“Pounding Heart and Pounding Heart”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Nene Yukimori
Translation: Amanda Haley
What They Say
You can’t be invisible when the heroine has her eyes on you!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the series rolls on, still without a huge chunk of chapters as Viz Media started this later in its run this property from Nene Yukimori continues to prove itself to be an entirely accessible work as I was able to pick up this in the early 80s range of chapters and enjoy it easily enough. The series is one that works through some familiar kinds of material here for a high school romance with a bit of comedy and that helps as you just have to get a handle on the way the characters interact with each other. Yet Yukimori’s a solid artist with good designs for the characters that feel their own so that it’s not just a carbon copy of something else and they make the locations work in their favor, though there are some slim panels as you’d expect.
Kubo and Shiraishi have had a decent bit of time together with the older couple they came across and it has warmed their hearts in a way as well. But the two of them are just enjoying their time together on this little excursion they get as part of the whole trip since they’ve really been looking forward to it. The conversation between the two is pretty simple overall as they talk about some of the things that have gone on and just what it was like with the couple. The shortness of these chapters is both boon and bane when you get down to it but it’s fun to see how quickly they get flustered here and the way that either of them recovers along the way because they’re really quite similar. Kubo’s simply a bit more outgoing in a way but she’s just as shy in a different way and is able to cover it more.
Where things get interesting as it progresses is that we get Shiraishi talking about how he had made his wish at the shrine to be together with his friends and that he says out loud that he wishes they could all be friends until they’re old. But he also understands that it’s not an easy thing because people grow and change and move on, but he’s wanting that. Kubo, being Kubo, says that the two of them will be together until old age and that’s a pretty clear confession or at least a statement of intent. And with how Shiraishi deals with it in talking about the bigger things, he also dances around saying how much he likes her in his own way but she’s getting beat red – he likely said more out loud than he realized – and he’s now at a stage where he’s wondering if this is the time and chance to tell her. It’s beautifully done but I’m already fearful of a way of stopping this in its tracks because that’s how manga creators roll.
In Summary:
This series continues to be a delight and I’m enjoying the differences in how this reads and feels compared to the anime, especially those early stories. Here, we’re so close to a real confession but at the same time it still doesn’t feel like Shiraishi is really aware of just how strong his feelings are and that Kubo has real feelings for him. So even if we get something it’s going to be pretty limited and uncertain, but we all want it so much. It’s a good conversation overall that happens here and it keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting to see how far our storyteller will allow it to get for now.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: January 25th, 2023
