Crown of Love 2

Yun Kouga – Viz – 2010 – 4 volumes

I am ridiculously fond of this series.  While the plot summaries make it sound like a pretty typical showbiz shoujo manga, it has an excellent sense of mood.  Melancholy and melodrama are the orders of the day where most romances, even dramas, usually have a much lighter tone.  I think it differentiates itself because the characters take everything so seriously.  Hisayoshi loves Rima, and he’s not taking “no” for an answer.  This would be creepy in any other series, but he backs off when she calls him out on it, and he finds himself a supportive, non-creepy role in her life that keeps him very close.

Hisayoshi is very serious about his love for Rima, and he’s also prone to pointing out the way adoration and “like” in other people isn’t the same thing as love.  I hope the themes are examined in more detail, because calling attention to something like that in a series with celebrity characters could get very interesting.

Aside from the mood and very serious tone, it reads a lot like a regular shoujo manga.  Rima is still a very famous idol who lacks confidence in herself, and Hisayoshi is the very popular, charismatic main character that loves her.  Hisayoshi is breaking into showbusiness himself in order to get close to her, and is doing a good job because of his personality.  But while every woman seems to fall for his charms, being charming is not something he does on purpose, and he isn’t a playboy.  He also seems to have a special knack for not letting the girls with crushes on him down… he doesn’t lead them on, he just has a really good way of keeping his distance.

Interestingly, there are a lot of characters, and I was disoriented at the beginning of the volume, but they are all unique, and all seem to have a role to play, and I do admire series that keep all its characters involved.

As I said before, I could go either way on Yun Kouga, but Crown of Love really does seem like a series that’s perfectly suited to her strengths.  She writes strong characters and is a master at atmosphere, but I think her other work runs into problems with sci-fi and fantasy themes, which this lacks.  It’s great serious-minded shoujo without being too heavy and dramatic, and I’m sad it seems to be on such a slow release schedule.  Here’s hoping a lot more Loveless fans find it and give it a try.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.