08/13/2008
Anime/Manga:: 0 comments: by David Rasmussen
It seems we’ll never get over this genre, no matter how hard we try. But does that mean this is going to be a good or ill review? Find out!
It seems we’ll never get over this genre, one of over a dozen that sticks to us like ribs to our innards after a binge eating feast of BBQ. By that I mean the romantic comedy genre between beautiful seemingly inaccessible female and seemingly dull boy who turns out to be more than people suspect.
In this case the dull male in question is one Mamoru Kagemori. Dull doesn’t seem to go far enough to speak of this swirly eyeglass wearing bookworm type, only he’s more than the sum of his appearance as he turns out to be the eldest son of a 400 year old ninja clan that seems to have this thing about protecting their neighbors the Konnyakus (over, say, learning the art of silent killing or mastering the ancient arts of some silent killing method or some other non protecting tasks).
Luckily for Mamoru the object of his job is the pretty (yet pretty troublesome) Yuna Konnayaku, someone who just seems to gravitate towards trouble by instinct or design. Case in point at the start of the story she’s being kidnapped by people when her savior must intervene and stop them. Why is she being kidnapped? Maybe because she’s suddenly been targeted by a buncha Japanese mobster lookalikes who seem to want to take her out for some reason… and by take out I don’t mean illegally date her.
To this end they bring in the youngest female of a clan of assassins (or is she samurai) to take her out… hilarity and fan service ensues once she jumps into the fray to knock off Yuna… until we realize the new female is not a bad person after all, and she becomes a regular part of the cast. After that more attempts are made to take out the female Yuna and her well meaning air headed ways which somehow makes her a “natural-born troublemaker”… so how does being an airhead that gets into the most stereotypical troubles equals her as a “natural-born troublemaker”. It’s an insult to all natural born natural-born troublemakers.
My one gripe with this title (and it’s a big one) is that it’s a one trick pony that is going to run it’s course (and badly at that) if it doesn’t innovate by the time we return with Volume 2. The whole concept of Mamoru being Yuna’s protector is nice and all, but if it becomes a one trick pony (every story Yuna gets into some sort of trouble not by her own design, and Mamoru has to save her while protecting his secret as her secret protector) then the story is going to begin to become repetitive and dull edged over time. Got a new female character in this samurai lady, so when will she stop being pissed at Mamoru (for fighting her and ending up baring her breasts before him by accidentally stripping her top off during the fight) and start being a potential love interest… heck, if EITHER of the females in this title really become that and not just there to hit Mamoru or cause Mamoru trouble or whatnot that’d be nice.
It’s alright, it’s abit of fun and the characters are alright (but if only the title could innovate past a set pattern of personality traits for each character that’d be nice too) and it’s written/drawn nicely, if again it could only get past certain patterns and patches of fan service to become greater than the sum of it’s parts. You might like it, though, so give it a spin yourself and tell me what you thought of it overall. Otherwise I’m giving it a 3 out of 5, just because it was alright but wasn’t a runaway smash hit for me. (Hopefully Volume 2 will change my opinion of the title as it improves).
Want to read more? Check out more DRMaster Books over at the website www.drmasterbooks.com