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I am now a huge USAMI Maki fan. I don’t know how or why it happened, but I think in the space of 2 days, I have managed to collect all of her works! I think out of all of her collected volumes, I am only missing the last 2 books in her most recent series. Naturally, when I start obsessing on an author that is new to me, I start spewing shoujo manga summaries ^_^ So watch out, there will probably be a bunch of USAMI Maki summaries coming your way 🙂 This series, ‘Kanon’ is a one-shot volume containing several stories, the first one being a teacher-student romance. Hah, and you wondered why I liked USAMI Maki so much! 😛 Okay, so she has done a couple of teacher-student series (I will summarize the other one also) but her other stories are just as cute. They aren’t smutty, really, but the art is nice and the characters are interesting. The other stories in this are also extremely cute!
It all begins with a song. As you may guess by the name of the series, that song is Pachelbel’s “Canon.” It is the song that our heroine, MATSUKURA Kanon, is named after, and it is the song that she hears coming from the music room one day. The music draws Kanon towards the room, wondering who is playing ‘her’ song. She is surprised to see her math teacher, Azuma-sensei playing it on the piano. However, he isn’t playing it very well, and he soon gives up. Ever since seeing him play, Kanon can’t get Azuma-sensei out of her mind. She watches him in class, wondering why he was playing that song. He is embarrassed to have been caught playing it when Kanon tells him she heard him. What is with that song? When his cellphone rings, and Kanon hears that his ringtone is “Canon”, she wonders who it is in his phone book that he has that ringtone set for. Oh, the drama! Kanon is an outgoing girl, and she boldly asks Azuma-sensei for his cellphone number, and even tells him that she likes him! Naturally, he is resistant. But this is shoujo manga land, resistance is futile, handsome young teacher!After school, Kanon has a part time job at a music store. One night after work, she is surprised to hee Azuma-sensei outside near her work, and then dismayed to learn that he is friends with her beautiful older co-worker Ayano-san. Even worse, Ayano-san calls Azuma-sensei by his first name, Kentarou! How close are they? IS she the one he has “Canon” reserved for? Meanwhile, Azuma-sensei isn’t too happy to discover that Kanon is working at a part time job downtown. It’s dangerous to go home alone from there! Kanon, who makes no secret of the fact that she likes Azuma-sensei, is dazed and happy about his concern for her, but does it really mean anything more than a teacher’s concern for a student? He couldn’t really care about her, not when he has the very beautiful Ayano-san around….
Story 2 is about Tsubasa, a girl who has a crush on a star basketball player. She prepares a gift for him and brings it to a game, but he is so popular and surrounded by girls, that she can’t get close to give it to him. Instead, she decides to give it to one of his teammates and asks him to deliver the gift for her. She soon discovers that the guy she likes already has a girlfriend. This depressing discovery is soon followed by a downpour of rain. Oh, just wonderful. She is REALLY depressed now. Tsubasa is stranded next to a building, cowering behind an overhang, waiting until the rain stops when she realizes that also hiding from the rain in that narrow space is the basketball teammate she gave the package to!This story is super adorable, I loved it!
The remaining 2 stories in this volume are very short and are, as you may by now guess, also very cute. I highly recommend this manga and this author! 🙂