A slapped on ending brings this series to a generic and early close.
Creative Staff:
Writer/Artist: Mika Kawamura
Translation: Joshua Weeks
What They Say:
After discovering their magical powers, childhood friends Mitsuki and Kakeru see each other in a new light – but they have no time to waste. An ominous shadow chases after them and a superpowered demon is on the loose. It’s a showdown between humans and demons in this panic-filled climax!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the volume opens, we find our heroes being abruptly attacked by a rather stupid looking slipper demon, which somehow sends them back in the past. Of course, they run into themselves when they were younger (and it somehow takes them till one blurts out the other’s name to actually discover what’s going on.) The kids then continue with their quest to make a box and fill it with memories, along the way teaching the older versions that they used to be better friends… or something. The slipper then steps in, deciding the only way to defeat the older versions is to kill the kids (and of course somehow misses how bringing back the older heroes of the story could only hurt this plan, but whatever.) Due to the kids having about the same intelligence as lemmings, the slipper manages to get little Mitsuki to climb up on a bridge’s railing so he can kick her off. The older versions swoop in and save her, and we see the little Kakeru forget to help Mitsuki bury the treasure box, which apparently, in turn, led to their tendency to argue in the current day. After returning to the present, Kakeru learns of this and gives Mitsuki his cross, which in turn makes her realize she loves him.
After this, we are treated to a short beach story in which a dolphin that is trapped underwater for at least a good half a day (the author apparently doesn’t understand how dolphins work) sends out its spirit for help, and the heroes save it. The rest of the volume is spent on a strange villain named Yo Kuroha who is really a crow demon and princess of the dark world. She plans to take over the world and unleash demons upon it by marrying Kakeru, thus breaking the teamwork of Mitsuki and Kakeru. Of course, she decides the best way to do this is by pretending to be a twelve-year-old boy when first meeting our heroes, and befriending Kakeru to make Mitsuki jealous… maybe. Then she decides to just reveal her gender and hypnotize Kakeru into being her groom, so… yeah. Demons are then unleashed on the town, and Mitsuki rushes to stop the wedding, almost gets killed, and snaps Kakeru out of the mind control with the power of love. The two then gain a new super love powered attack and blast away Yo, saving the day and then allowing them to return to their everyday life.
The volume closes with a bonus story in which two girls are totally obsessed over a celebrity and pointlessly hating on his girlfriend for existing. The one girl’s friend then decides to dress the other like the aforementioned girlfriend, leading to her getting mistaken for the actual one and going on a date with the celebrity. Everything goes well and, of course, the celebrity finds out and declares his love for the girl over his “girlfriend,” who was really just set up with him for publicity.
In Summary:
While the first volume suffered from extreme its bland generic nature (something this volume hardly escapes), this one seems to have a problem with common sense. Even the main villain just pops up midway through and wastes a good amount of time screwing around with nonsensical actions that affect her grand scheme in no way for a good two chapters or so before just going ahead and actually doing something. The character development seems forced here, the enemies presented are downright stupid, and the bonus chapter is unbelievably vapid. While some stories get better as they approach their climax, this one simply goes from bland to almost insultingly stupid.
Content Grade: C-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: August 31st, 2010
MSRP: $10.99