dangermousie | Things of cuteness...

I started reading The Gentlemen's Alliance manga by Arina Tanemura.

It's very very shoujo (the art is too cutesy and busy even for me, a tad. I prefer cleaner, sparer lines) but while not deserving of mad love or anything, it's an entertaining manga to read to pass the time.

The plot is deceptively simple (or at least starts out that way and then descends into total awesome oddness). Our heroine, Otomiya Haine, is a 15-year-old former delinquent who now attends an elite private academy. Haine hasn't always had the easiest time (when she was 10, her parents sold her to her present family in exchange for a money loan) but she is currently cheerful, optimistic and determined.

She is also in love (though does not expect anything in return, she is too pragmatic) with the academy's "Emperor" (i.e. class president) and fellow classmate, Togu Shizumasa. I have to give points to the mangaka, because while Haine's reasons for being into Shizumasa are shoujo-type reasons, they are reasons I can buy from a 15-year-old girl. Not only did Haine used to love a fairy tale written by Shizumasa when they both were kids (he won some sort of award and it got published), when she was down and rebellious in her delinquent days, he actually helped her out.

Haine's road to potential love is not smooth, to put it mildly. Not only is her school rather hierarchical, so she is beneath the notice of the student counsel, but also, Shizumasa is already taken...by a guy. Yup, Haine's dream man has a boyfriend.

Of course (and it's not a spoiler, it's all in the first volume), Haine finds out that Shizumasa has no interest in the 'boyfriend' and it's a fake dating relationship to keep people in school off his back. And when Haine offers to be a fake girlfriend instead, he accepts pretty readily, and pretty indifferently.

And that is all in the first couple of volumes before the manga goes into totally CLAMP-worthy territory.

Because apparently *where do I start, I am so full of glee* Shizumasa is not Shizumasa but his older twn brother Takanari who has to pretend to be Shizumasa because Shizumasa is sickly. Apparently the really freaky Togu family has a test for all sets of twins born into it, and whichever twin fails the test officially ceases to exist and has to become the other one's shadow and have no life of his (or her) own. And apparently Takanari lost.

There are twin battles, imprisonments, bone marrow transplants, butlers who double as school doctors and used to be the lovers of Takanari's mother, a canon gay couple one of whom dresses as a girl etc etc etc.

Anyway, and that's not even getting into the fact that Haine's best (girl)friend Ushio has a romantic thing for her, or the fact that the twins' Mom was also one of a set of twins with that weird shadow thing etc etc.

Craziness! I love it.

In other news, I just realized that Koizora is 6 eps but by the end of ep 3 they basically covered everything but Hiro's terminal illness. Are they going to slowly and lovingly wallow in it for the next three eps? Ahhhh...this drama has everything but amnesia.

Also, am totally amused that instead of running off to live in rebel bliss when she gets preggers and her parents aren't keen, she becomes extra responsible around the house and he dyes his hair black, gets a suit, and goes bowing to her father. I approve of the Japanese way :P