Daijoubu

Twenty-two volumes are behind us and this ultimate shoujo soap opera manga is still doing what it does best: veering from one crisis to the next in a constant stream of incidents that string this story out to 36 volumes.

In this volume, the weak plotline of Tsukushi running away to the fishing village where her parents have been living is wrapped up and (surprise surprise) a whole new one is started. It involves a Tsukasa lookalike who claims to be his cousin and seems potentially dangerous. It’s typical in this type of shoujo manga that when the main characters’ relationship reaches a standstill a new character is introduced to create tension and a start off a whole new set of incidents. With Hana Yori Dango, this pattern is endlessly repeated. I suppose it prevents the reader from giving up in frustration with the two main characters. I had hoped, with Tsukasa going all the way to that village to find her they might work things out, just a little bit, but no, it’s the same as before. I don’t understand why she can’t just explain things to him a little better. At least they are talking now some, if you can call it that! But the story seems to be heading in a more dangerous direction, especially with the presence of this new character, who really terrifies Tsukushi in a dark alley. I hope she doesn’t turn from one difficult guy to another who’s potentially worse.

There are some lighter moments too. It was good to see the female characters getting together and enjoying themselves (something Tsukushi doesn’t seem to do much), although their group dating method seems potentially hazardous. This volume was also good for featuring Tsukushi’s family in a more serious way. Earlier in the series they seemed to just be there to set up the plot and for comic relief, but here both the parents and the brother get to have some serious dialog with Tsukasa, and the stuff with them getting used to living in a fancy place helped to make them more like real human characters. If you’ve been keeping up with this title, like me, for over 20 volumes, you’ve probably been sucked in to it enough to keep going, no matter how frustrating Tsukushi and Tsukasa’s failure to communicate has become. Certainly this title seems to be a textbook example of how to draw out a soap opera for as long as possible. I just miss some of the funny over-the-top plots that were used in earlier volumes.