manga: High School Debut Vol 8
Though still highly enjoyable, later volumes of this series don’t quite measure up to the giddy energy and enjoyability of the first handful of volumes. Ah well, it happens.
Much like Haruna’s overreaction to being kissed by Yoh, I really didn’t care for the first half of the volume, where the guy who hero worshipped Yoh kissed her and the sunk into spastic guilt and depression. Actually, parts of it were funny, it just went too far, and went on for too long. But it was the conclusion that really bugged me. I guess I can see why it’s funny, but I’m really not big on what seems to be fanservice for the sake of fanservice, especially when it seems to be there to draw in parts of a fanbase that may not be interested otherwise, but with no intention of following up on it. It feels more like baiting to me.
I’m much more fond of the second half, where Yoh almost frets himself into a stroke over Haruna’s birthday. I think it was a bit much that both the coach and the start player at the game they went to shared her birthday, but it worked. And Yoh buying the shoujo manga and reading it in horror reminded me of earlier in the series, where he read all the shoujo Haruna loaned him in one night. Poor Yoh. He both knew and didn’t know what he was letting himself in for when he started dating Haruna.