Last Game By Amano Shinobu

Konnichiwa~

Hope you all had a happy new year! My first review for 2013 will by Last Game by Amano Shinobu. It’s a cute shoujo manga that is currently ongoing, there are about 3 volumes out in Japan and 14 chapters have already been scanlated in English.

The story begins in primary school with Hisato Yanagi: smart, popular, and rich. He’s the center of attention at school and number 1 at everything. That is, until Mikoto Kujou transfers and beats him in both academics and sports. What angers him even more is that she’s quiet, plain, and poor; he becomes obsessed with beating her. He’s even as desperate as to make her fall in love with him; if she does he’ll consider it a victory. But in his attempts to get closer to her, he falls in love with her. But Kujou has spent most of her life helping and supporting her mother, her only family, so is rather dense when it comes to any type of relationship, even friendship is something unfamiliar to her. The manga skips to them in college: Kujou finally realizes how important Yanagi is to her, how his always been by her side; though she doesn’t realize what she’s in love with him, her social skills are improving. The latest chapter shows her dealing with these new feelings and worrying that Yanagi might get annoyed with her and come to hate her, some progress for someone as dense as her. There aren’t too many chapters out, so it shouldn’t take long to catch up and start waiting for the new releases.

Now, Yanagi is definitely a tsundere, getting angry whenever he becomes flustered and embarrassed; at first he doesn’t want to admit he has feelings for Kujou and even says that he went out with other girls in a futile attempt to forget her. He’s stopped doing such things and is currently focusing on his feelings for Kujou, looking out for her and trying to get her to fall for him. He truly cherishes her and enjoys ever moment he can be with her; once they fell asleep next to each other and he held her hand, when he woke up he adorably apologized for taking advantage of her. He’s so cute that you can’t help but root for him. Then there’s Kujou; quiet, studious, and cool. I typically dislike female leads that are dense, but I can’t really hate Kujou who’s spent so much of her life trying to take care of her mother. She’s hardworking in all aspects of life, even when it comes to school and making new friends; after realizing how important Yanagi is to her, she begins wanting to make friends and experience life a bit more, do something else besides housework and studying. And despite not understanding her feelings for Yanagi, its obvious that she cares about him.

The art is lovely as well, very clean and smooth; though the ink lines seem a bit thick at times, it’s overall very charming; the eyes aren’t too big and they look about their age. Though the romance looks like its going to be rather slow, I think it’s a cute and funny manga and highly recommend it.

~Nadeshiko-chan