Creative Staff
Story: Aya Kanno
Art: Aya Kanno
Translation/Adaptation: JN Productions
What They Say
Asuka Masamune is a guy who loves girly things–sewing, knitting, making cute stuffed animals and reading shojo comics. But in a world where boys are expected to act manly, Asuka must hide his beloved hobbies and play the part of a masculine jock instead. Can Asuka ever show his true self to anyone, much less to Ryo Miyakozuka, the girl that he’s falling for?
In her quest to get Asuka to turn away from his otomen ways, Asuka’s mom, Kiyomi, cancels his favorite shojo manga, Love Chick! What’s worse, she plans to break up Asuka and Ryo! Will Asuka succumb to his mother’s anti-otomen schemes?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kiyomi continues with her plan to remove unmanly influences by pulling the plug on Juta’s Love Chick manga. Interestingly, out of Asuka’s friends, Juta’s the only one confronted by Kiyomi. While the arc is ultimately about Mama Masamune manipulating her son, Kanno-sensei takes the opportunity to show some back story on Juta’s career. Despite his carefree personality, he’s surprisingly serious about his fans and manga career. When he acquiesces to Kiyomi’s demands, you can feel his agony about his decision.
A couple of lighter scenes follow. Asuka asks Amakashi-sensei the very thing I’ve been wondering about him and Hiromi, and then Ryo and Asuka play detective together. But the mood darkens again with the moment this entire series has been working toward: Asuka’s confession to his mother. Surprisingly, Mama Masamune doesn’t take the hard-line approach, preferring instead to deceive her son. Her method is hardly original, but it does the job of forcing Asuka to give up Ryo and all things otomen.
After that, it’s not surprising to see pre-Ryo Asuka return. What’s really unexpected is how losing Asuka pushes Ryo to her own extremes. Kanno-sensei’s illustrations of the separated pair really tug on the heartstrings, which makes me all the more eager for Volume 18, the series’ final volume. With Asuka being put forth as class valedictorian, I have a feeling we’re in store for something similar to his festival play confession.
Extras include embedded author’s notes featuring the original character designs for Otomen and translation notes.
In Summary
With her cunning, determination, and massive resources, it’s inevitable that Kiyomi would force Asuka’s hand. However, Kanno-sensei does such an excellent job of depicting the angst of Asuka (and Ryo and Juta) you almost don’t mind the predictability of the plot. It’s almost a certainty that Ryo and Asuka’s love will prevail in the next and final volume, but it will be interesting to see if and how Asuka wins his mother’s acceptance.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 7th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
