Zalsburry
Since: Nov, 2009
05/04/2013 00:00:00
I agree with you on most things, but not on your edit. Just because Kyouko is having feelings for Kou doesn't mean her feelings for Yasuko were just a phase. She could be bisexual. She could normally be heterosexual, but Yasuko was the exception. She could normally be homosexual, but Kou was the exception. Just because she moved on doesn't mean her feelings for Yasuko weren't real. :)
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Subdued masterpiece
Words almost fail me to explain how much I love this series. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I'm gay myself and can relate to the things most characters of this series go through. Perhaps it's also because of my crush on Akira, who drags all the other characters along by sheer enthusiasm (and looks just so darn cute in her adorably dorky pajamas). The series is not totally devoid of typical girls love tropes, but it's all handled very well. The manga luckily is not quite as choppy as Shimura's other work, like Hourou Musuko, although Shimura still tends to drop plot lines, only to suddenly pick them up several chapters (or even volumes) later.
The anime tells the same story in a somewhat more straightforward manner, which tends to work out very well aside from one thing: for people who did not read the manga it is not that clear why Akira cares so much for Fumi, who appears to be rather whiny and mopey for most of the show. The viewer has to wait until the last episode to find out why the girls have such a deep connection, but once it gets there it sure makes for a very sweet moment—even though it diverges quite a bit from the manga, which is still ongoing.
The series gains extra points for taking place in Kamakura, which gets even more attention in the anime, where some of the town's landmarks are reproduced with painstaking precision. I went to Kamakura when I visited Japan a while ago and actually saw a lot of the locations from the manga and anime, which I can recommend to anyone.
The anime also has one of the most beautiful openings I know, in a rare mix of romantic, cheerful and melancholic. I only wish the anime had been a bit longer; with most series lasting at least 12 episodes, it's a bit strange this one only has 11.
EDIT: Over the course of the last few chapters, my opinion about the series has changed somewhat. It seems that the author is steering this manga into yet another instance of Bait And Switch Lesbians, which is especially prevalent in the case of Kyouko. She is suddenly shown to still have feelings for her fiance Kou after all, marking her feelings for Yasuko as "just another phase". Shame on you, Shimura!