Suzuki Tanaka

I went into this not knowing much more about it than its premise and that, according to the “reception” section on its Wikipedia page, one reviewer mostly liked it but was annoyed by its lack of sex. I didn't even bother to read the full review – I just ordered a bunch of volumes in the series and hoped for the best. My wish was for it to be cute and funny fluff. Unfortunately, I didn't really get what I wished for.

First, the story: Yoshida is an awkward and funny-looking high school show more kid who would kind of like to have a girlfriend. However, all the girls hate him because Sato, the most popular guy at school, keeps turning them down, saying he already has plans with Yoshida. Which confuses the heck out of Yoshida, because as far as he knows he and Sato don't even know each other all that well. He hates being used as Sato's excuse. And why doesn't Sato ever throw anyone else to the wolves (girls)? Is the guy just messing with him or something?

Yoshida eventually realizes that he and Sato do know each other, which is about the same time that Sato starts hitting on him. It embarrasses Yoshida and freaks him out a little...but he also kind of likes it. Except Sato doesn't seem to be nearly as affected as he is, which upsets him even more.

According to the author's note at the end, this started off as a standalone short and was later expanded into a series. It's...rough. In this volume, Yoshida came off as being somewhat high-strung. After thinking about it, I realized that was in large part due to the fact that he spent the entire volume on edge and/or embarrassed. Which in turn put me on edge. I didn't like that Sato's interactions with Yoshida were mostly based on making Yoshida uncomfortable.

Sato just wouldn't back off. For example, at one point Yoshida turned down Sato's offer to tutor him after he flunked a test because “the thought of being alone with Sato is too scary” (77). But then he flunked the test again and ended up accepting Sato's offer on the condition that all the two of them do together is study...a promise that Sato ended up breaking (leading to Yoshida's first orgasm - so far this series doesn't have explicit sex, but it does have non-explicit on-page sexual acts).

I liked Yoshida well enough, and it helped that, once he realized liking a guy was an option, he really did seem to be attracted to Sato. But I didn't like Sato, and I really wish Yoshida's first romance were with someone else. Sato made no bones about the fact that he's a bit of a sadist and enjoys seeing Yoshida squirm, and I thought Yoshida deserved better.

Sato's public face was of someone who was relatively easy-going, but privately he had a lot going on. Tanaka barely scratched the surface, and I think Sato could be an enormously interesting character in later volumes if Tanaka ever opts to go a bit deeper...but I have my doubts that's going to happen, because the results would probably be darker than what Tanaka seems to be going for. For example, here's a quote from Sato, near the end of the volume: “When I was in grade school, I used to dream of inventing a weapon that would wipe out mankind. By the time I met Tsuyako [another unsettling character], I imagined flying to the ends of the universe. I wanted to be alone at the edge of space, where I'd never have to meet another person. But everything's different now. Now that I've found you again.” (129) I just can't see years of festering negative emotions being fixed just like that, and Sato made it clear, earlier in the volume, that he still believed his fellow classmates could turn on him at any moment if he wasn't the perfect guy they expected.

So...yeah. The romance made me uncomfortable, but I liked Yoshida and found Sato to be a potentially fascinating (if unsettling) character. And I did laugh at some of the humor. I just hope the romance gets better. Less Sato pushing himself on Yoshida, more actual romance. And maybe more evidence of vulnerability on Sato's part.

Extras:

- About a third of the volume was devoted to a short unrelated manga called "People-Pleaser." It was about a boy who'd moved so often he'd gotten used to molding himself into whoever he needed to be in order to make friends as quickly as possible. Except one guy in his newest class seemed to be a little tougher than usual, sometimes liking him and sometimes shying away. I really liked this story. After His Favorite's main story, I found this to be surprisingly sweet and emotionally subtle.

- A 9-page manga starring several of His Favorite's characters. I think it might be the lead-up to something another character sees on page 81 of the main story. Yoshida asks Sato to go on a date with him. Yay, Yoshida is an active participant in their relationship for once!

- A one-page author's note.

- A full-color illustration that makes Sato look like a giant and Yoshida look like an adorable goof.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I've written this review assuming that anyone reading it has either read the previous volume in this series or doesn't care about spoilers for past volumes. You've been warned.

Okay, so this volume basically has four separate stories. First, Sato is bummed because he's going to be forced to go on a family trip from Christmas to the start of the new year. Yoshida accidentally upsets him and then meets an old man who may or may not be Santa Claus. In the next part of the volume, Machiko, the show more student council president, comes up with a plan that she thinks will guarantee her a spot next to Sato at a warm kotatsu. After that, readers get to see where things stand between Azuma and Nishida. Sato proves to be more helpful than I expected. The volume wraps up with a class field trip, which is particularly special because it's Sato's very first field trip ever.

This is the first full volume since Sato told everyone that he and Yoshida are a couple. The first story, with the strange possible-Santa (okay, not really Santa, although Yoshida and Sato did manage to get a Christmas miracle) was a bit odd, but I loved how bummed Sato looked that he and Yoshida weren't going to get to spend that time together. I found Tanaka's artwork, which exaggerated his feelings by making him look particularly haggard and shadowed, to be surprisingly funny (and cute?), I think because the Sato of several volumes ago would never have shown so much of his true feelings in public.

Technically the next part of the volume, with all the girls fighting for the right to sit with Sato at the kotatsu, wasn't much different from any of the past “girls fighting for the right to be with Sato” stories. This difference, this time around, was that neither Sato nor Yoshida had to hide their feelings for each other. Sato gesturing for Yoshida to come sit with him while everyone was distracted was a lovely moment.

As for the bit with Azuma and Nishida, I'm not sure what to think of those two. If they became a couple, it would keep Nishida out of Sato and Yoshida's way, but they're so awkward together. Azuma can't seem to find a happy medium in his behavior towards Nishida – either he throws himself at him too forcefully, or he pulls back too much. Sato's advice to Azuma worked surprisingly well, but I'm not sure he'll be able to identify the right time to switch gears.

The field trip was the best part of the volume. I found myself smiling through almost the whole thing. Sato's open enthusiasm for the trip was a little weird after so many volumes of him trying to look as cool and calm as possible, but it was still fun to see. So much of this part was ridiculously adorable: Sato's anticipation of the trip, Yoshida enjoying Sato's anticipation of the trip, and the way all their classmates reacted. The girls managed to rein in their jealousy for once, just so that Sato could have a “nice and typical field trip.” Well, as typical as possible considering that girls from other schools all wanted Sato too.

As far as Sato and Yoshida being a couple went, most of the characters seemed to have either accepted it or decided not to think about it too much (it was tough to say, although at least no one went around saying “__ sure is a great guy! Even if he is gay!” the way they did with Nishida in volume 4). The school's boys were disappointed that Sato dating Yoshida didn't mean the girls had given up on him. The school's girls were just as determined to get him to themselves as ever, and yet they forced themselves to hang back during the field trip so that Sato could enjoy it with Yoshida. The most awkward moment came when everyone was about to go to sleep for the night (everyone in sleeping bags in the same room, girls in one room and boys in another) and Makimura ordered Sato and Yoshida not to “get it on” while he was sleeping nearby. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, not even Sato had thought about doing anything until Makimura brought it up.

I really liked this volume. Sadly, I have now read all the volumes in this series that I had on hand. I definitely plan on buying more in the future.

Extras:

- A 2-page Torachin and Yamanaka update. I really could have done without this update, because I've gone from rooting for this pair to hoping that they break up (Yoshida agrees with me). Yamanaka should be in jail. He drugged Torachin and dragged him to a love hotel. Thankfully Torachin managed to get free and beat the crap out of him.

- A 6-page field trip extra. This shows a little of what was going on while Sato and Yoshida were off having fun. Yamanaka tried to cheat on Torachin (OMG, those two are the worst couple), and Azuma spent the whole time searching for Nishida.

- One color illustration of Nishida and Azuma.

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

Yoshida is secretly still stressing about being a virgin. When he once again meets that cute high school girl who inexplicably has a crush on him (and who he still doesn't realize is Murakami, a guy in drag), he wonders if he might soon have an opportunity to lose his virginity.

After that, the volume focuses on a new transfer student, Takeru Azuma. Azuma hates Yoshida on sight even though, as far as Yoshida knows, they've never met. Nishida may know what's going on, but first Yoshida has show more to track him down – the guy is constantly busy saving people.

At the start of this series, Sato essentially forced himself on Yoshida, and Yoshida was too nervous/confused/attracted to turn him down. However, their relationship soon developed into something more mutually affectionate and loving. For that reason, Yoshida really annoyed me in this volume.

It really bothered him that Sato wasn't a virgin while he was, but instead of thinking about how their relationship had been progressing to the point where they'd soon be having sex, he seemed to be stuck on the idea that he wanted to have sex with a girl. A guy like Sato wouldn't count. At one point, he thought, “Sure I want to lose my virginity...but!...I've got the overwhelming feeling that I might give up something even more important. What's the matter with me lately?” (12-13) Gee, I don't know, maybe it's your conscience reminding you that you're in a committed relationship with Sato, who would almost certainly be hurt if you had sex with someone else?

Thankfully, he did get past this without doing something stupid and irrevocable, but I wasn't 100% convinced that he knew why it would have been a bad idea to hook up with the one girl who seemed interested in him. It made me feel bad for Sato, which was a little weird, since I used to hate the guy.

The second part of the volume was lots of drama, more about the transfer student and Nishida than anything. I loved the flashback to their childhood, which included an amusing moment of fourth wall breaking, and I'm interested to see how things turn out for Azuma. I'm not sure it's a good idea for him to enlist Sato as his teacher, though.

There was another development in this volume that I really enjoyed but can't say too much about without spoiling things. At any rate, I was pleased at how smoothly it went. It would have been easy for Tanaka to use that moment for extra drama and even cruelty, so for once I was glad that the girls continued to be just as cartoonishly jealous and scheming as they had always been.

Extras:

One full-color illustration and a brief non-spoilery author's note ("Then something big but sorta not so big happened" is a perfect description of the moment near the end of the volume).

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

I'm starting to think that the first volume of this series was the roughest, because everything after that one was much better. Volume 4, in particular, was really good.

At the beginning of this volume, Yoshida gets upset when some of the girls call him “ugly” and say that he looks a lot like one of the monsters in an amusement park haunted house. Although Yoshida is terrified of haunted houses, Sato forces him to go to the one the girls mentioned. After that, we get an extended flashback show more to Sato's elementary and middle school years. When he's 12, his parents tell him he'll be going to a boarding school in England. What they don't tell him is that the “boarding school” is actually a brutal fat camp that uses dangerous and unorthodox methods (like combat against wild animals) to help kids lose weight. The volume ends in the present, with Nishida and Sato battling for the right to date Yoshida and the school's girls battling to win a contest that will give them a full day with Sato.

The beginning of volume 4 was probably the weakest part. I felt a bit sorry for poor Yoshida, being forced to go through a haunted house when just the thought of being there terrified him. Sato couldn't seem to decide whether he was being too hard on Yoshida or whether he was enjoying Yoshida hiding behind his back too much to stop.

The flashback, though, was excellent and gave me something I've been wanting for a while, an extended peek into Sato's mind. This entire part was from his POV: being saved from bullies by Yoshida; the day Yoshida got his cross-shaped scar; being shipped off to England by family members that didn't seem to want him around; surviving his three years at that brutal school and even somehow making friends there; and the weird and upsetting feeling, after he returned to Japan, that his fat self had somehow been erased as though it had never existed.

Sato was about as screwed up as I had expected. In elementary school, he emotionally distanced himself as much as possible from the people around him and the things being done to him. His family members didn't even get proper faces, just big black spots with “Sis,” “Mom,” and “Dad” written on them. He even tried not to care too much about Yoshida's efforts to stop others from bullying him, probably so that Yoshida wouldn't have a chance to disappoint him later on.

Tanaka kept the section set during Sato's middle school years from being too grim by making certain elements over-the-top ridiculous. There were races conducted with wild animals running behind the kids as motivation, and combat classes in which the kids had to either defeat wild animals or be carried away on stretchers. I thought it was a little bit too ridiculous, at first, but, combined with some of the other things going on at that school, I think this section would have been too dark if Tanaka had played it all completely straight.

You know how Yoshida found out in volume 3 that Sato wasn't a virgin? Well,Sato's first time having sex was with one of the school's teachers. He'd have been maybe 15 at the time. Apparently the teachers made a regular practice of having sex with any students who turned into stereotypical hotties after they lost weight, and Sato was one of those. That was also how he figured out that he could use his good looks to make weak-willed people do pretty much anything he wanted them to do.So yeah, even with the wild animal combat sessions this section was a bit dark.

One thing that hadn't really occurred to me, prior to reading this volume, was that it wasn't just Yoshida and Sato who'd gone to elementary school together. Most of the students at their high school had also gone to the same elementary school, and some of the guys who wanted to be Sato and some of the girls who wanted to date him might have been the same ones who bullied him a few years earlier. That had to be a bizarre feeling.

After all that heavy stuff, Tanaka decided to end the volume on a lighter note. I absolutely loved the “battles” between Nishida and Sato, even though I agreed with Yoshida that they should have talked with him first. Sato didn't even try to be a better person than Nishida – he'd have had to be a saint. Instead, he thoroughly embraced his role as the over-the-top villain, complete with a panel in which he shouted corny evil lines while looking down at Nishida from atop a cliff (“Yoshida is mine, and it's about time you knew that...in Hell!” (153)). This entire section had me laughing so hard I cried.

After a so-so beginning, this turned out to be the best His Favorite volume yet. I can't wait to see what else Tanaka comes up with.

Extras:

This volume includes one full-color image and a short postscript.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less