 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | KAORU TADA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 320 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 11/18/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/14/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
Kotoko is a straightforward girl who struggles hard but never gets good grades. Naoki is the cold boy genius who is the top student in Class A. In a school ranked by groups according to their grade average, he’s the elite of the elite while Kotoko is the bottom of the barrel in the brains department. Nevertheless she bravely steps forward to confess her feelings for him that she’s harboured for two years only to be openly rejected in front of the entire school! That should have been the end of anything between them. Instead it is only the beginning! Itazura na Kiss is a fun loving shojo romantic comedy. An earthquake shakes things up and demolishes Kotoko’s home. She and her father have nowhere to go except for his old school pal’s place. It just happens to be the father of Naoki! Now she is living with the guy who so cruelly spurned her. It sets up an awkward start to their co-habitation and hilarious results in their private and school lives. When she finds out his weakness at last, she uses it to get him to tutor her in the upcoming exams. She’s vying to get into the coveted top hundred, a place rarely held by any Class F student. As much as he’s mean to her, she still can’t seem to stop how she feels about him, making their life together difficult for her. When Class F finds out that the two are living together, it sets fire to her classmate Kin’s new rivalry with the boy genius as Kin clearly has been crushing on Kotoko for ages. It leads to funny results and more fuel to the fire of Kotoko and Naoki’s strange relationship. Things might have stayed on the cold and nasty side but one night Naoki reads Kotoko’s love letter. Afterwards he saves her from a groper on the subway and then helps her and her friends for studying with great reluctance, but helps them nevertheless. During summer vacation the two end up alone in the house overnight and a funny incident occurs in his room late in the evening. Later on at the athletics festival, Naoki carries her to the infirmary after she’s injured. With all this nice guy moments between the attitude, could he be falling for her after all? It may be against all odds if he does because the constant interference of friends and the scheming of their parents keep setting the two at odds with each other. The families are conspiring together in one “love plan” after another to get the two hooked up and married. They are exuberant and entertaining parents, particularly his mother. Upcoming college entrance exams and Christmas make it a time for hard core studying on Kotoko’s part to try to get into the same college as Naoki. And gift giving causes more bickering between the two ‘will they - won’t they’ lovebirds. The first volume ends with a cursed luck charm and the possibility that Naoki is warming up to her in his own twisted way. Itazura na Kiss is one of the late Kaoru Tada’s most popular shojo manga series. It inspired a live drama and most recently in 2008, an anime. She has a fun and playful illustrative style with a wide array of expressions for the faces of the characters. The manga also comes with an illustration gallery.
IN SUMMARY:
Itazura na Kiss is a fun romantic comedy. Well worth the read! |
