High School Debut
(Vol. 2)
By: Kazune Kawahara
Publisher: Viz Media
Published: March 4, 2008
Genre: Shojo Manga
Rating:
Hopeless Haruna needs help finding a boyfriend! After failing to win the eye of any guy in high school, Haruna enlists the help of cute upperclassman Yoh to coach her on how to make herself more appealing to the male species. Yoh agrees, with one catch: Haruna had better not fall for him!
Haruna begins to develop feelings for Fumiya, Yoh’s friend. Yoh talks her through her first-date jitters, but is Fumiya the right guy for Haruna? Especially when they walk in on Fuyima and Yoh’s sister Asami…kissing?!
Haruna thinks she’s fallen in love with Yoh’s friend, Fumi. Fumi’s always been nice to her and she’s realized that she’d developed feelings for him. Yoh talks her through what to do next and pretty soon she’s ready to tell Fumi how she feels but before she gets a chance, she catches Fumi kissing Yoh’s sister. Heartbroken Haruna must now figure out how to remain friends with Fumi without her feelings getting in the way.
I have to say that I don’t understand Yoh’s sister. She was nice to Haruna from the beginning. She asked her brother to coach Haruna, allowed Haruna to borrow her clothes and gave her advice. So when the betrayal happens, it just seemed out of no where. Maybe Asami has dissociative identity disorder and that’s why this side of her comes out of left field. Who knows.
I loved how Yoh stepped up to the plate to help Haruna through it. He confronted both his sister and Fumi and stayed by Haruna’s side, helping her get through the awkward pain. There were a few “aw” moments in this one where he really stepped up for me.
We cover quite a bit of ground between Haruna and Yoh. Haruna starts to grow as a person and Yoh starts to open up to Haruna. This is a great way to not only continue the story but add character development as well.
*read right to left*
Yoh confronts his friend about leading Haruna on but dropping her the second his sister shows him any interest.
I thought it was sweet that he felt the need to look out for her.
Previous reviews from High School Debut
Vol. #1
Despite my not being a big fan of the art in this series, it was surprisingly touching a lot of the time. Felt more authentic high school drama than melodrama.
I agree. I wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork but I liked that it seemed realistic.
Does the personality change feel like bad writing or more of a logical plot shift? It can be frustrating when characters don’t act like it seems they should.
No she seemed a bit off in the first volume too. I just thought it was the way she was drawn and my own personal opinion but apparently not.
I’ve only read three or four in this series, but I really love it. I have the rest. I just haven’t gotten around to reading them yet.