This Sunday, my family went shopping for some presents. We bought clothes, perfume, and most importantly books. I bought Hanazakari to Kimitachi He [Hana-Kimi] vol. 20 [yes, finally!],Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle vol. 15 Nodame Cantabile vol. 1 [a review which will come later...] and a one-shot manga, Kedamono Damono vols. 1 & 2. Kedamono Damono is only 2 volumes, published by TokyoPop and both volumes have been released as of this date. So no more. This manga is written by Haruka Fukushima, the author of one of my favorite series, Instant Teen! I'll do my best to review this one. It's been released for about 2 months now, so... yeah, I'm kinda late, but it's something you should look into... or is it? Read on to find out!
Konatsu, the manager of a basketball team likes one guy who plays on the team. She confides in another player, Haruki, a shy boy who seems to be a cool guy. Later that day, Konatsu goes to change and a mysterious girl pantses her. Embarrased, she demands to know who this girl is. Much to her surprise, the girl introduces herself as Haruki! She then goes on to explain that by day, she is a shy guy, but at night she turns into a pervy girl. Kewlie! Gender-benderation! Now, a lot of manga like this have some form of Yaoi/Yuri, usually just a little bit considering how the gender crossing one's "normal form" is that of being the opposite sex of the one s/he likes. Get it? Not really... Well this one goes straight into the yuri label. Girl Haruki [now shall be known as G.H.] is a lot more aggresssive than the B.H. [boy Haruki]. So there's a lot of Girl-Girl action going on, which isn't a bad thing, but sometimes it goes to the extent that's kind of uncomfortable. That's an unfortunate thing considering how this story is pretty good. It's like one moment, something happens, usually Konatsu is wondering whether B.H. really likes her, and if it's only G.H. that likes her, then the next page they end up kissing. It's really abrupt and kinda annoying at times, since the story doesn't have much flow in the second volume. OK, we got it, they can kiss. Now then... moving on. The way this story ends is really disappointing. It ends very abruptly, and for some reason, there's a "To Be Continued in Volume 3" but there is no volume 3, so what's up with that? There's an extra story in the second volume, so that was good. But other than just being a really fanservice-y 2-volume fling, it's not much. This story only gets 6/10.
Pros: Great short series to keep around for those days that you're reallllllly bored. Nice artwork, and great scenes.
Cons: Yuri to the uncomfortable extent and doesn't end very well.
Haha-Update
It turns out that there really will be a volume 3... when I don't know, but it's advertised on TokyoPop's webpage [after all the trouble I went to on Wikipedia too...] But then again, Suki Dakara Suki is still advertised inspite of going out of print.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
