This be my week of discovery. I'm actually getting why tweeps (looking at you, oebee_cherry-san) fangirl manga-ka I'd passed up on. It happened with Kawamaru Shin (The Executives of Houou Academy made a believer outta me) and now with Chiba Kozue (whom I'd dismissed after being underwhelmed by Falling into You Like A Magic).
Hidari Te no Love Letter © Chiba Kozue/Shogakukan
[First serialized in Sho-Comi]
Published in Indonesia as Love Letter by Gramedia/m&c!
Love Letter by Chiba Kozue: Kyuun~ moments abound
Shoujo manga review by huamulan03 (Some rights reserved)
Rating: 6.75 of 10 love confessions
Five shorts make up Chiba Kozue's Love Letter (Hidari Te no Love Letter) manga: the antho-christener, Ferris Wheel in Noon,
Nature Alliance,
Dangerous Distance
and Art Time.
Each one, prefaced with a rough draft sketch in the tankou, is curiously readable and appropriately Warm and Fluffy/Fuzzy.
1) Love Letter
In which meganekko Nishino becomes closer to Sawayaka-kun (apologies, Kazehaya, but Minami Taiga is made of Pure Niceness just like you) by means of reminder scribbles on her left hand, the plot device evoking another shoujo hero (Fuji from Yamanaka Rico's Time To Say Goodbye). Love grows as Nishino and Minami chat in class via their left hand scribblings.
[Minami × Nishino]
Kyuun~ moment:
Minami draws a circle on Nishino's ring finger with a permanent marker.
2) Ferris Wheel in Noon
In which estranged for a decade childhood friends Tomoko and Sorato finally 'fess up as they take the last ferris wheel ride before the amusement park of their kidhood closes.
[Sorato × Tomoko]
Kyuun~ moments:
Sorato's desperate clinch out of the blue inside the ferris wheel carriage and his Here's all my money. Please don't open the door!
barked out at the ferris wheel operator.
3) Nature Alliance
In which Atou Saya commits the most epic #Fail of her 14-year-old life: handing her love letter to the wrong guy, Sahara Nobu—who then accepts her proposal. The misunderstanding affords Saya-chan the chance to get to know Sahara and...you know what comes next. (Sahara overhears Saya telling a friend she made a mistake :P)
[Saya × Sahara]
Kyuun~ moment:
Sahara pulling out what looks like a Japanese B2-sized blueprint for his date with Saya — and the paper's covered from corner to corner with plans.
4) Dangerous Distance
In which Kaji Akira has no business Brother Complex-ing Touya—especially as they're Not Blood Sibs—to the point where she raids his drawers and finds love letters from Touya's Me wannabe! girlfriends.
[Akira × Touya]
Kyuun~ moments:
Touya warning to his Not Oneechan, Akira: Be ready. Because there's no barrier between us anymore
and his I haven't considered you my big sister for more than 10 years now. I'm 100 times more patient than you!
confession.
5) Art Time
In which another meganekko, Yonei Mina, defaces an estimated ¥ 600 thousand painting and has to reimburse art student Minamura Shio for his loss by working as his maid.
[Minamura × Mina]
Kyuun~ moments:
Minamura greeting Mina who arrives at his studio looking for a part-time job with: OK, strip.
Also, his insistence that No matter what, I will make you my model!
that prompts Mina to show up for work in so many layers of clothing, she triples in size; Minamura blushing when Mina agrees to become his model and disrobes in front of him on snowy roof top; and Mina musing I think his fingers were trembling,
after Minamura slips off her glasses.
Rating
All receive no less than 6.75 of 10 love confessions, with the last, Art Time,
actually flirting with a 7.0.
Verdict
GET! if you still can (Love Letter went on sale in July 2010). If not, borrow.
Iamque opus exegi,
~niki DBA 30uɐlnɯɐnɥ (花木蘭03)
Mistress of Adoxography
P.S. Even if you've already read Love Letter and are moved to revisit after reading this review, I will be chou-chou-chou! happy :D (Please leave me a comment if you do.)
copyright information
Hidari Te no Love Letter © 2009 Chiba Kozue. All rights reserved. First published in Japan in 2009 by Shogakukan Inc., Tokyo
Indonesian translation rights in Indonesia arranged with Shogakukan Inc. through The Kashima Agency for Japan Foreign-Rights Centre.
Indonesian copyright (2010) PT Gramedia
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manga · shoujo · review · Love Letter (Hidari Te no Love Letter) · Chiba Kozue · Sho-Comi · Shogakukan · m&c!