Highlights from Cheese! Issue 2/2015
The new 2-chapter series “Barairo no Yakosoku” (“The Rose-colored Promise”) by Kaho Miyasaka is on the cover. The furoku is a ridiculously small copy of “Bokutachi wa Shitteshimatta” (“We experienced the Affair”) volume 1 by the same mangaka. It’s about 5 x 3.5-inches. Some of the text is way too small for me to read without a magnifier, so if you’re interested, it may be better to just spend the $4 – $6 to get the full-sized volume. Here are some links: Amazon JP / Kinokuniya / Yes Asia
Two series debuted in this issue. The first is “Barairo no Yakusoku” by Kaho MIyasaka. Miyasaka’s series “Kare: First Love” was licensed and released in the US back in 2004. It’s now available as an electronic book from Viz. Here’s a link with more information (LINK) “Kare: First Love” was one of the first shoujo mangas I read. I remember it being pretty good, so give it a try.
I did read Barairo no Yakusoku” chapter 1, and I thought it was excellent. In summary, Iroha, who is about to turn 16 years old, has just lost her father and now lives with her stepmother and stepsister. Her stepmother squandered the family’s inheritance and is now looking to marry off Iroha in exchange for financial support. While out in the garden mourning her father’s death, Iroha spots a chick that fell out of its nest. She goes to help the chick and sees a mysterious young man who smells of roses in the garden. Thinking he’s a petty thief, she tries to call someone over, but eventually she ends up falling into the young man’s arms instead. Iroha decides to let him off because the chick is safe, but the young man says he desires her lips rather than her words, which causes Iroha to inadvertently slap the young man with his own glove and then throw it to the ground. In other words, she’s thrown down the gauntlet, and the young man has accepted her challenge. Later we learn that Iroha’s stepmother has betrothed her to rich and very aged oil magnate, but Iroha refuses the match because the man is too old and she herself is considered “damage goods”. That day also, Iroha receives the yearly bouquet of roses she gets every birthday from a mysterious stranger. Also an invitation to a ball with the same kind of rose attached is delivered to Iroha. At first Iroha refuses to go [update 4/18/2015: Her stepmother reminds Iroha that she’s bethrothed to the old man and says there’s no need for her to go to a ball where Shiranui is picking a bride. Iroha resigns herself to the betrothal and backs down.], but later she sneaks off to the ball in the hope that something will change for her. Little does she know that the ball is being hosted by the mysterious young man she met in her garden, and that this young man is the son of Duke Shiranui and he’s using the ball as an opportunity to find a wife!
Here is a PDF of the Twitter summary I did. It has more details and images. As usual, start from the end of the last page and work your way up to the top of the first page.
Barairo_no_Yakusoku_Chp_1_Tweets
The second series that debuted is “Ohisama ni Kisu” (“A Kiss for the Sun”).
This felt a lot like a first shoujo manga to recommend to a new reader. It’s standard sugary, fluffy shoujo that will rot your teeth out. In this series, everyone thinks Kiryu is a playboy and Kiryu goes along with it because it’s easier than explaining that he’s not. In fact, even though he doubts love, all he wants to do is fall in love. Kiryu has a crush on Hazuki, the girl who sits behind him in class. He calls her his sun. When he sees that she most likely has feelings for him too, he decides to confess, but he too nervous and can’t get past his playboy persona to be honest with Hazuki. After failing repeatedly to confess to Hazuki, he finally boards Hazuki’s bus at the last minute and confesses to her.
I thought this would have been a super-cute oneshot, but it’s a series. We’ll have to wait until the next chapter to see if there’s any kind of story. Regardless, Kiryu is absolutely adorable! His feeling are so real and easy to relate to and he blushes a lot. I just hope Hazuki isn’t a bland girl, though it appears from the first chapter that she most likely is.
On to the other content! Here are the color frontis pages and some of the frontis pages from the series that interest me.
I read the “Hime to Tonari no Oujisama” Part 1. It’s about a soon to be 16-year-old girl named Kanna who’s just begun going out with Makoto, an 18-year old who will graduate from high school soon. Kana doesn’t want to have a physical relationship until they are married, so Makoto proposes that they get married as soon as Kana turns 16. Kana’s dad can’t handle it, but her mom’s all for it. After the proposal, Makoto stops touching Kana, which makes Kana actually want to be touched. What’s a poor horny boy to do?!
“Shikigami Danshi” has got some crazy yakuza stuff going on, so I want to go back to the previous issue of Cheese! to read the first chapter. The final chapter of “Zetsubou Baby” is hilarious. Unfortunately, the ending is spoiled for me (I won’t spoil it for you readers), but I want to see how this unlikely couple got to the end, so I’m going to read it.
(Forget you ever saw “Watashi no Koi no Seikai”. And no, that girl isn’t 3. Her body is fully grown, but she has an overgrown toddler’s head. This oneshot is unpleasantly smutty because of the female MC’s head-to-body mismatch.)
Here’s the full index with the listing of all the content in this issue.
Here are the books that were released in December. Go out and get them!
And lastly, here are the previews for Cheese! Issue 3/2015.
- It’s the 20th anniversary of Cheese!
- ”Bonnou Puzzle” will be on the cover
- There will be two new series debuts — “Kagi no nai Torikago” (“The Birdcage without a Key”) by Touma Fuyuori and “Tonohira ni Suisei” (for now “A Comet heading for Tonohira” until I can read the chapter to get at the mangaka’s intent) by Yukichi Nakamura
- The furoku will be a collection of first chapters from Cheese!’s past.
- The second half of “Barairo no Yakusoku”
Cheese! issue 3/2015 will release in Japan on January 24th.
Lovely Manga 