manga: Special A Vols 1-2
When they were seven, Takishima Kei dealt Hanazono Hikari her first defeat. Ever since then, Hikari has been trying to beat Kei at something. Anything. Unfortunately, Kei has a perfect photographic memory, and can remember every detail of a book and how to do anything after seeing it once. Now they’re 15 and members of “Special A,” a class of the seven top students in their grade at a private academy. They are, of course, the two highest ranked students, with Hikari always barely scoring lower than Kei. They’ve been in the same class with the other five students in the class ever since elementary school, and everyone but Hikari knows that Kei is in love with her.
Even though she makes far too big a deal of everything, Hikari is adorable, especially as she applies herself to everything in life with as much energy as she does trying to beat Kei, and is utterly unaware of what enemies and ill will are. The rest of the students in the Special A class are pretty fun, including a pair of fraternal twins from a family of gifted musicians, but whose own music is so bad it causes bad luck (and the girl, for unknown reasons, never speaks, but writes everything down on a notepad instead) their childhood friend, who’s almost their keeper, the school director’s wanderlust driven son, and a tea-obsessed girl who has a girlcrush on Hikari. They’re a little flat, but it’s early yet.
But then there’s Kei. Kei is…aggravating. Granted, he’s supposed to be a little aggravating, but it’s a bit much. He isn’t just the best at academic and/or athletic pursuits, he’s the best at everything. It isn’t that Hikari isn’t better at anything, it’s that she isn’t as good at anything, and it’s a serious imbalance that the series is based around. If they went fishing, he’d get more fish. When they do something together as a team, he does it better. And he makes sure she knows it. Which is my main problem. Every chance he gets, he drives it home, egging her on. And he does it with an annoyingly superior attitude. Though, to be honest, it’s not the attitude itself, but the why of the attitude. For example, Ren in Skip-Beat arguably has a worse attitude in early volumes. He, however, has the attitude because Kyoko is using his profession for revenge, and treats it with disrespect. When Kyoko starts to take it seriously, he adjusts his attitude and helps her because then she was trying her best.
Kei’s superior attitude comes from the fact that Hikari is trying her hardest, and is used to make sure she never forgets that she’s “not as good as” he is. He also tends to bring “because you’re a girl” into the equation at times. (Granted, he has a point when she’s pushing herself too hard physically, but again, it’s how he does it.) I know it’s the whole “pick on the girl you like” thing, but I think it’s taken a little too far. The only time I really like him is when he gets angry (often violently so) when someone else indicates Hikari is second best, or not good enough, or seems to threaten her, or comes between him and the terrible food Hikari had to make for him after losing a bet. I am very easy that way. (One could actually argue that he has an abnormal fixation on Hikari, but given many of the things I like, I have no leg to stand on there.) We’re obviously meant to sympathize with him for liking Hikari so much when she completely doesn’t “get it,” but, well, I’m not sure why she would. He pretty much digs his own grave.
Still, despite my aggravation with Kei (and really, the way his fixation tends to manifest does make up for a lot of it, much as it shames me to admit it) it is rather fun and cute, though not incredibly stand-out yet. As long as the imbalance doesn’t get to me too much, I’ll stick with it.
Even though she makes far too big a deal of everything, Hikari is adorable, especially as she applies herself to everything in life with as much energy as she does trying to beat Kei, and is utterly unaware of what enemies and ill will are. The rest of the students in the Special A class are pretty fun, including a pair of fraternal twins from a family of gifted musicians, but whose own music is so bad it causes bad luck (and the girl, for unknown reasons, never speaks, but writes everything down on a notepad instead) their childhood friend, who’s almost their keeper, the school director’s wanderlust driven son, and a tea-obsessed girl who has a girlcrush on Hikari. They’re a little flat, but it’s early yet.
But then there’s Kei. Kei is…aggravating. Granted, he’s supposed to be a little aggravating, but it’s a bit much. He isn’t just the best at academic and/or athletic pursuits, he’s the best at everything. It isn’t that Hikari isn’t better at anything, it’s that she isn’t as good at anything, and it’s a serious imbalance that the series is based around. If they went fishing, he’d get more fish. When they do something together as a team, he does it better. And he makes sure she knows it. Which is my main problem. Every chance he gets, he drives it home, egging her on. And he does it with an annoyingly superior attitude. Though, to be honest, it’s not the attitude itself, but the why of the attitude. For example, Ren in Skip-Beat arguably has a worse attitude in early volumes. He, however, has the attitude because Kyoko is using his profession for revenge, and treats it with disrespect. When Kyoko starts to take it seriously, he adjusts his attitude and helps her because then she was trying her best.
Kei’s superior attitude comes from the fact that Hikari is trying her hardest, and is used to make sure she never forgets that she’s “not as good as” he is. He also tends to bring “because you’re a girl” into the equation at times. (Granted, he has a point when she’s pushing herself too hard physically, but again, it’s how he does it.) I know it’s the whole “pick on the girl you like” thing, but I think it’s taken a little too far. The only time I really like him is when he gets angry (often violently so) when someone else indicates Hikari is second best, or not good enough, or seems to threaten her, or comes between him and the terrible food Hikari had to make for him after losing a bet. I am very easy that way. (One could actually argue that he has an abnormal fixation on Hikari, but given many of the things I like, I have no leg to stand on there.) We’re obviously meant to sympathize with him for liking Hikari so much when she completely doesn’t “get it,” but, well, I’m not sure why she would. He pretty much digs his own grave.
Still, despite my aggravation with Kei (and really, the way his fixation tends to manifest does make up for a lot of it, much as it shames me to admit it) it is rather fun and cute, though not incredibly stand-out yet. As long as the imbalance doesn’t get to me too much, I’ll stick with it.