EF- A Fairy Tail of the Two, yay for manga!
*in clockwise order Chihiro-chan, Mizuki-chan, Kei-chan and Miyamura-chan, Center is Hiruma-san and Yuuko-chan n_n*
So I've just read the first 49 chapters of a romantic manga... why? Because I was bored, but also because the manga had very compelling characters and a well thought out 'quirk'.
The manga I've just caught up with is EF- A Fairy Tale of the Two and *SPOILER ALERT* focuses on girls who find boyfriends (yeah totally a man's manga this >_>) anyway thus far they have explored 4 male protagonists; a mangaka, a film director/shooter, a novelist and next up a musician. As you can see the manga goes for the 'arts'. However the art is used very differently between the first 3 and the girls/guy protagonists have very different personalities.
I don't really know whether this is gonna be a review post or a commentary post and I want to read it in more detail but I'll give a synopsis and follow it up with a rating + commentary (which'll be highly biased xP).
Basically 'Chapter 1' centers on a mangaka Hirono and his childhood friend Kei. She likes him but he's dense and doesn't notice. Suddenly we are introduced to Miyamura who is a free spirit and starts to steal Hirono away. In this arc/chapter/thing The 'art subject' is used as a medium to convey admiration of hard work and development of trust. That's a good brief summary with as little spoiler as I can manage.
Anyway the next chapter focuses on... let's call her HB-chan. She becomes the object of a male we encounter in chapter 1 and is pursued. She has a fairly reserved personality compared to Miyamura and the male protagonist here is a toned-down Miyamura. The medium here is used to bring the characters together and to convey the feelings the male feels towards HB-chan.
And Finally the most recent (and I admit only one where I didn't skip any chapters) is Chihiro and Renji. This is the sweetest one of the 3 but maybe a bit rushed. The medium here is used as a reflection of Chihiro-chan and as a way and reason for them to meet. I only wish we had a bit more of an 'epilogue'.
Next up is Kuze and Mizuki and I can only hope that it continues in the same vein.
Quite honestly I'd score this near on perfect for a romantic manga, storywise. The art left alot to be disired and the gags were fairly cliched but the main plot and usage of different personalities, events and themes/'arts' was very well thought out. It was paced nicely and the recurrence of Yuuko and now Hiruma (no relation to Eyeshield 21!) is intriguing and I can't help feel that they have a back story we'll have to either figure out or will get in part 5. Personally romantic manga are not part of my staple reading but I have read quite a few in my time; Ai Kora, No Bra, Bakuman, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Good Ending etc. and they were all very... manga. What I mean is that they didn't have a very 'realistic' feel, asides GE (which I liked alot). Also alot of the time the male gets with the female I don't like... like in arc 1 I actually would have preferred Kei to win out (sorry spoiler >_<), in GE Shou-chan's loss was really painful and in Ai Kora Yukari was who I was rooting for >_<!!! (she is essentially the Hinata of Naruto which again I'm rooting for NaruHina 4eva!).
*cough cough* Anyway off topic. EF is a good manga I recommend it as a light romantic story good weekend read if you hate hot weather and outdoors like me!
PS: Guess who just discovered that this has been adapted to an anime (up till Renji-Chihiro)!! That's my Sunday/lab time sorted n_n!
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