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Hey, look! It’s the return of that lovely translucent color haze I love so much. I still have no idea why Flower Comics gets so gung-ho with slapping the color haze on so many covers, but it is getting pretty silly. I am actually working on a little gallery section to display a bunch of these covers, so people can see how similar they are starting to look. I do like this nice sea-foam greenish color, though. It’s pretty. This is a collection of cute short stories by an author I have talked about on this site before. Now that I think about it, the covers of her other books also have the color haze on them. Interesting. At any rate, there are 5 stories in this book. They are adorable with art that is very clean and simple. It is not smutty.
The first story is the one used for the cover illustration. It is about a girl named Azusa who works in the school library after school every day. Azusa doesn’t mind performing her library duties, because there is a cute boy she had recently noticed there. He sits at the same table, in the same chair almost every day. Azusa doesn’t stare at him, but every time she sneaks a peek at him, and he is always gazing out the window with great concentration. What is he looking at out there? Azusa is so curious.
One day, Azusa manages to speak to the mysterious boy, who looks very embarrassed to have been caught staring out the window. Azusa finally gets a look out and sees that the tennis team is practicing down in the school yard below. Ahhh. This boy must be in love with someone on the tennis team. He must really like her, because he is always staring. The boy, already embarrassed at being caught staring out the window, looks even more embarrassed when Azusa says he must like a girl on the tennis team. Even though he is very red and shy, Azusa find herself sympathizing with him, and admiring him for his devotion. Envious, even! As time passes, Azusa realizes that she looks forward to seeing the boy (his name is Iwasaki-kun) every day. Could she be falling for him? But he already likes someone else…
Next up is a story about love decided by chance. It’s summertime, and Kako-chan is sick of the heat. She is feeling restless, and she wants to find a guy to fall in love with. Her friend doesn’t take Kako seriously, but Kako is actually desperate enough that she tells herself that she will try to fall for the next guy to walk through a nearby doorway. (wow, talk about silly!) Fortunately for her, I guess, the guy who appears is really cute! Kako doesn’t know him. Can she fall for this guy? Already, her heart is pounding…
Story 3 is a cute story of Christmas love. Miyuki is a 20 year-old girl who just goes from one part-time job to another. Now it’s the holiday season, and she is working at a convenience store. Miyuki doesn’t have much Christmas spirit right now, but things start to change when an interesting guy comes in and asks her if they have any job openings at the store. They do, but the hours are really bad (evening shift). The guy looks disappointed. Then he switches gears and asks Miyuki if she is working Christmas Eve? Doesn’t she have someplace to go with her boyfriend? This is not the right question to ask poor Miyuki, who is single. Seeing her expression, the guy suddenly asks her to go out with him, then! Miyuki is stunned. Uh, no, she can’t go out with this STRANGER no matter how cute he is. Come on now. But the guy is persistent, and waits for her after work. It seems that the guy has liked her for a while. He admired her courage when she confronted some shoplifters at the store a while back. Still, this guy is a stranger. She doesn’t really know him, and she doesn’t have the energy to date anyone now, anyway. Besides, this guy is just a 2nd year in high school! He must be like 4 years younger than her! No matter how persistent he is, she can’t date him!
Story 4 is about a tomboyish girl named Chiaki. Chiaki likes to joke about how, when her older sister was 3, she said she wanted a little brother for Christmas, and Chiaki was born a rear later. That is why she is such a tomboy! Really though, Ciaki is everyone’s friend, and is treated by the guys in her class as “just one of the guys.” Until now, Chiaki has been fine with this, but she is starting to fall for one of her classmates. Will he ever see her as a girl, or is she doomed to be totally not his type?
The last story stars a fashionable girl named Hyori. Somehow, though, when she would rather be out singing karaoke with her friends, she is still at school, out on the baseball field. How on earth did she end up in th baseball club? It looks like Hyori has been volunteered to be the manager for the baseball team during the summer! Apparently, her dad is the coach (I think) and he signed Hyori up without telling her. Hyori is SO not thrilled about this. But her friend Yoshimura-kun is on the team, so at least she can see him. He’s a nice guy. Then Yoshimura introduces her to his teammate, Sumida-sempai. He is a second year student, and is the pitcher. Hey, he is cute! But he doesn’t look impressed by Hyroi, a fashionable girl with long fingernails, trying to be team manager. But Hyori isn’t just the stylish girl she seems like on the surface, and Sumida-sempai isn’t the snob that he appears to be at first. As they get to know each other, they really hit it off. This doesn’t make Yoshimura happy…
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