"He's doing juuust fine."
After digressions into side characters we don't know or care about in volume 2, Chigusa Kawai's La Esperança gets back on track more for volume 3.
"The Summoning Bell" mostly deals with Arthur and Lise, although at least it uses Arthur as a (not really convincing) mirror to Georges. Arthur and Georges' "caring for everyone the same" is not the same. Georges goes out of his way for people, whereas Arthur can't say no to people and ends up blowing off loved ones and his own responsibilities in the process of helping near-strangers. He also clocks Georges without asking questions first then embarrasses the hell out of him "apologizing" later. Arthur has serious impulse control problems and needed Georges' confrontational wake-up call. The school stuff of everyone buzzing over Georges having a girlfriend, though he actually doesn't, was nice. The Georges/Robert bit at the end was really nice. Though Georges is still so innocent that when Lise says someday he'll have a special someone in his heart he immediately thinks of his mom. *g* I still like Henri and wish Georges would end up with him, but I doubt the series will go that way.
"Icon" has a lot of great stuff in it as Robert's brother comes into the school as its temporary priest and brings a lot of secrets out into the open. It's about time Georges got to know some of this stuff. Robert's drowsiness throughout seems to be attributed to increasing nightmares about the girl Georges reminds him of. Georges' bedridden mother becomes more of a presence, and his faith becomes more involved in the story again. I find the role his Christianity plays interesting, even though I can't put my finger on why. We also get more, very emphatic proof that Georges may look like the stereotypical uke but has a lot of guts and is far from wimpy. I wouldn't have put myself in the path of Robert's rage like that.
"Memory" made me cringe. Jeez, Robert and Georges met when they were kids? How Destined To Be that makes them. *sigh* It doesn't help that Georges is the most ridiculously angelic child ever. Robert was a violent ass even then, so it's not the Great Tragic Death of Grace that made him so. He walloped Georges even when they were kids! Gah! Making it even more like bad fanfic is that Georges doesn't remember the incident on his own because he was running a bad fever at the time, though he still has the scar(!) from it.
So I'm still enjoying the series but hope Robert cuts the crap about being so physically violent. Georges deserves better, especially since the series seems to be gradually working toward pairing them up.
Oh, and take off the dust cover of each volume to see more art and cartoons. Volume 3 has a cute bit of Georges getting a "cold remedy" that has too much sake in it.
***
In other news, Makoto Tateno's Yellow volume 4 is like really bad fanfic. Unbelievable.
"The Summoning Bell" mostly deals with Arthur and Lise, although at least it uses Arthur as a (not really convincing) mirror to Georges. Arthur and Georges' "caring for everyone the same" is not the same. Georges goes out of his way for people, whereas Arthur can't say no to people and ends up blowing off loved ones and his own responsibilities in the process of helping near-strangers. He also clocks Georges without asking questions first then embarrasses the hell out of him "apologizing" later. Arthur has serious impulse control problems and needed Georges' confrontational wake-up call. The school stuff of everyone buzzing over Georges having a girlfriend, though he actually doesn't, was nice. The Georges/Robert bit at the end was really nice. Though Georges is still so innocent that when Lise says someday he'll have a special someone in his heart he immediately thinks of his mom. *g* I still like Henri and wish Georges would end up with him, but I doubt the series will go that way.
"Icon" has a lot of great stuff in it as Robert's brother comes into the school as its temporary priest and brings a lot of secrets out into the open. It's about time Georges got to know some of this stuff. Robert's drowsiness throughout seems to be attributed to increasing nightmares about the girl Georges reminds him of. Georges' bedridden mother becomes more of a presence, and his faith becomes more involved in the story again. I find the role his Christianity plays interesting, even though I can't put my finger on why. We also get more, very emphatic proof that Georges may look like the stereotypical uke but has a lot of guts and is far from wimpy. I wouldn't have put myself in the path of Robert's rage like that.
"Memory" made me cringe. Jeez, Robert and Georges met when they were kids? How Destined To Be that makes them. *sigh* It doesn't help that Georges is the most ridiculously angelic child ever. Robert was a violent ass even then, so it's not the Great Tragic Death of Grace that made him so. He walloped Georges even when they were kids! Gah! Making it even more like bad fanfic is that Georges doesn't remember the incident on his own because he was running a bad fever at the time, though he still has the scar(!) from it.
So I'm still enjoying the series but hope Robert cuts the crap about being so physically violent. Georges deserves better, especially since the series seems to be gradually working toward pairing them up.
Oh, and take off the dust cover of each volume to see more art and cartoons. Volume 3 has a cute bit of Georges getting a "cold remedy" that has too much sake in it.
***
In other news, Makoto Tateno's Yellow volume 4 is like really bad fanfic. Unbelievable.