Recent 3gatsu no Lion
Including but not limited to Chapter 71.
--You know you're reading Umino when characters watching each other sleep means true love. In 71 we get Rei watching Hina--in a nice way, not an Edward Cullen way--to parallel that time back in...shit, was it Chapter 1?...when Hina watched Rei. Houston we have mutual sleepwatching. I mean ugh how adorbs is it that Rei, in his deep & abiding socially awkward uncertainty, can't bring himself to intrude (into a house where he really ought to know he's welcome by now; any normal well-adjusted friend of the family would have known it was fine to come in and idk pull a blanket over Hina or something) so instead he respects imaginary boundaries and sits down on the back step and promptly zonks out. Oh Rei.
--These kids: so adorbs and still so clueless. I mean it's good they're clueless considering Hina is IN JUNIOR HIGH WHOOPS (and unlike junior high girls in yr typical seinen manga/anime she is not inappropriately sexualized because Umino Chica is an upstanding human being). But I appreciate what Umino has done over the course of 7 volumes and is continuing to do: laying the groundwork for a structurally sound love built on established mutual affection and support. One of the many things I liked in HachiKuro was the distinction she drew between attraction/infatuation (Morita) and love (Shuuji), and in 3gatsu too we've had Hina's schoolgirlish crush on wossface the baseball jock from school, which is a perfectly nice crush but it's not ai and will never be ai. And Rei's poisonous screwed-up thing with Kyoko would never be ai. But what Rei and Hina have could be ai, and I'm glad Umino makes these distinctions. (I mean, given that too often in fictional love stories we get glorifications of not just flimsy koi-type infatuation but creepy fucked-up abusive stalker shiz? Bad Romance as opposed to love.)
On the flip side, it remains a challenge to imagine future makeouts ahaha and I haven't been able to guess with any conviction which of them is more likely to buy a clue first. It ought to be Rei by virtue of seniority, but Hina has better instincts. Akari and Grandpa and Rei's teacher i.e. the grownups have already figured it out. I wonder whether Umino will do a timeskip? Or whether we'll just keep taking the slow path right up through high school.
--Related items that satisfy the idealist readership: Rei learning, with endearing gawkiness, how to be supportive of a fellow human being/friend/potential love interest. In the aftermath of the bullying incident he's like, I wasn't able to protect her D: and the text is all, you don't have to protect her, dumbass! Life is not a shounen manga! What you have to do is A.) take a genuine interest in her well-being, B.) listen, and C.) when appropriate, supply food. These three steps will get you far in interpersonal relations, Kiriyama Rei!
--How great is it that Hina is a hero in Rei's eyes? You'd almost expect a victim of ostracism to harbor more bitterness--like, "Where was the Hina to reach out to me, to stand up for me when I was younger?"--but instead he feels vicariously and/or retroactively rescued by her courage. And I don't think he's fronting; I think Umino means us to believe he's sincere. Just keep right on swearing quiet devotion in yr heart okay Rei-chan ilu.
--Not that I follow any other series in Young Animal, but I sort of assume 3gatsu is generally a bastion of humaneness and respect for women/girls; one can only hope the readers take these things to heart when they're done ogling the gravure idol on the cover orz.
--SO WHERE'S THE ANIME ADAPTATION
--SERIOUSLY
--WHERE IS IT
--I MEAN "THERMA ROMAE" HAS AN ANIME AND THIS SERIES DOESN'T. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE. FFS HOW MANY MANGA TAISHOS DOES IT HAVE TO WIN.
--CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SPITZ FOR THE OP THEME
--YOU CAN TELL UMINO'S LOVE FOR SPITZ REMAINS TRUE BECAUSE SHE NAMED THE SWEET SHOP IN THE STORY AFTER 「三日月ロック」
--AND RIGHTLY SO
In conclusion, everything Umino does is gold and I heart these kids and this series makes me happy.
This entry was originally posted at http://canis-m.dreamwidth.org/16489.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
--You know you're reading Umino when characters watching each other sleep means true love. In 71 we get Rei watching Hina--in a nice way, not an Edward Cullen way--to parallel that time back in...shit, was it Chapter 1?...when Hina watched Rei. Houston we have mutual sleepwatching. I mean ugh how adorbs is it that Rei, in his deep & abiding socially awkward uncertainty, can't bring himself to intrude (into a house where he really ought to know he's welcome by now; any normal well-adjusted friend of the family would have known it was fine to come in and idk pull a blanket over Hina or something) so instead he respects imaginary boundaries and sits down on the back step and promptly zonks out. Oh Rei.
--These kids: so adorbs and still so clueless. I mean it's good they're clueless considering Hina is IN JUNIOR HIGH WHOOPS (and unlike junior high girls in yr typical seinen manga/anime she is not inappropriately sexualized because Umino Chica is an upstanding human being). But I appreciate what Umino has done over the course of 7 volumes and is continuing to do: laying the groundwork for a structurally sound love built on established mutual affection and support. One of the many things I liked in HachiKuro was the distinction she drew between attraction/infatuation (Morita) and love (Shuuji), and in 3gatsu too we've had Hina's schoolgirlish crush on wossface the baseball jock from school, which is a perfectly nice crush but it's not ai and will never be ai. And Rei's poisonous screwed-up thing with Kyoko would never be ai. But what Rei and Hina have could be ai, and I'm glad Umino makes these distinctions. (I mean, given that too often in fictional love stories we get glorifications of not just flimsy koi-type infatuation but creepy fucked-up abusive stalker shiz? Bad Romance as opposed to love.)
On the flip side, it remains a challenge to imagine future makeouts ahaha and I haven't been able to guess with any conviction which of them is more likely to buy a clue first. It ought to be Rei by virtue of seniority, but Hina has better instincts. Akari and Grandpa and Rei's teacher i.e. the grownups have already figured it out. I wonder whether Umino will do a timeskip? Or whether we'll just keep taking the slow path right up through high school.
--Related items that satisfy the idealist readership: Rei learning, with endearing gawkiness, how to be supportive of a fellow human being/friend/potential love interest. In the aftermath of the bullying incident he's like, I wasn't able to protect her D: and the text is all, you don't have to protect her, dumbass! Life is not a shounen manga! What you have to do is A.) take a genuine interest in her well-being, B.) listen, and C.) when appropriate, supply food. These three steps will get you far in interpersonal relations, Kiriyama Rei!
--How great is it that Hina is a hero in Rei's eyes? You'd almost expect a victim of ostracism to harbor more bitterness--like, "Where was the Hina to reach out to me, to stand up for me when I was younger?"--but instead he feels vicariously and/or retroactively rescued by her courage. And I don't think he's fronting; I think Umino means us to believe he's sincere. Just keep right on swearing quiet devotion in yr heart okay Rei-chan ilu.
--Not that I follow any other series in Young Animal, but I sort of assume 3gatsu is generally a bastion of humaneness and respect for women/girls; one can only hope the readers take these things to heart when they're done ogling the gravure idol on the cover orz.
--SO WHERE'S THE ANIME ADAPTATION
--SERIOUSLY
--WHERE IS IT
--I MEAN "THERMA ROMAE" HAS AN ANIME AND THIS SERIES DOESN'T. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE. FFS HOW MANY MANGA TAISHOS DOES IT HAVE TO WIN.
--CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SPITZ FOR THE OP THEME
--YOU CAN TELL UMINO'S LOVE FOR SPITZ REMAINS TRUE BECAUSE SHE NAMED THE SWEET SHOP IN THE STORY AFTER 「三日月ロック」
--AND RIGHTLY SO
In conclusion, everything Umino does is gold and I heart these kids and this series makes me happy.
This entry was originally posted at http://canis-m.dreamwidth.org/16489.html. Please comment there using OpenID.