The story centers around an awkward girl named Sawako Kuronuma, who is referred to as “Sadako” by her classmates because of her striking resemblance to the character of the same name from the Ringu movie series. Every time she tries to greet people, she comes off looking creepy, and her fellow students are convinced that she is possessed, has ghosts following her around, and can curse people just by having them look into her eyes. She is pained by her loneliness, and the only reprieve from that pain comes in the form of Shota Kazehaya, the most popular and handsome boy in school who also happens to be a downright nice guy, as he treats Sawako like any other person. As she gets to know him and his words help her gain more confidence, she begins to fall for him, unaware that Kazehaya himself has been interested in her for quite some time, and just isn’t able to voice how he feels.

What follows is an endless stream of quirky misunderstandings and awkward situations. While some of them are funny, it becomes fairly repetitive after a while, and I found myself wishing at several points that the characters would just bite the bullet and talk to each other, which would resolve their issues in a matter of seconds. But then we wouldn’t have any story, now would we?

The characters themselves are pretty run-of-the-mill. However, there are a few things about them that seem pretty unrealistic to me. Besides Sawako and Kazehaya, two other girls become Sawako’s friends and wind up being rather protective of her very quickly– too quickly in my opinion. Also, Kazehaya is almost too perfect, his only flaw being that he can’t seem to voice his affections to Sawako. While these things are normal stuff for shoujo manga, it did make me pause a few times and question the validity of their actions.

Another thing that bugged me was the insane amount of text in the manga. During her many freak-out sessions, Sawako has a lot of thoughts running through her head, and every single one is plastered on the pages in tiny font, which can hurt your eyes and make the books more harrowing to read than most other manga. It personally almost took me twice as long as it normally does for me to read manga when I read these two volumes because I had to keep stopping to read all of the little text bubbles.

There is one thing I can’t complain about though, and that is the art. It’s pretty typical art for a shoujo manga, but its very nicely done and the covers of the volumes are sweet and colorful, which give a good indication of the vibe of the story.

Oh yes, the story. The summary I wrote above pretty much sums it up. It seems to me like a pretty standard manga story of awkward teenagers falling in love and dealing with the trials of high school life in both touching and comedic ways. The big difference with Kimi ni Todoke however is that the story constantly beats the message of how horrible Sawako’s life is into the ground.

A lot.

I personally get the feeling that they fell into this trap while trying to set this manga apart from other shoujo manga and by trying to make us really, really sympathetic towards Sawako. It didn’t work. Instead, what we get is an almost fake feeling, as if all of these terrible things cannot possibly be happening to one girl, especially one who is as innocent as Sawako. It’s purely for entertainment value of course, but it was enough to make me roll my eyes more than once.

In the end, Kimi ni Todoke is a very typical and almost boring addition to the world of shoujo manga, served with a big side-order of nagging. It is fairly popular however, so something within it must be working as a product, but personally, I just don’t see it. If you’re a big fan of shoujo, you may find it worth picking up, but even casual shoujo fans will most likely, in my opinion, be irked by the way the story is handled.

Kimi ni Todoke is licensed and distributed by VIZ Media.

ENJOYMENT
It’s hard to enjoy something so irritating

2/5

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
If you’re a hardcore shoujo fan, it might be worth a try. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.

2/5

REREAD VALUE
I can’t imagine having to tread through this again!

1/5

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol. 1 at RightStuf

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol.2 at RightStuf

Only One Wish is a one-volume manga by Mia Ikumi that centers around the rumor of a dark angel who grants wishes via a cell phone. All you have to do is text her your wish at a specific time and place and it will come true. The manga is broken up into 4 chapters, each containing a different story about a wish that was made that didn’t quite go the way the people involved intended. All four of these stories center around high-school romance, which was charming at first but quickly became predictable and mundane. The characters were pretty much cardboard cutouts of any high-school character you’d find in a manga, and the dark angel herself had absolutely no development whatsoever, so much so that she’s never even given a name!

As far as the pace of the story is concerned, it is far too fast. I understand that this is a one volume manga and that you’d want to keep it under a certain size, but it makes the relationships forged in the story hard to believe since most of the pivotal scenes that would actually show characters bonding are glazed over with small pictures and text in the background of one or two panels. This leaves out a lot of important information and details that would have a chance at making you feel for the characters or relate to the story. You feel as if you’re being dragged by the arm and rushed through it all, which really only makes this manga good for a short burst of reading. I personally read the whole thing in under an hour.

There are a few good things about this manga, though. The art is good and the four romantic wishes are handled differently, which gives the story a bit more variety. Also, we see a few scenes of the dark angel chatting with her pet cat that gives us the impression that while outwardly cold, this dark angel isn’t completely heartless. It made me want to learn more about her, but unfortunately this is all we get. I liked her better at first when her promises of the (very unoriginal) warning ‘be careful what you wish for’ was looming over the story, but her softer side quickly convinces you that she is never going to actually teach this lesson to those who make a wish with the severity that the message deserves to be taught with.

In fact, now that think about it, the lack of details and overclocked pace of the story doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the fact that these positive aspects of the manga are never fully developed. It seems as if this manga had so much potential and it ruined it all by rushing through the plot. I would have rather had this series be 2 volumes with 2 stories each, giving each story double the space to develop. I think that probably would have done this manga a lot of good. They gave so little time for each story that they actually were able to squish a side-story of the manga-ka’s more famous work Tokyo Mew Mew in at the end. I tried to read it but I know nothing about that series so it only served to confuse me, but it seemed as erratic and quick-paced as the rest of the manga did.

So, if you’re looking for a quick romantic read and don’t want to spend money on a whole bunch of books, you might want to take a chance and pick up Only One Wish. If you go into it without many expectations you might even find it a fairly enjoyable way to waste a bit of time, but don’t expect too much out of this manga because it just doesn’t give itself enough space to truly deliver.

Only One Wish is currently on sale and is licensed and distributed by Del Rey. Review copy provided by The Anime Almanac.

ENJOYMENT
The frustration of the wasted potential of this story makes it hard to enjoy

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
Unless you’re not expecting much, I wouldn’t advise reading it

REREAD VALUE
There isn’t much there to reread!