World of Narue 4

The mouse story was SO CUTE.  There was a lot of cuteness here, but I think I liked the mouse story the best.  The perv factor was unfairly turned up on the main character, but otherwise everything was very adorable, and they included just the right number of characters.

I also liked the fact that they said that he was playing on the New York Mets because he didn’t make the Yankees.

Other stuff… hm, I also liked when the two secondary characters pretended to be a happy couple to illustrate to Narue what she was doing wrong.  That was also quite funny, and of course the obligatory conclusion was something I was looking forward to.

The cosplay chapter at the beginning though… eh.  Not so much.  I did like the fact that the secondary female was such a bookhound, though.  That made the geek in me smile.

World of Narue 3

I read this one really infrequently, and I still have one more to go before the end of break (eek, I think I have four volumes, possibly six, to cram in tomorrow from various series).  But I do like it, it’s one of the many reasons I’m sad to see CPM go.

Reading this right after Fruits Basket is hard, because this is kind of Fruits Basket lite, the same way that Utena is the anti-Fruits.   This story is very character-centric and tells kind of wholesome slice of life stories with touches of romance without being overt, and it keeps everything pretty amusing throughout.  Best of all, no depressing pasts that are constantly harped on for anyone!  Actually, this is kind of a poor man’s Oh My Goddess/Fruits Basket hybrid, tailored specifically to anime fans, I think.

Now that we’ve got my complex genre analysis out of the way, on to the meat of the story!  There’s still no overarching plot, which is fine by me because I like the shorter stories just fine so far.  My favorite is with the mouse who steals things from cat-girl and makes Christmas all right for both the main character and Narue.  The fact he bought her a crystal whale necklace is a little weird, but the slight instead of overt oddities is what I enjoy about the series so much.

Also good was the ghost story that sort of brought two side characters together without directly involving any of the main cast.  It was interesting that it turned out to be one of the best with two almost completely unknown characters.  I also liked the field day episode, which touched on the relationship between the two secondary characters.  I wound up liking the male secondary character a lot more after that.

I lied about the drama, too.  There’s a story about Bathys…paceship’s past which involves a doomed lover.  The difference between this and Fruits Basket is that the character looks back on this fondly and uses it as a reson to live a full, happy life.  FB characters would dwell on it bitterly until Tohru told them to cheer up and then worried about her selfish reasons for wanting them to cheer up so they could be her friend.

No, I’m not bitter at any manga series at all!

Anyway.  Yes.  On to volume 4!

World of Narue 2

So I ordered this one back during a CPM sale (I think), then just left it to sit and rot on my shelf. Shame CPM’s since announced bad things and this series likely won’t continue. Anyway, I remember really liking the first one, but for some reason it took me forever to tackle this series. I don’t know why, it’s quite charming.

It seems like a shounen romantic comedy, but I like it a lot better than most because it’s got a great deal of sensitivity. It’s not over-the-top in its humor. It’s got one or two obnoxious characters, but it’s not EVERY character. The writer is sensitive to everyone’s feelings, which is a great thing. The stories are episodic, but it gives a chance for all the characters, including the obnoxious ones, to grow a little bit. It’s got a little bit of an after-school special tinge to it as a result, but I still like it a hell of a lot better than I”s and Pastel.

The swimming one with Narue’s sister is the one that stuck out most for me, but I’m not sure why. It was pretty sweet, but it was also one of my least favorite. We learn a bit about Narue’s past in a story where her boyfriend gets turned into a cat inexplicably, and that was probably the highlight of the volume. Still quite understated, but it had a sweet ending, and I liked it all the same.

I’ll probably be tackling the next two volumes pretty soon. I like this series a lot. It’s not an absolute favorite, and it’s not particularly noteworthy. It’s subtle, it does its own thing, it’s got really solid characters, and I like it a lot as a result.

World of Narue 1

I want to hate this series, but can’t. It’s sort of stuck between ongoing plot and unrelated chapters, and that pisses me off because I want it to be one or the other. It’s great otherwise. Who knew the boy-gets-alien-girlfriend genre could still produce anything that wasn’t an exact carbon copy of every other such series?

World of Narue is just fun. Narue, the alien girl and the main character, manages to be just slightly south of normal. She’s very standoffish, but not unpopular, and her alien abilities aren’t exploited to the degree that they are in every other series… they just come up every now and again.

At the core is this weird relationship between her and the guy… and the fact that I can’t remember his name means he wasn’t that interesting. Well, he was funny, but there was nothing particularly memorable about him. Their relationship is bizarre in the same slightly south of normal that Narue herself is. And it works.

Best part was definitely where Narue got stuck between the bathrooms, ass in the stall of the girl’s toilet XD

So, uh… I guess it’s just slightly south of normal and lots of fun. Yeah. I’m saving my vast vocabulary talents for the mangabits review!