Takako Shigematsu

I honestly can't give this last volume more than three stars because it left me with questions. Not just simple "I wonder about this" questions, but questions that have to do with integral aspects of the plot.

I'm glad Hikaru realized what she wants to do. But the rest of it...

Possible spoilers:

Okay, so Izumi goes into hiding for a year to take attention off of himself, let Hikaru do her thing, etc. So he comes back and sees her at school and--? How do they explain that to their classmates? How does that ever get explained to the public? Does "Kido Izumi" just disappear forever, or do they ever address it, even though he isn't an idol anymore? Doesn't matter if he took his mother's maiden name and cut his hair and chose a career to chase, his idol persona was still a person who people care about. Super annoying.

It was a decent enough ending for a decent series, I suppose. I read the first two volumes in middle school, so going back to collect the rest of the series now at 28 was somewhat a nostalgia-based decision, and also partially because I remember liking the first two a good bit at the time. I don't regret it, as I'm glad to know how the story turned out and I enjoyed the art a lot, but this isn't one of my favorites.… (mais)

I picked up the first two volumes of this when I was in...8th grade? It was like 2005.
I remember liking them, but I ended up focusing more on other series at the time and throughout high school.
I just got the rest of the series from Thriftbooks, because I wanted to finish it and have it complete in my manga collection. It's relatively short, so not a huge investment.

I didn't remember the shadier parts of this, that's for sure. Izumi's pretty quick to blackmail and threatening assault in order to keep his secret, even though Hikaru hadn't given him any reason to think she'd out him.

Other than that, the art was one of the reasons this series stood out to me a back when I first read it. There's "typical" shoujo art, there's iconic Tanemura art, and then you have the occasional series where the art just gives a different kind of shoujo vibe. It seems that people either really like the art for this series, or really don't. It's interesting.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes. It's been a long time coming.… (mais)

So happy that the Sensei plotline is done with.

I was a little confused during the marathon, though, when Hikaru asked Chisato who she was. She's the one who Hikaru studied with (and the one who confessed to Hikaru!) in the previous volume. Definitely the same girl, and the other two girls with her were also in the study group. I just found that weird, like the scene in volume 4 never happened. (Not to mention the whole arranged marriage part later in this volume.)

I like how Izumi is growing both as a character and physically. He's still beautiful when he's acting and cross-dressing, but he has a really lovely manliness to him as well as the series goes on.… (mais)