fare.

Although it is established that the dragons are a threat to humans in this world, the fact that they are hunted, butchered, and used as a commodity will put a bad taste in the mouths of some viewers. The parallels to real life whaling only make it more awkward. Yet even this establishes an interesting moral dynamic, as it is made abundantly clear how much the Queen Zaza is struggling for money and that the crew are only hunting dragons because it is their only means of survival in a harsh world which has all but rejected them.

For any viewers who can stomach it, Drifting Dragons is a great show for any fans of steampunk adventure or exciting fantasy.

My verdict – 5 out of 5.

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Manga Review – Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, Blog, fantasy, manga review, musings, romance, series review, shojo, story

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cardcaptor sakura, clamp, clamp manga, clear card arc, kero, magical girl, manga, manga review, romance manga, sakura, shipping, shojo manga, syaoran, tomoyo, touya, yaoi, yue, yukito

ccs

It’s a good time to get nostalgic about anime and manga at the moment. Right after Fruits Basket got a sequel series, my other favourite manga series Cardcaptor Sakura is also getting a sequel, to coincide with the manga’s 20th anniversary, and the first chapter has just come out in Japan.

Cardcaptor Sakura is one of Clamp’s most popular series and along with Sailor Moon, it was one of the defining series of the magical girl genre until Madoka came along and turned it super angsty.

I’ve been re-watching the anime lately and it not only still holds up (the only thing that has become outdated is the bulky cell phones), its portrayal of LGBT+ characters was amazingly progressive for a late 90’s show, something that western animation is still struggling to get to grips with. The general rule of Cardcaptor Sakura, and with Clamp manga in general, is that love has no boundaries such as gender, age, or whether a person is technically human. While this does provide a few questionable student/teacher romances, it’s rare to see a series where sexuality and gender identity are treated in such a way. Touya and Yukito were probably the first yaoi couple I knowingly shipped like crazy (I shipped other guys as ‘friends’ thanks to section 28) and it took me this long to realise that Yukito is technically non-binary. If you throw in his alternate form Yue, does that technically make it a polyamorous relationship?

Always date a person who's hair is longer than their body.

Always date a person whose hair is longer than their body.

The plot of the original series was about a precariously cute little girl named Sakura who discovers a book of magical cards called Clow Cards in her father’s library and accidentally sets them all loose. She has to become the Cardcaptor and use her growing magical powers to get them back and stop them causing mischief throughout the town, all while trying to get the cute boy she has a crush on to notice her.

The Clear Card arc picks up almost exactly where the manga left off; on Sakura’s first day of middle school when she and her long distance boyfriend Syaoran are finally reunited and can finally be together forever. But on the same night, Sakura gets another of her prophetic dreams about a mysterious figure in strange clothes, indicating that a new supernatural thereat is on its way.

Even if Sakura has only aged up a few years in the story’s timeline, there is still a strong feeling of ‘my daughter is all grown up’ for the reader. It’s refreshing to see all of the characters again in their original forms, and not with all the Tsubasa alternate dimension self weirdness (sorry Clamp fangirls, but I really didn’t like Tsubasa). Tomoyo, Sakura’s loyal best friend, is hilarious as ever when she films Sakura and Syaoran’s touching reunion and for some reason I find it funny that Kero, a magical creature who has lived for hundreds of years, has an e-mail address.

Perhaps it is because the characters are getting older but something still feels slightly off with this first chapter. Sakura and Syaoran aren’t quite as lovey dovey as you’d expect of a couple who have been separated for years. They even re-exchange their homemade teddy bears, which in the original manga were a symbol of their love for each other. I really worry that is some kind of horribly foreshadowing. There is also a notable absence of Yukito, despite being a major character and presumably an official couple with Touya by now. Perhaps there just wasn’t enough time in the first chapter to introduce him along with everyone else.

Even so, all of these new questions are intriguing. The series has been able to develop itself while still keeping with the spirit of the original. I’m looking forward to the next installments of the story arc and seeing what is going to happen to Sakura and her friends from here.

Manga Review: Fruits Basket Another

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, Blog, internet, manga review, musings, romance, series review, shojo, story

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

fruits basket, fruits basket another, haru sohma, kyo sohma, manga, manga review, natsuki takaya, review, shigure sohma, tohru honda, tokyopop, yuki sohma

fb another

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, the story of a teenage orphan who becomes involved with the reincarnated spirits of the Chinese zodiac, was one of the most influential manga and anime series of my late teen and university years and remains one of my favourite titles ten years later. It was so popular in the west that the end of its print run is probably one of the reasons why Tokyopop closed down. A few months ago it was announced that Takaya was releasing a sequel series online with the same setting but a new cast so of course I was excited. But do we really need another Fruits Basket or is Takaya trying to cash in on her former glory?

The story starts with Sawa Mitoma, a high school girl who purposely avoids interaction with others because she fears she is nothing but a bother. Her mother constantly leaves the house without telling her where she’s going or paying the rent, leaving Sawa to be shouted at by the landlady. After one such occasion makes her late for school and gets her in trouble with a teacher, she is ‘saved’ by a cute boy named Musuki Sohma, a member of the same Sohma clan from the original Fruits Basket. Musuki asks Sawa to go to the student council room after school, where she meets Hajime, another member of the Sohma family…By accidently stepping on his face.

After a few more brief encounters, Musuki announces that Sawa is to be a representative on the student council and all of a sudden the girl who avoided everyone is the talk of the entire school.

There are some instant and noticeable parallels with the story of Fruits Basket. The two Sohma boys are obvious copies of Yuki and Kyo, they might even be their sons, indicating that this is going to be another love triangle story. It already seems that the Kyo clone is going to be the winning love interest. I’m a little disappointed as when I was originally reading Fruits Basket, I shipped Tohru and Yuki for the longest time and thought it would be nice if ‘Yuki’ could be the winner this time. Then again, the Yuki clone is somewhat creepy and forced Sawa into the student council without asking her. Perhaps he is actually Shigure’s son.

I’m also pissed that out of all the five billion characters in Fruits Basket, the only one to make a cameo is Makoto Takei, the obnoxious leader of the student council. The one who Haru showed his… special area to. (It took me years to understand that joke!)

Sawa, like Tohru, is a cute yet plain girl in a criminally short skirt. The big difference I see between her and Tohru is that despite being an orphan and living in the woods, Tohru initially seemed to be endlessly cheerful and optimistic. As the story progressed, it became evident that this was just a mask to deal with her crippling emotional issues. Sawa’s issues are clear from the start, even the cover image spells it out. This made me emphasise with her a lot, especially when the stress gets to her and she starts to cry in public without meaning to, lamenting how she is constantly disappointed in herself. I hate to think what suddenly becoming the centre of attention at school is going to do to her already fragile emotional state.

The artwork and character designs are as adorable as I remember and there is the style of humour that Fruits Basket was known for, especially the face stepping incident. Did the Kyo clone get a good look up her skirt when that happened?

This sequel shows good potential to be just as good as its predecessor and we do know that Takaya is talented enough to pull it off. I do want to find out how Sawa is going to deal with her issues and why she is so important to the Sohmas. It will still take a little longer to see if the series progresses into a worthy successor so I’ll keep reading to see if that happens.

Manga review – Strawberry Panic volume 2.

27 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, manga review, musings, series review, shojo, story, writing

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Tags

anime, backstory, bad writing, bifauxnen, character, character development, japan, love story, manga, mary sue, plot, relationships, romance, story, strawberry panic, yuri

The other week I wrote a review of the first volume of the Strawberry Panic manga. In summary, the characters were vapid Mary Sues, the book didn’t realise it had a plot until half way through and Catholic nuns are surprisingly ok with schoolgirl lesbians. I also found the second and final volume in the local library so of course I want to review that too and find out just how many more ways this manga could be terrible.

The last book ended on a cliffhanger on who Amane’s partner in the Etoile competition was, and we finally see that it is….Some character that has never been seen or mentioned before. What was the point of the cliffhanger?

By the way, it’s worth noting that Kaname is the only dark skinned character in the series and her appearance was completely changed in the anime. It seems that even Japan is whitewashing its characters…

sp 2.1 001

This scene also leaves me a little confused about what relation the Etoile candidates are supposed to have with each other. The position is supposed to be held by two girls, usually one older and one younger, who work together and share the Etoile’s duties. I watched the anime and assumed the position was supposed to be held by two girls with a strong, sister like bond between them, which is why Nagisa and Tamao entered together in the anime. Maybe it’s a mistranslation, but the dialogue in the manga suggests that the Etoile must be a pair of lovers. Not just any lovers, but those who have sworn to be together for all eternity.

It gets even more confusing when Amane says she doesn’t want to enter the contest with Kaname because they both sort of look like boys (although the miniskirts kind of give it away). That’s a problem…how exactly? I thought she was opposed to it because she has a crush on Hikari and Kaname is kind of a bitch. (In the anime she tried to rape Hikari several times.)

Flirting during class is fine but this is scandalous!

Flirting during class is fine but this is scandalous!

Meanwhile, Hikiari and Yaya are in the locker room and…you can guess where this is going, can’t you? Yaya ‘accidently’ unhooks Hikari’s bra then tells her she needs to wear sexy lingerie to impress Amane. Did I mention that these two are in middle school?

She also says ‘Is it the same one you wore at the library the other day?’ implying that they really did do it in that scene in the library! Wow, this manga actually referenced something that happened before! Too bad it doesn’t really contribute anything to the overall story arc.

Shizuma pushing decisions onto Nagisa has finally had some consequences as the other girls who are jealous of Nagisa and Shizuma’s new ‘relationship’ have forced clean up duty onto her and Tamao to punish her. And yet Nagisa is the one who apologises for it and says it’s her fault! Did she forget that Shizuma forced her into it without her consent? Did saying no ever occur to her? Worst of all, Shizuma only did all of this to show off Nagisa as her latest girlfriend! And Nagisa is such a ditz that she just says ‘that’s ok then!’ and starts angsting over a girl she spent maybe an hour of time with. This manga is not only stupid and poorly written, it’s starting to make me angry.

Next we learn that Shizuma previously entered the Etoile contest with her former lover who died of a terminal illness or something. I know that it’s getting repetitive for me to keep comparing the manga and the anime, but in the anime Shizuma’s backstory was hinted at several times before devoting an entire episode to revealed it in a dramatic and heart breaking way. In the manga it’s brought up with virtually no foreshadowing and rushed out as a pitiful explination for Shizuma’s actions, plus an excuse to show girls in swimsuits.

It doesn’t even contribute that much to the story since the very next scene is of Shizuma getting cosy with Nagisa (and I swear they were having a garden party in their pyjamas). Since she’s seemingly already gotten over her past and moved on with Nagisa, it doesn’t form any kind of road block to the two of them getting together.

Oh yeah, she’s in torment. You can just see how torn up she is.

Oh yeah, she’s in torment. You can just see how torn up she is.

The Etoile contest finally begins with a sort of opening ceremony in which the various candidates are forced to essentially vow to be in love for all eternity. No pressure girls, you’re only making a promise to be with the same person forever in front of your Catholic Gods. It’s not like your lover could break up with your or die or something. Oh wait…

Awkward...

Awkward…

And it is only after making this vow of eternal love that Nagisa actually asks someone about Shizuma. How is it that this manga took so long to start the story and still develops their relationship too rapidly? What do the two of them even know about each other?

Next we have the first round of the contest – A horse race where the ‘older sisters’ need to race their horses to a tower where the ‘little sisters’ are being held. The little sisters have to jump from the tower, be caught by the horse rider and race together to the finish line. I’m starting to wonder how much these girls parents are paying to send them to this school and how much they are actually told about their education because THIS CONTEST IS INCREDIBLY STUPID AND DANGEROUS!! This manga is so awful it’s making me type all in caps and overuse the exclamation mark!!

The whole thing is so reliant on split second timing and expert level horse riding skills that it would be very likely for one of the girls to crack her head open or be trampled by a horse. In fact, the tower is so overcrowded that Nagisa gets knocked out and almost falls to her death. She’s only lucky that Shizuma somehow caught her in time.

sp 2.6 001

‘I wish I was doing a spelling test right now.’

 

This contest feels like something out of Ouran High School Host Club, put together just for the romantic visuals of girls being rescued from a tower and carried by their ‘princes’. In fact, I think even Ouran would consider this too over the top.

What does this have to do with being an Etoile? What does an Etoile even do anyway? The manga never explains what the Etoile’s duties are other than look pretty and have the rest of the student body swoon over her. In the anime it mostly involves growing flowers. Does the position often involve rescuing princesses from towers? Maybe the next round will be slaying a dragon while serving tea.

The horse race between Shizuma and Amane is probably the only exciting part of the whole manga, as idiotic as it is, but it’s over in about two pages and we don’t even get to see the end, just a cut to the prize giving scene to reveal that Amane won. But of course she would because she’s in the equestrian club and this round gave her a huge unfair advantage.

sp 2.7 001

In the final scene, Nagisa and Shizuma confess their feelings for each other and kiss, ending with ‘Continued in volume 3!’ You’ll be waiting a long time for that because this manga was unsurprisingly cancelled after only two volumes.

sp 2.8 001

This book was at least somewhat better than the first one. There are far fewer stupid moments, the scenes fit together most of the time and there’s an actual plot. The art is nice and the girls all look adorable, despite one panel where Nagisa looks stoned instead of aroused. But the plot that we do get is awful, the main romance is developed poorly and there are many parts that just made me angry. Nagisa has so little personality and Shizuma is so unsympathetic that it’s hard to feel any support for the two of them getting together.

If you want a cute yuri love story that actually develops characters, relationships and backstories then watch the anime or track down the light novels. You won’t be missing much by skipping this manga.

Manga review – Strawberry Panic volume 1.

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Jessica Wood in adaptation, anime, manga review, musings, random, series review, shojo, story, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

adaptation, anime, Aoi Nagisa, character development, dialogue, fanfiction, girl love, Hanazono Shizuma, light novel, manga, manga review, mary sue, review, romance, strawberry panic, sub plot, writing, yuri

It’s been a very long time since I’ve done a review on this blog, but after seeing this manga at the library in my new town, I knew I had to tear it to shreds. I’m just evil like that sometimes.

cover 1

Strawberry Panic is a yuri series about the various romantic relationships of a group of students attending three affiliated catholic all girl’s schools. It started life as a series of short stories in Dengeki G’s Magazine with couples decided by reader polls. Their success was followed up by light novel, visual novel, and a manga adaptations and then an anime series. It seemingly wasn’t until the anime adaptation that the series developed any plot, character development or charm. (I haven’t read the light novels but they sound fairly good too.) This volume of the manga reads like a terrible fanfiction; just a bunch of gooey, pointless romantic scenes all squashed together with only the barest hint of a plot holding them all together. The characters are even described as typical Mary Sues with ‘ivory hair’ ‘porcelain skin’ and ‘goddess like beauty’.

SP 3 001

The first volume starts the same as the anime with new student Aoi Nagisa getting lost on her first day at St Miator academy and becoming instantly enamoured when she runs into the beautiful and mysterious Hanazono Shizuma. She is the ‘Etoile’ who is basically like the royalty of the three schools. The story then quickly cuts to a week later when Nagisa has to accompany Shizuma on their assigned duty to collect holy water for the Easter celebration. The nuns must have been waiting for that holy water until Christmas because almost half of the book is the two of them wandering around to various places along the way and getting into random ‘romantic’ scenarios. They even have one in the middle of a crowded classroom, during class! Was the sister just sitting at the back playing Angry Birds while this was going on?

SP 4 001

The catholic school setting of this series has always confused me. I think it might have been for the ‘forbidden love’ angle but considering that virtually every character in this series is a lesbian and the staff never seem too bothered with the various lesbian couples, possibly even encouraging them to get together, their relationships hardly seem forbidden. The sister in the manga even says ‘the student going with you today will have an “eventful” time, won’t she?’.

‘Now girls, no lesbian sex while class is in session. Save that for mass this evening.’

‘Now girls, no lesbian sex while class is in session. Save that for mass this evening.’

Yes, the sisters of this school are fully aware of all the lesbian sex that is happening all the time and don’t even care! Maybe this is set in a world where Catholicism is more lax on these things, but then why include the catholic school setting in the first place then?

All this stupidity distracted me from the story, what little there is. Nagisa and Shizuma seemingly forget all about their classes or the holy water and go to the library, where the students all meet up for ‘liaisons’. There’s a really weird scene between two supporting characters, Hikari and Yaya, who are there to spy on Hikari’s crush, a popular girl named Amane, who is so popular she is nicknamed ‘The Prince’. Yaya has a crush on Hikari and randomly starts touching her up. And then we go back to Nagisa and Shizuma and the scene is never mentioned again! This will happen a lot in this manga, in fact the whole thing is basically random seduction scenes that are dropped and never brought up for the rest of the story.

SP 5 002

About half way through the manga suddenly remembers it has a plot and there’s a long tedious dialogue about the upcoming Etoile elections, but it’s still nothing more than a bunch of random scenes spliced together that go nowhere.

Meanwhile, Nagisa’s best friend and room mate Tamao has come to find Nagisa and Shizuma. I assume they spent so long fetching the holy water that everyone thought they had died. Tamao and Nagisa’s relationship is basically an expy of Sakura and Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura, minus all likability. Tamao has a huge crush on Nagisa, who remains oblivious despite Tamao’s rather…disturbing attachment to her. While this was mostly played for laughs in the anime and you could still admire the close friendship between the two, in the manga it’s downright creepy. If you thought Tomoyo dressing up Sakura and video taping her was weird, then stay away from this manga.

Tamao stumbles upon Nagisa with Shizuma and assumes that they’ve already done it, and with the amount of time they’ve been away it’s understandable that she’d make that assumption. But Nagisa cheers her up with a cheesy ‘we’re such good friends yay!’ scene that still sounds like it came out of a poorly written love confession.

SP 7 001

To halt Tamao’s advances towards Nagisa, Shizuma announces that she’s going to enter the Etoile competition with Nagisa and then just leaves, so Nagisa doesn’t really have any choice in the matter despite being the supposed main character.

While in the anime Nagisa was naïve and clumsy, she was also kind, cheerful and actually called Shizuma out on her actions. In the manga she feels like nothing more than a Barbie doll who cares more about how pretty her uniform is than anything else, with dialogue like ‘Hymns sound kinda cool!’. She just drifts from scene to scene and lets things happen to her rather than have any actual say in them. ‘Nagisa, you’re my lover now.’ ‘Nagisa, we’re entering the Etoile competition now.’ ‘Nagisa, we’re going to fight an army of orcs now.’

SP1 001

After all that, I’m not sure they even delivered the holy water…

The last chapter switches focus to Hikari and Amane, who were by far my favourite couple in the anime. Too bad their sweet, emotional story is a copy of Nagisa and Shizuma’s, except with more whining and George Lucas esque dialogue.

Bleurgh....

Bleurgh….

The Etoile entrants are announced and Amane isn’t happy with who she’s been paired with. The book ends on a sort of cliffhanger, teasing the identity of who Amane’s partner is, but since this hasn’t been foreshadowed at all I’m sure it’s not that exciting anyway.

I feel bad comparing this manga to a fanfic because there are tonnes of fanfics that are much better written than this manga. It’s just fluffy spank material with no substance to it at all and barely any effort put into the writing. I found the second and final volume in the library as well so I’ll be reviewing that next week. I just really want to know if they finally deliver the holy water…

Manga review – I Am Here!

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, internet, manga review, musings, series review, shojo, story

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Tags

blogging, fruits basket, i am here, internet relationships, kodansha, manga review, romance manga, school manga, shojo manga

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

The amount of slice of life shojo manga out there seems to be severely lacking ever since Fruits Basket ended. There have been re-prints of old titles like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, which we all appreciate, but when it comes to pure slice of life, there’s only been smaller, lesser known titles. Ouran High School Host Club probably doesn’t count because it’s more insane rich people.

I Am Here is one of those lesser known titles that deserves a bit more recognition. And that’s what I’m here for.

It’s the story of a middle school girl named Hikage Sumino who has no friends at school because she is invisible. Not literally of course. She is so quiet and shy that no one ever notices her; her classmates, her teachers, even waiters look right through her.

But really, if Hikage is as ‘plain’ looking as everyone in the manga says she is, then Japan must be full of slim, adorable, bright eyed, long haired teenage girls!

fanpop.com

fanpop.com

Behold, an ‘average’ teenage girl!

Hikage’s only joy comes from looking after a sunflower that she has found growing in a hidden corner of the schoolyard. And her only outlet to the world is through her photo blog, where she talks to her two online friends Black Rabbit and Mega Pig, who console her and try to help her with her problems.

One day, Hikage is surprised to find that Hinata, the most popular boy in school, knows her name. And not only that, he’s been watching her for a long time (don’t worry, not in a creepy stalker way) and wants to be friends with her.

Hikage is thrilled to finally be accepted by someone, but the other girls in her class soon become jealous of all the attention he is giving her. So Hikage must decide whether she should finally come out into the sun or stay in the shade where it’s safe.

fanpop.com

fanpop.com

I think I’m drawn to this series because in a lot of ways, it is a lot like Fruits Basket. The Hikage/Hinata/Teru trio has an almost uncanny resemblance to Tohru, Yuki and Kyo. But be warned, the romantic pairings may be a little different…

It lacks the soul crushing angst of Fruits Basket while keeping the heartwarming moments and occasional comedy that we all read it for. Hikage’s invisibility, as much of a heartache it is for her, is actually treated with humour. And so is the road accident that leaves her in the hospital for months!

The artwork is wonderfully shojo with lots of sparkles and flowers and pleasing character designs. The covers are simple, colourful and fitting and I also like how the members of Hikage’s class each have their own unique character designs rather than just being stick figure mooks. Although this class of 30 only seems to have about 5 boys in it…

This is a series that will really speak to anyone who has ever felt unnoticed. Things like the feeling of dread when the teacher asks the class to get into groups are all too relatable for shy people. It makes Hikage’s story incredibly realistic.

The ‘online friend is someone you know in real life’ story is a little done to death by now and writers still can’t seem to comprehend just how unlikely this story actually is. But thankfully it doesn’t actually take up that much of the plot. The first book is more about Hikage becoming accepted among her classmates and dealing with bullies while the second is about the love triangle.

The big reveal that the story builds up to is maybe a little obvious to any savvy shojo fan. It also takes quite a while for the third wheel in the love triangle, Teru, to get much focus in the story, and that dilutes the romance plot quite a bit.

The boy’s actions are also a little suspect, at least in my eyes. Hinata, love interest number 1, makes Hikage promise to pass her tests so that they can go to the fireworks festival together. But then he ends up messing her around so much that she can’t study and fails her tests, leaving her feeling guilty for breaking her promise! I’m sorry but that is NOT the way you treat a young girl with severe self-confidence issues.

At five volumes combined into two omnibuses in the English release by Kodansha, this series is refreshingly short compared to the never ending drama of Furuba. But in a way, that also hinders it as the love triangle element of the story comes in a bit suddenly half way through the story and is then resolved rather quickly.

Still, this is a great little series for shojo fans that most definitely needs more love. Check it out if you want a good, heartwarming story about love and acceptance.

My verdict – 5/5.

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