meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2009-08-16 02:13 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2009-08-16 02:13 pm
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manga: Wallflower Vol 19-20
It is, perhaps, a good thing that I wasn’t able to read volume 19 when it first came out (or close to it) as Noi doesn’t show up in these volumes until halfway through volume 20. While Noi isn’t my favorite character, she’s rather like Moko in Skip-Beat, where a large part of my fondness has to do with her role in the series, and her friendship with the main character. Except that the absence of, you know, anything resembling consistent plot of character progression or arcs makes me crankier when Noi is absent for long.
For the curious, yes, Tomoko Hayakawa remains the world’s laziest manga artist this side of Tite Kubo, battling it out with him over who has a greater aversion to drawing more than the sparsest of backgrounds. (Now, if it’s a fight between the leads, then I’m afraid Sunako beats Ichigo based on stubbornness and a greater willingness to fight dirty. That, and I’m not sure Ichigo has really figured out how to hit girls yet…)
You know the phrase “it’s not Clamp until someone loses an eye”? I think Wallflower needs a similar phrase. Something like “it’s not Wallflower if no one’s been possessed in the last 10 chapters.” This time, it’s Ranmaru’s turn to be possessed by the landlady’s dead husband. That arc simultaneously cracked me up and skeeved me out. Mostly because I’m still getting over Dollhouse. It was followed up by another Ranmaru-centric chapter, where his parents and his still-nameless fiancee’s parents (does he even know her name?) hope to leave them alone overnight and convince him to finally agree to marry her. As much as I adore her and as cute as they tend to be, I have to admit that I’m not sure I could ever see them working out. I think he’d go crazy with someone who went so far out of her way to control her reactions, and I don’t think he’s nearly aware enough of the things around him to make her happy.
Of course, the polar opposite there is Noi, who is incapable of controlling her reactions to anything I’m not sure if she’s the world’s worst kidnapper, or the world’s best kidnapper. I’m sure Kyohei, Yuki, and Ranmaru would say “best.”
Then there was Sunako’s princely “fiancé,” who apparently hides his own bishounen somewhere under the sunken cheeks and giant glasses, but we never see it. That kingdom really would have been the kingdom of Sunako’s dreams if it weren’t for the absence of Japanese food! That sequence also took one of my most hated tropes-“the right guy” shows up at the girl’s wedding to the “wrong” one and they run out of the chapel together. Of course, Sunako, being Sunako, had yet to actually figure out that she was getting married, and Kyohei wasn’t acting out of true love, but to save her from a life without Japanese food! (At this point, I think it’s safe to say that Kyohei has figured out that he has feelings for Sunako, even if he is in denial over it, and is justifiably fearful of what would happen if she really realized that either had feelings for the other.)
There are also a couple of odd chapters. In one, Kyohei suddenly becomes a cleaning fiend, outdoing Sunako. In the other, the boys try to dictate what Sunako will cook for their New Years food. Both are primarily noteworthy for being odd and making me want to figuaratively kick teenaged boys in the heads so that they would mature by about a decade or two, and ending with the reminder that Sunako cooks and cleans because those are things she enjoys doing, not an obligation or a need to feel useful or appreciated. Even when she gets obsessed about learning how to cook a new food or worrying that the boys are enjoying other food more than her own, it’s purely out of personal desire to be able to cook something else, and not be second best at something she cares about. (Like, things could get really ugly if someone showed up claiming to be a better horror fan.)
For the curious, yes, Tomoko Hayakawa remains the world’s laziest manga artist this side of Tite Kubo, battling it out with him over who has a greater aversion to drawing more than the sparsest of backgrounds. (Now, if it’s a fight between the leads, then I’m afraid Sunako beats Ichigo based on stubbornness and a greater willingness to fight dirty. That, and I’m not sure Ichigo has really figured out how to hit girls yet…)
You know the phrase “it’s not Clamp until someone loses an eye”? I think Wallflower needs a similar phrase. Something like “it’s not Wallflower if no one’s been possessed in the last 10 chapters.” This time, it’s Ranmaru’s turn to be possessed by the landlady’s dead husband. That arc simultaneously cracked me up and skeeved me out. Mostly because I’m still getting over Dollhouse. It was followed up by another Ranmaru-centric chapter, where his parents and his still-nameless fiancee’s parents (does he even know her name?) hope to leave them alone overnight and convince him to finally agree to marry her. As much as I adore her and as cute as they tend to be, I have to admit that I’m not sure I could ever see them working out. I think he’d go crazy with someone who went so far out of her way to control her reactions, and I don’t think he’s nearly aware enough of the things around him to make her happy.
Of course, the polar opposite there is Noi, who is incapable of controlling her reactions to anything I’m not sure if she’s the world’s worst kidnapper, or the world’s best kidnapper. I’m sure Kyohei, Yuki, and Ranmaru would say “best.”
Then there was Sunako’s princely “fiancé,” who apparently hides his own bishounen somewhere under the sunken cheeks and giant glasses, but we never see it. That kingdom really would have been the kingdom of Sunako’s dreams if it weren’t for the absence of Japanese food! That sequence also took one of my most hated tropes-“the right guy” shows up at the girl’s wedding to the “wrong” one and they run out of the chapel together. Of course, Sunako, being Sunako, had yet to actually figure out that she was getting married, and Kyohei wasn’t acting out of true love, but to save her from a life without Japanese food! (At this point, I think it’s safe to say that Kyohei has figured out that he has feelings for Sunako, even if he is in denial over it, and is justifiably fearful of what would happen if she really realized that either had feelings for the other.)
There are also a couple of odd chapters. In one, Kyohei suddenly becomes a cleaning fiend, outdoing Sunako. In the other, the boys try to dictate what Sunako will cook for their New Years food. Both are primarily noteworthy for being odd and making me want to figuaratively kick teenaged boys in the heads so that they would mature by about a decade or two, and ending with the reminder that Sunako cooks and cleans because those are things she enjoys doing, not an obligation or a need to feel useful or appreciated. Even when she gets obsessed about learning how to cook a new food or worrying that the boys are enjoying other food more than her own, it’s purely out of personal desire to be able to cook something else, and not be second best at something she cares about. (Like, things could get really ugly if someone showed up claiming to be a better horror fan.)