Okay, another thing I will be doing on this blog is "volume views". These are my first looks at the first manga volume in a series, though I may do other volumes if I feel like it.
Story:
Very similar to another shojo manga series Ouran High School Host Club, S.A has a poor girl at a rich kid's school. Our main female character, Hikari, is in the Special A class, or the top 7 students in the whole academy. Ever since childhood, she has wanted to beat a boy named Kei Takishima, in every "contest" possible. Now the catch is, Kei is almost perfect, resulting in Hikari being No. 2 in school placement. And that Kei is in love with Hikari. Now, I like the idea of an academic-centered shojo manga. The starting romance isn't implied too heavily, but rather a bit more realistic (but Kei doesn't have to yell at Hikari all the time for making him worry. Seriously...) The manga uses each chapter to form a separate small plot, instead of having one continuous flow.
Characters: So here are my thoughts.
Hikari: Here, we've got a gutsy female lead determined to succeed over a "rival" (Kind of reminds me of Kyoko from Skip Beat) She also lets her temper loose whenever Kei calls her "second place".
Kei: He's basically supposed to be perfect. Seriously, who has a photographic memory???
Megumi: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? Hope they explain why she doesn't talk.
Akira: Is she lesbo?
Nagi: Reminds me of Kagura from Fruits Basket.
Artwork:
The art didn't leave an impression on me, really. It's not super-"flowery", like Ayuko's art (It's beautiful, by the way), but it isn't "shonen" style either. I hope this turns out like the manga of Ouran did, with art I didn't really like at first, but it either gets better or I get used to it. The one thing I noticed about the cover, is that Hikari's face looks more like a guy's, and Kei's bishi face looks kind of feminine. But the artwork inside isn't like that. Maki Minami probably put more effort into the cover art.
Overall:
Well, I think I may enjoy this series. Aside from having the common plot that almost all shojo manga (the exception is Fruits Basket) have of the lead female or male character in the story being completely oblivious to their romantic feelings, I think this will be interesting. I loved Ouran, so this sounds pretty similar. There is an anime, but it's dubbed by Sentai Filmworks, and the dub just doesn't sound right. Plus, the manga is the complete story, while the anime is only 26 episodes. So, try this series if you like shojo school life romantic comedies.
Have fun reading!
~Selena
Follow me for more volume views to come!
Last Updated: 4 December 2013
Originally Published: 4 December 2013
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