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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane Risa and Ôtani's high school days are rapidly drawing to a close, and while Ôtani waits for his college entrance exam results to be posted, Risa is still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Her main interests--video games and her favorite musician, Umibôzu--don't exactly lead the way to an obvious career. Given her total lack of ideas, it's not surprising that she pounces when Nobu makes a suggestion: she thinks Risa's taste in clothes might mean Risa has a future in fashion. They're both thinking along the lines of choosing clothes for other people, but then Risa stumbles across an unexpected opportunity to try modeling. (The first chapter is handled in some refreshing ways--Love*Com is comfortably within the typical high school romance/comedy parameters, as opposed to playing around with them the way High School Debut does, but it's still full of little touches that make it an above-average example of the genre.) Exam results are this volume's main focus, though: Risa is deeply worried about Ôtani's chances of getting into his school, and meanwhile, other friends are dealing with the results of their own entrance exams. But despite the characters' tension, this volume finds plenty of room for lightheartedness in the form of weird dreams and teasing Risa's co-worker, Kohori, whose inappropriate handling of his crush on Risa has somehow still not resulted in her smacking him silly. This volume introduces a new translator and adapter for the series. I tend to check credits before reading new manga volumes, so I don't know whether the change would be noticeable if I hadn't known that in advance. Love*Com has always had a nice English script, and that hasn't changed, but the rendering of the characters' Kansai dialect feels slightly different. Volume 12 of Love*Com includes a standalone bonus story, "I'll Love You Even If I Become a Star". Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Comment on this review of Love*Com v12 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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