Title: Gekijou Komoriuta Author: NANAJIMA Kana Publisher (JP): Shogakukan Imprint: Flower Comics Year: 2014 ISBN (JP): 978-4-09-136035-9 Licensed in North America?: No Also Known As: Publisher (US): ISBN (US): 0 Anime Version? No Live Action? No

I’ve talked about another series by this author before (Koi ja nai no da!). That one ran in ChuChu, a magazine aimed at young girls. Now here is a story that ran in Sho-Comi magazine, a publication aimed at a slightly older crowd. Of course, even though I say this, there really isn’t much of a difference in maturity level when it comes to this story. Sure, Sho-Comi magazine used to be an amazing collection of smut during the mid 00’s, in recent years they have really cleaned things up, and now we have squeaky clean stories like this one which might as well also be published in ChuChu. Still, I really liked this series, so I figured I might as well talk about it. It’s light, fluffy, and only 2 volumes long so it’s not much of a commitment. This is an airy snack. Sweet, but not much substance. Yet enjoyable 🙂

MAKI Kogure is an outgoing, spirited high school girl. Her main hobbies are eating candy and reading manga. She loves boys, but mainly the 2D kind. Real boys are scary, and she tries to stay away from them. Her fears are justified when one day, while following an unusual butterfly, she stumbles upon an incredibly handsome boy sleeping in an empty stair well at her school. He wears her school uniform, but she doesn’t recognize him. When she reaches out to touch the butterfly that has landed on his head, he awakens, sees her, and becomes very angry! He grabs her hand and angrily accuses her of trying to kiss him! Which, like, ew, no, she would never do that. Boys are scary! She denies his accusation, and it it is at this point the boy sees the butterfly fluttering around them, and he has a royal fit. He is terrified of it and grabs on to Kogure. Frightened, she shakes him off and runs away. …only to run into someone else! It’s a stranger she has never met before. He takes one look at Kogure and proclaims she has nice timing! He grabs her and before she can process what is happening, she is sitting in a classroom in a makeup chair getting a makeover! Wait, what is going on here?!

It turns out that the handsome boy she ran into is none other than OOYAGI Hiiro, member of the idol group BAD DO! He is at her school that day because he and his partner Kazuki are filming a music video. Unfortunately, the girl who was supposed to be in the video with them has not arrived, so the video’s director has recruited Kogure to play the part! Once the video’s staff gets her into make up, dress, and wig, Kogure looks very different. In fact, Hiiro doesn’t recognize her as the girl he met before at the stairwell. Kogure, in a daze, goes with the flow of the day and does her best for the director. She acts out her part in the music video, including a scene where she jumps from a balcony into Hiiro’s arms. Both Hiiro and Kazuki are impressed by her performance, and thank her for being in the video. Their manner is so sweet, and they are so handsome, that Kogure decides that she is now a huge idol fan! While she didn’t like 3D boys before, she has now seen the light! Liking idols is similar to liking 2D boys, since the chance of her meeting either Hiiro or Kazuki again is slim anyway.

Or is it? This is shoujo manga here, so of course she will meet them again. A few months later, after Kogure becomes a 2nd year student. her class is joined by 2 new transfers. Of course it’s none other than Hiiro and Kazuki! They were getting too popular at their previous school and it was becoming a distraction, so they have transferred to Kogure’s school. (As if they won’t be a distraction there too!) Kogure is excited to see them in her class. She hoped to meet them again after having so much fun filming the music video. But what is this? Hiiro doesn’t recognize her from the filming! Without her wig on, he only sees her as the girl from the stairwell who knows about his fear of bugs (like the butterfly). He even asks her if she knows who the girl from the filming is (does she go to this school too?) because he wants to meet her again. This is crushing for Kogure, who had become his big fan. Still, he wants to mee the other girl…so Kogure grants his wish, appearing before him wearing the wig. He doesn’t recognize her as Kogure, and actually confesses! What should Kogure do?!

Well, Kogure starts to have a bit of a double life relationship with Hiiro. She really likes him as herself, but he seems to only be interested in the version of herself from the filming. Kogure actually becomes jealous of herself! She needs to tell him the truth somehow. But how will he react when he finds out she’s deceived him?

This is a short 2-volume series that I wish could have lasted longer. The art is really nice. Clean lines, nice use of tones, and good facial expressions. The characters are cute and not annoying. In fact, I found the way they react to things quite refreshing! The author doesn’t throw in unnecessary drama. There is actually a bit of common sense here in spite of the shoujo manga premise! However, I got the impression at about halfway through volume 2, that the author was told to wrap things up because suddenly problems started getting solved quickly, and the pacing sped up to a slightly rushed ending. Or maybe it is because characters reacted to events with common sense that things could not be drawn out into more volumes. I guess you sometimes need those ridiculous misunderstandings and angst to pad things out. I really would have liked to see things keep a slower pace and see more of the love triangle (of course there is one!). As it is, I really hope this author can do a longer series in the future. Her art is lovely, and is just getting better with each series.