遠山繪麻

Another fun set of mini-adventures for our struggling manga artist and her motley crew of would-bes. I sometimes feel it could use just a little more structure and some longer plot arcs, but it remains good clean fun. And the manga-within-a-manga is so close to plausible I love it.

Also quite nice to see a harem manga that isn't romantic, doesn't throw fanservice around and focuses on the cast's interactions rather than trying to provide shipping fodder. The series is certainly silly (in a show more good way!) but by sidestepping the romance, it avoids descending into annoying misunderstandings territory just to pad things out. It's all about new professional challenges and Kanna's struggles to overcome them, helped or hindered by her fans. show less

I enjoyed Toyama's Missions of Love series, which has a nice humorous side and some convincingly complicated portrayals of teenage social and romantic interactions. So I was keen to give her other works a try.

Unfortunately for me, I Am Here has a very different vibe. It feels intensely earnest and naive, without humour. Unfortunately, that makes it much harder for me to accept implausibilities, specifically the ways characters interact. While the bullying is depressingly believable, it makes show more no sense to me that the class idols don't step in to protect their friend.

The most striking, though, is the protagonist's impassioned heartfelt speech about friendship and self-improvement, which in the story immediately converts the class from the bullies' side to hers. I've been at school; not only would this not work, she wouldn't even get to make the speech. This whole scene felt wildly implausible, and that didn't gel with the wide-eyed earnestness of the story overall (it's easier to accept literary devices like The Big Speech in a less realistic story).

I suppose it's possible that school in Japan is very different, and people can make deeply personal speeches while classmates stand around listening rather than erupting into mockery five seconds in, despite having been ready to attack them moments earlier?

The characters also feel very one-dimensional, without any distinguishing features. Compared to Toyama's other work it surprised me just how flat everything feels. I won't be bothering with any more volumes. show less

The first omnibus volume introduced Hikage, Hinata, and Teru. Hikage starts off practically invisible to everyone around her except Hinata and Teru. In the first volume, we learned that Hinata has a crush on Hikage. Hinata's jealous fans - one girl in particular - start bullying Hikage for spending too much time with him. In the end she's able to stand up to them.

Whereas the first omnibus volume was focused more on Hikage and her efforts to make friends, this omnibus volume was focused show more more on Hinata and Teru and the mystery of Black Rabbit's identity. Hikage is convinced that Hinata is Black Rabbit, a possibility that's initially appealing but then fills her with horror and embarrassment. Black Rabbit is her kindest and most supportive online friend. If Hinata is Black Rabbit, that could mean that her "friend" was really laughing about her behind her back as he was encouraging her to talk to him more. Hinata keeps denying that he's Black Rabbit, but he's clearly hiding something.

Things become even more difficult for Hikage when Teru realizes that he has a crush on Hikage too and the two best friends, Hinata and Teru, ask her to choose between them. While Hikage tries to figure out what to do, the wedge between Hinata and Teru starts to tear their entire class in two.

I felt so-so about the first omnibus volume, but since this series is so short I felt like I should finish it anyway. This final omnibus had some parts I liked and some I loathed.

I liked the closer look at Hinata and Teru's friendship. Now that I know Black Rabbit's secret (which I didn't clue into while reading the first volume but figured out a few pages into this one), I have a different perspective on what was going on between Hinata and Teru in the first half of the series. The first half of this volume, when Hinata and Teru were still actively trying to make sure that whatever each of them might be feeling for Hikage didn't hurt their friendship, was fine. Unfortunately, it fell apart when the love triangle reared its ugly head.

I hated the love triangle. Once Teru realized that he was in love with Hikage, his and Hinata's relationship devolved into a competition over Hikage. Teru was a liar, too - he'd say that he didn't want to make things difficult for Hikage, but then he'd explicitly ask her to choose between him and Hinata. Since Hinata and Teru's friendship turned out to be the glue that held the entire class together, asking Hinata to choose meant she'd also be responsible for the class group breaking in half, a fact that her fellow classmates picked up on right away (and almost piled on her for). Hikage found herself at risk of not only losing her budding romantic relationship and all her friendships and budding friendships, all because of this stupid love triangle.

The love triangle resolved itself less painfully for the characters than I expected, but that was mostly because Toyama allowed the tension between Hinata and Teru to just sort of magically evaporate. Some aspects of the love triangle never quite went away, despite Hikage making her choice, which left me wondering whether the issue had really been resolved. I suppose it could morph into an inside joke shared by all three of the characters...

In addition to the love triangle, I also hated that the bullying storyline came back, with the exact same bully. Even though her previous plans resulted in her own public humiliation, Aya decided to jump back into the fray with new plans...that could easily be traced back to her and used to humiliate her a second time. Because this is supposed to be fluffy shojo starring a super-sweet heroine, instead of humiliation Aya got an apology, a smile, and an encouraging speech.

Meanwhile, I'm the horrible person who thinks that there was nothing for Hikage to apologize for. Aya was in the wrong for thinking that Hinata was supposed to be some kind of untouchable idol and trying to keep others away from him. She was also in the wrong for bullying Hikage for getting close to him. She made it worse by impersonating several people in the love triangle to further screw up everyone's relationships, all so she could win over a guy who'd already made it clear he wasn't interested in her.

On the plus side, I was glad that Hikage's online relationships didn't quite work out the way I originally thought they were going to. It wasn't as neat and tidy as "Black Rabbit is this person from Hikage's offline life and Mega Pig is that person," and I liked the recognition that the way people interact with others online might not always match how they interact with them in person. So there's that. (And yes, characters could use their flip phones to post comments on Hikage's blog. They do it on-page in this volume, answering the question I had back while I was reading the first volume.)

I didn't hate this series, but this half of it was definitely weaker than the first half, and the first half was mediocre. Parts of the series were stronger than I expected, but the bullying storyline and the love triangle were both annoying. If ever there was a series that I wish had completely ditched its romance aspect and just focused on friendship, it's this one. I was more than a bit horrified when Hikage examined her feelings for Hinata and Teru and began to lean towards the "romantic relationships are more important than friendships" answer. The series didn't quite work out that way, but I still wasn't a fan of how Toyama handled things.

Extras:

The volume includes several author sidebars featuring a not-particularly-interesting comic series starring Mega Pig (the actual cartoon animal) and Mahi (the sunflower character), character profiles for Hikage, Hinata, and Teru, a short comic starring fourth-grade Hinata and Teru, a few pages of humorous short comics, and a few pages of translator's notes. There's also a bonus comic starring Mega Pig (his offline self), which was kind of cute and tied up a few loose ends from the main series.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Cliche and simple, and that makes it more than well done.

Mito's looks are said to be the golden ticket through life, but someone forgot to tell life that. After being fired from the cafe, Mito's back on the street without a thing to live off of. When Ruka, a vampire, crosses Mita's path and soon offers to take care of everything, it's not hard to agree. After all, allowing a vampire to feed a little here and there with the promise of knowing how to stop is better than dying on the streets. show more It might be a dangerous game, but Mito doesn't realize how deadly until she discovers that Ruka doesn't like girls...only the ones he reads about on paper. Mito dresses up as a boy to keep herself safe, since she usually lives on the streets, but she's shocked Ruka hasn't figured that out. Now, she's not sure how she can keep her secret because going back on their deal is no longer an option.

Fans of Vampire Knights, Boys over Flowers, or any tales, which swim between those lines, will enjoy this one. The story is nothing original...(poor girl agrees to deal to survive with hot and wealthy guy, finds out things might not be as she thought, has other hot guys interested in her, romance buds from one direction or the other, and soon, she has all sorts of problems)...but it's exactly this cliche-ness which makes it so wonderful. It's the kind of read to pick up, know what's basically coming up, and yet, has enough twists and turns to pull the reader in.

The graphics follow the plot, allowing it to give the right emotions and context, and creating a great balance with the written words. It's easy to follow, easy to understand, and a quick read. There is a side bar, every now and then, with a humorous cat adding its tidbits. This cheeses it up just right and fits the tale, in general. Because while there is a dark hint, it keeps itself light, too. So, it's a fun mix.

I always find that these are, if anything, too short. The characters gain the needed depth to make them interesting and engaging, and the plot thickens with twists and hints at danger to come. But of course, there's just enough to wet the fangs before the volume is done. The urge to grab up the next one and see what happens next is definitely there. I received a complimentary copy through Netgalley. show less