Sakisaka, Io. Strobe Edge. VIZ Media, 2013.
Ninako is in love with Ren, but he's already dating someone. And another boy likes Ninako, but she's only interested in Ren and continually turns down Boy #2. This is the entire plot for at least the first six of these books. Ninako is obsessed with Ren, who thinks she's nice and all but is already dating and isn't looking for someone new.
This book irritated the fire out of me. The first volume was bad enough with this, "I love Ren!! He's so cute! I want to date him! But he's not interested. But he's so cute!" line repeated ad nauseum. But when I discovered that this. same. storyline continues in all six of the books, I about died. I had to allow myself breaks between volumes so I could clean out my head with something enjoyable, something that contained a plot.
The only interesting things in these books were the scattered side panels the author threw in with information about herself - her chinchillas, how she learned to drive, the fact that mints make her sneeze, etc.
The art in these books is okay. Not awesome. The main character very often looks drugged and spacey (see the cover of Vol. 4 for proof), and the rest of the art is average for a manga, but didn't stand out to me at all. I just cannot understand why these books won a YMA from ALA this year, unless they decided they had to include a manga in the graphic novel awards.
All of that being said, my students who love manga will eat this up. I'm glad they will, because these books are certainly not staying in my house.
Recommended for: tweens and teens, probably mostly girls due to subject matter
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 2/5 stars
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