Getting a chance to grow up when you think you have grown up
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Akira Hiyoshimaru
Translation/Adaptation: Alethea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
Kaho isn’t a thing. You can’t treat girls like objects.
Although high schooler Kaho and fifth grader Kanade have started dating, Kaho is constantly at the mercy of Kanade’s childish whims. And when a mysterious hottie with a Kansai accent–whom Kanade happens to call “Aniki”–arrives, will unimaginable trials await the couple’s blossoming love?!
A fast-paced super-love comedy filled with madcap heart-throbbing mayhem!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When only looking at the primary plot device, First Love Monster may come across as a title to avoid. When a high school girl falls for a 5th grader, it must be a story about perversity, right? No. It is far from being a manga about taboo love. It really is the story of a girl who never had a chance to grow up thrust into the world on her own.
If you haven’t read volume 1, it is important to understand the setup of our heroine, Kaho Nikaidou,who is a 15 year-old girl from a family of land barons. She constantly talks and thinks bad things about herself because people around her have all talked down to her. As a sheltered child, people were paid to act like her friends, but because of that treatment they have let her know how worthless she really is. She moves to Tokyo for the sake of trying to escape that cycle. When she walks into the path of an oncoming truck, a man grabs her, pulling her to safety. He then proceeds to scold her for being careless. When she asks if he saved her for her money or her family connections, he scoffs at her and then tells her to stop saying that she is worthless. This man, Kanade, acts independently of everything that has controlled Kaho in the past, and by his genuine talk, she falls for him.
I worried that this series would turn into a negative story of control because the setup exploits the age difference between Kaho and Kanade. In fact, the age difference exists to show how naive and inexperienced Kaho remains as she leaves the protection of home for the city. Kaho does not have social relationships that were real. In other words, she older than Kanade, but her mental maturity may be more academically mature but not socially mature. In other words, she may know that dating a fifth grader would make others see her as a pervert or pedophile, but she has never had real, unscripted play as a kid herself. She never has never gone on a date or been in a relationship. Even though she doesn’t know it, dating Kanade allows her to learn the natural experiences everyone has as they grow up.
First Love Monster’s main setting is the Kasumi Residency, something like a boarding house, in Tokyo. Counting Kaho, there are seven others living there. These characters form Kaho’s new world. Taga, a college freshman, has an agenda. He dislikes Kaho, and steps in to be mean to her with no reason. Kouta is a first year high school student who loves Kaho from afar, even as he spies on her. His face looks like a girl’s, and he covers it with bangs so no one will see it. There is a freshman graduate student with an otaku room and his girlfriend, a second year high school student.
The large cast continues to grow with Kanade’s friends, Ginjirou, Tomu, and Kazou. Gin and Tom, like Kanade, are tall and physically mature but not mentally mature. They can be mistaken for high school or college age guys. Kazou looks like a fifth grader but as the class representative, eschews wisdom slightly beyond his years. Kazou does not approve of Kanade’s relationship after Kanade mistakenly tells him that it has gone farther than it really had.
By the time volume 2 begins, Kaho has been struggling with the decision to stay together with Kanade. Most of the people around her don’t seem to have a problem with their age difference, and one even tells her to think how messed up Kanade will be if she tells him they are not a couple. Based on her own experiences, Kaho doesn’t want him to feel rejected. Even though their first date seems childish, Kaho feels a sense of wonder with him. The first few chapters of volume 2 play off the idea that Kaho has lowered herself, at least her maturity, to match that of Kanade. Even as her imagination moves the relationship toward sexual, she comes back to earth when Kanade does something that reminds her he is not the older man. She continues to confuse his physical appearance with mental maturity.
As a juxtaposition to Kaho’s anxiety about being with Kanade, she meets Mafuyu, a second year high school student who wants to marry Shuugo Takahashi, the middle age father of Kanade and landlord of Kasumi. Mafuyu even goes so far as to sniff the elder Takahashi’s dirty clothes to feel connected to the oblivious target of her affection. When Kanade offers Kaho innocent companionship and a desire to be chivalrous, Mafuyu lusts after Shuugo without the means to tell him her feelings.
Throughout these chapters, Kaho confronts the realities of an adult relationship, usually through Kanade’s innocence. The constant threat of a sexual taboo as it crosses her mind can only be challenged by Kanade failing to understand the context of her relationship or her feelings. When Kanade’s cousin says he wants to be in a relationship with Kaho, Kanade wants to appease his friend’s feelings by declaring them a threesome. Kaho falls apart when she realizes Kanade does not feel about her the way she feels about him. To add a new element of comedy and amorous confusion, Kanada’s friend Kazou falls in love with Kouta in drag. Almost everyone in the story now has questions and concerns about love and romantic relationships.
Art styles and character designs match the story. The fifth graders have bishonen looks and Kaho is often stylized as a small doll. Faces have limited details, but they offer effective displays of emotion. Screentones and flourishes are used with restraint (mostly), but comedy drives the stories and the artwork matches the broadness of the jokes. Akira Hiyoshimaru does a nice job of balancing indoor and outdoor scenes, creating enough background and foreground to help the reader place the characters in a setting. There is one full color splash page.
In Summary
This series offers many characters who all seem to be dealing with their preconceptions of love and romance. Don’t let the age difference of Kaho and Kanade keep you from reading because it is less about exploiting a taboo and more about Kaho getting a chance to grow up with normal experiences. Readers who may have skipped volume 1 should check it out because it establishes the foundation for the characters, plot, and the meaning of interactions in volume 2.
With more back story being added and a nice level of foreshadowing added to this volume, it will be worth a read to shojo fans who want to see elementary through college age characters struggle with the absurdity in romantic relationships.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 27th, 2015
MSRP: $13.00