Wild Ones Vol 1

[meganbmoore]

Seemingly left alone in the world after her mother's death, 15 year old Sachie is shocked at her mother's funeral when a man tells her that he's her maternal grandfather, who she'd been told was dead.  Even better, she learns that he's a yakuza boss(hence mom telling her he was dead...) and she suddenly finds herself living in a house full of yakuza.  For once, the shojo heroine's freaking out is pretty consistently justified.  Almost immediately, she's assigned a bodyguard, Rakuto, who is her own age.  Rakuto is handsome, charming impeccably polite and alternates between prince charming, a playboy, and a bully.  At school, Sachie learns that he's the most popular boy in school and the student body president.  Rakuto publicly refers to her as his "princess" and says that it's his job to serve her in every way possible.  This, of course, leads his fanclub to assume that their relationship is Purely Professional, and Sachie the perfect way to score a date with Rakuto.  Sadly, they do not realize that Rakuto is one of those shojo heroes who goes around in a state of extreme monomania over the heroine(though in his case, we don't really know how much of it is Sachie, and how much is his loyalty to her grandfather.)  Rakuto also has a habit of randomly and regularly scooping Sachie up, proclaiming his devotion in unspecific but absolute terms, kissing boo boos, etc.  Sachie, so far, is a fairly normal "spunky shojo heroine"(in this case, with a serious mad on for anyone who wastes food or is a thief, thanks to her upbringing) but in the likable way.

So far, it's very fun.  Like most shojo romance, I'm not sure it can hold my interest for a long period of time(they tend to start losing me around vol 4 or 5 if there isn't an end in sight) but we'll see.

Side note:  If I hadn't known what it was about when I first saw the cover, I would have thought it was one of those "powerful priestess type girls with demonic sidekick/bodyguard/love interest" series, due to the setup of the cover and Rakuto's rather demonic appearance.  I think we were seeing him through Sachie-vision.

(Also, seriously, are Yakuza hoods as obsessively devoted to the daughters/granddaughters/nieces of their bosses in RL as they are in anime/manga/dramas?  MY INQUIRING MIND DEMANDS TO KNOW!!)