[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1: Mizuki, a girl from the U.S. who has lied about her gender to transfer to a boys' school in order to meet Izumi Sano, the man of her dreams. What will happen to her life at the boys' school full of danger?
4.5 stars.
We kick off this volume right where the previous one left off, with the gang all still hard at work at the part time summer job. And of course, surprise surprise, Kagurazaka appears with his sisters! One of whom has the biggest crush on Sano! Ashiya has to deal with her feelings while trying to maintain her secret. But her attempts don't last for long, and someone discovers the truth. Then soon enough, Ashiya learns the hard way about her co-workers intentions, as Sano and Nakatsu rush to her rescue.
And speaking of rescue, Ashiya certainly runs into a lot of problems in this volume, haha. An upcoming school competition once again puts her to the test, and also makes her a target! As she tries to fight for her dorm's victory, all the while trying to appear as boy-ish as possible in a dress, she comes under various attempts of assault to soil her chances of success. Can she push through and still score for her team? And once Sano catches wind of her endangerment, his emotions too are put on the stand. Just how does he really feel about Ashiya?
I know these are the collector's editions, but I wish they chopped up the chapters to go more in line with how the original story was broken up. I don't know why they didn't just combine two books into one, like I've seen with other collector's editions. Instead, they just put 11 chapters in each volume, which doesn't match the original flow of the story. It's pretty obvious where one volume starts/stops, so it was not as smooth of a read as it could've been. Just a strange editing choice.
I noticed this in the first volume as well, but it is a bit funny to see a Japanese person write about American culture through their characters...which do not accurately reflect American culture x'D (The siblings kissing in the first volume had me like @_@ lol we do NOT do that here xD That is a French/European stereotype, idk where the author got that info xDDD) Idk if the author has much experience with the US or what, but as someone born here, it does not reflect my or people I know's experiences xD (Not a negative thing with this manga, just very amusing, I had to point it out!)
Like the previous volume, I wish there was a little more with the other boys, but it was still nice to get what we did here! A few more characters popped up (Hello Tennoji and Oscar!), and we had a touch of backstory for Nanba. It was also still fun to see how this compares to the two dramas, though I wish Ashiya stood up for herself a /little/ more. She needs to be rescued like, every other chapter ^^;
And I suppose Kagurazaka has his bit of redemption here too, but man, volume one he was a massive jerk. He'll have to do more here to be forgiven for me still.
Total aside as well, but I also feel like the books are much more pro-gay than the dramas? Like, a lot of the characters are just chill about boys loving boys in this. Mostly with the 2007 drama, I felt like the shows were not as...ideal? I guess, about being gay/gay rep. So that's cool to see :)
Not as intense of a cliff-hanger with this volume, but it still leaves you wanting more! Where will things go from here? Only one way to find out ;)
For Japanese Learners:
As this is a series, my thoughts are the same as volume one, which you can read more about that + my thoughts on the series as a whole here: https://learnnatively.com/review/b012ff0d41/
4.5 stars. We kick off this volume right where the previous one left off, with the gang all still hard at work at the part time summer job. And of course, surprise surprise, Kagurazaka appears with his sisters! One of whom has the biggest crush on Sano! Ashiya has to deal with her feelings while trying to maintain her secret. But her attempts don't last for long, and someone discovers the truth. Then soon enough, Ashiya learns the hard way about her co-workers intentions, as Sano and Nakatsu rush to her rescue.
And speaking of rescue, Ashiya certainly runs into a lot of problems in this volume, haha. An upcoming school competition once again puts her to the test, and also makes her a target! As she tries to fight for her dorm's victory, all the while trying to appear as boy-ish as possible in a dress, she comes under various attempts of assault to soil her chances of success. Can she push through and still score for her team? And once Sano catches wind of her endangerment, his emotions too are put on the stand. Just how does he really feel about Ashiya?
I know these are the collector's editions, but I wish they chopped up the chapters to go more in line with how the original story was broken up. I don't know why they didn't just combine two books into one, like I've seen with other collector's editions. Instead, they just put 11 chapters in each volume, which doesn't match the original flow of the story. It's pretty obvious where one volume starts/stops, so it was not as smooth of a read as it could've been. Just a strange editing choice.
I noticed this in the first volume as well, but it is a bit funny to see a Japanese person write about American culture through their characters...which do not accurately reflect American culture x'D (The siblings kissing in the first volume had me like @_@ lol we do NOT do that here xD That is a French/European stereotype, idk where the author got that info xDDD) Idk if the author has much experience with the US or what, but as someone born here, it does not reflect my or people I know's experiences xD (Not a negative thing with this manga, just very amusing, I had to point it out!)
Like the previous volume, I wish there was a little more with the other boys, but it was still nice to get what we did here! A few more characters popped up (Hello Tennoji and Oscar!), and we had a touch of backstory for Nanba. It was also still fun to see how this compares to the two dramas, though I wish Ashiya stood up for herself a /little/ more. She needs to be rescued like, every other chapter ^^;
And I suppose Kagurazaka has his bit of redemption here too, but man, volume one he was a massive jerk. He'll have to do more here to be forgiven for me still.
Total aside as well, but I also feel like the books are much more pro-gay than the dramas? Like, a lot of the characters are just chill about boys loving boys in this. Mostly with the 2007 drama, I felt like the shows were not as...ideal? I guess, about being gay/gay rep. So that's cool to see :)
Not as intense of a cliff-hanger with this volume, but it still leaves you wanting more! Where will things go from here? Only one way to find out ;)
For Japanese Learners:
As this is a series, my thoughts are the same as volume one, which you can read more about that + my thoughts on the series as a whole here: https://learnnatively.com/review/b012ff0d41/