Shoujo one-shots: bonutzuu’s manga archive

Welcome to another entry in my manga archive, where I pretty much write about obscure manga bought from book rental stores that closed down. It’s going to be too many posts if I do these separately, so I’ll pool all the one-shots I’ve read over the past few days in this single post.

Mizu no Yakata

A boy who lost both his parents suddenly remembered that he had a brother who went missing six years ago. However, when he finally found his brother, he realized it wasn’t a simple missing persons case.

Mizu no Yakata is a supernatural horror one-shot spinoff of Kodomo no Omocha. My friend warned me that this author writes disturbing stories, and from this one shot, I have to agree. It’s disturbing and a little bit bloody. I read another story by the same author called ‘Partner’ and it’s disturbing and unsettling as hell, lot more than this one shot.

Mizu no Yakata is not that scary, but it’s surely not for those looking for something light to read.

Included one shot: POCHI. This one, I really like although it’s a bit messed up. A girl nicknamed the ‘stressed-out queen’ met a boy who’s the most stress free person in the country. However, she found out that he’s being raised like a dog by his mother, who had some mental disorder that caused her to see her son as her dead dog instead of a human being. The boy didn’t care, though. He acted like a dog and ate dog food so that his family can be happy. He also seemed to lack common sense, since when the girl said she wanted to die, he really did let her die only to save her later.

The guy helped the girl find her own standing and the girl helped the guy go through some changes in his life, and all and all, pretty sweet one shot. Despite being a little messed up, pretty sweet. Aha. Ha ha ha. *awkward laugh*

Sora

I don’t know how to write a spoiler-free summary lol. It’s about this girl coping with the loss of someone dear to her. You’ll see the death flag if you read it.

The story was written by Chaco, based on a true story sent into her email by one of the readers called Sayo (same name as the heroine of the story). The artist is Mizutani Ai.

Even though I haven’t had something similar happen in my life, it seems relatable. The story feels really realistic for a shoujo.

Included one shots: there are two.

One is about a girl whose boyfriend died because of Truck-kun. He came back to her as a ghost to finish something they couldn’t do when he was alive. The girl wanted him to stay forever even as a ghost, but in the end he had to leave. Similar feel to Sora; it’s about people trying to move on.

The other one shot is about a girl who had a crush on her teacher. Said teacher had amnesia from an accident, so she (who was involved in the accident) lied and told him that she’s his girlfriend. Stuff happened, they run into her classmates, she’s exposed, but then the teacher really did fall in love with her so I guess they’ll wait until she’s old enough?

Aside from Sora, the other two were forgettable. Still enjoyable.

Oh, and look at this library card still attached to the cover. I’m going to donate this book since I feel bad letting it rot in my shelf lol.

Ginga no Kodou

Very little info is online about this manga, so I guess I’ll just spoil the story? This is basically the entire plot: Guy falls in love with a girl who has a bad heart. She gets a heart attack while trying to kiss. Luckily she survived and they live happily. The end.

Ginga no Kodou features Ginga (the main guy) and his exposure to pornography, his conflict with his father who is very into archaeology but cannot hold a stable job, and finally his first love with that girl who got a heart attack. It’s a bit all over the place, but at least the story found its focus half way through. It’s a feel-good manga so luckily no one died.

Included one shots:

There’s one story about a girl who fell in love with an art teacher, who transferred into her village from the city. Said art teacher had a girlfriend who died in an accident, leaving only a portrait. The girl felt a bit sad that he still loved the girlfriend. However, when the house where the art teacher was staying at burned, the girl rushed into the house, trying to save the girlfriend’s portrait. The dead girlfriend’s ghost then possessed the girl, came back to tell the art teacher to go back to Tokyo and do what he really wanted to do. And so he found salvation and went back to Tokyo. And so the main girl, who was probably still in love with the teacher, aimed to go to Tokyo in order to meet him again.

The other one is about a girl who was told by a boy in her class that her hairstyle was so unfashionable, so she went to the beautician only to find out that the boy was actually a trainee there. He became her personal stylist, so that he can practice to get an actual license. They grew closer, then a bunch of misunderstandings happened, and then they finally understand each other. The end.

I didn’t like this one too much. I find that the stories are quite generic.

Kimi wa Boku no Kagayakeru Hoshi

Written by the same author as Chihayafuru. This is a two chapter manga plus one side story. The main girl’s boyfriend is going to Hokkaido. The first two stories is about them trying to keep the relationship alive despite having to be apart, and the stars will always connect them, etc. The end.

Plot is standard and main girl can be a bit too much sometimes, but that gave her the room for a lot of character development.

The side story is about the girl’s best friend. The friend goes back to her hometown and reunites with her childhood crush, who owns a strawberry farm short on manpower. She helps out and the two got over some problems together. She goes back to college and studies about agriculture business in order to help her crush in the future when they get married. I like this story a lot because of the mood, even though it’s the classic city girl-farm boy love story.

Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito -Romance-

Absolute crap.

Okay, that was a bit strong, but that’s what I thought after reading through. Sorry if you like the game or the anime, but this manga adaptation is just horrible. It’s written in a way that only the author can understand what’s going on. It threw everything out the window: plot, character, development, theme, everything.

Oh, there’s ecchi? Nope, my country is strict on the censoring laws so I got none of it. I don’t care about the ecchi anyway when everything else beside the art is bad.

That was all. Thanks for reading. See you next time.