IMHO. 'Kyou no Kira-kun' ~ 'there is no greater happiness than to be needed by the person who's precious to you'

I stumbled upon the 'Kinkyori' movies when I was browsing through a website with Japanese TV dramas and full-length movies. Then I read the manga. Though it was different in many aspects, I enjoyed it even more than the screen version. It's a well-known fact that best things come unexpected. I was not aiming for that, but I thought I found another mangaka to add to my top-mangakas list.

Just as the unexpected things are good, the expected things may turn up not quite as you expected.

story and characters

Now promise me you don't mind a lot of crying, especially on the part of men. You don't? Good. Because this story is tear-squeezing. The Hero cries,

 the Heroine cries,

 the Hero cries many times,by the way

 and their friends cry, too...

Their parents cry very much, too, if you wanted to know.

But the strangest thing is, the author made me cry as well. I just couldn't stop when I reached volume 9, the last one.

I must admit, before volume 9 there were 8 volumes of ms. Mikimoto repeating herself. Yes, again we have a strange girl who doesn't get along very well with her classmates. Yes, she falls in love with a very popular guy who, under his mask of a careless person, has deep wounds. Yes, she gradually develops relationship with other people and makes true friends. Yes, she has a slightly unusual family with a very young mother (who's a cosplay-lover, by the way, in this case) and a caring father.

We even hear some Russian again! ^___^

Okay, it was not the main point...

However, this is where the common points end. I must admit, if you asked me what manga I prefer among these two, I'd name 'Kinkyori', because it was just what I wanted, but 'Kira' would be the one I'd recommend sooner to others. What crossed my mind while reading, was that 'Kira' is extremely educational. In fact, it's like a good story for adolescent girls. It's more decent and slightly less passionate than 'Kinkyori', with first volumes only showing occasional cute scenes. The following important moments in 'Kira' were more about growing up, overcoming hardships, philosophical things like life and death, rather than sheer romance.

And it's kinda educational in many ways

The usual sense of humour of Mikimoto-sensei is not absent in 'Kira', too. Though she doesn't insert any crazy parodies any more, the humour became more lambent, and is expressed in the forms of whole characters - Nino's bird, Sensei, or Rei, her friend. At times, I was astonished at how unusual the reactions of the characters were. Kira decides to work part-time to save up money. What does Nino say? 'Then I'm going to become a girl who looks good in bikini so that your fatigue would fly away!'

This was my favourite moment. Kira says something touching. Nino's reaction - 'hehe, you're so cute...'

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've never seen such a realistic, credible reaction in manga. It's just what I would do if I were in her place. What those girl usually do is to blush and cover her face, or punch the Hero. Or both.

And I loved those subtle moments when the author described the small happy things that filled the life of Nino. It is that kind of 'everyday happiness' that does not sound like it's the end of an interesting journey and the beginning of dullness.

At first, when I read people say that the characters in this manga make good couples, I couldn't agree. I thought they still lack something to become a solid unit. However with time, I couldn't help being surprised with how much they really complement each other. They were all doing exactly what was necessary to their other-halves at the moment, and in each couple both participated actively in developing the relationship.

Graphics

For somebody it might be a negative thing, but for me it's what I require from a mangaka - not simply showing some fancy tricks or ideal lines, but being able to convey the characters' emotions, even if it may look too obvious and intentional.

Not all frames were equally good, but it's a great progress as compared to 'Kinkyori', and some are just ideal.

language

Again, it's educational even in this aspect. 'Kira' was one of the easiest mangas I've read, and I highly recommend it to girls who started learning Japanese. Maybe boys, as well? It's a story about modern Japan, schoolers, their everyday life and so, the words learnt from it would be more helpful than in other works (like shounen fantasies or manga that concentrate on some particular topic).

conclusion

Comparing ms. Mikimoto's works to others, I have to say her ending of 'Kira' was maybe just too more abrupt than I'd want it to be. But as it is, it's not bad in any way.

Now will follow a big spoiler so don't read it if you mind.

Ask me who my favourite character was and I won't hesitate for an answer. Parting is always very hard. The story of Sensei reminded me of my own experience. Those who have ever had a pet would understand. But I will have to believe in this, too, like Nino - one happy moment is more important that 10 sad ones.

'Kinkyori ren'ai' ~ please, try to keep up with me

'Wowow, slow down!!!'
my friend said to me when I showed her this frame from 'Kinkyori ren'ai'

story and characters

So, after I watched the movie, I expected to see something similar but more elaborate. And because of that I was disappointed with the 1st volume, because its ending was already making a decent happy end. However, my opinion was changing for the better with every new volume. By the 2nd volume I understood that even if the kissing scene seemed less romantic to me than in the movie, there were plenty of other things to make up for that. In the beginning I was seriously thinking it was nothing more than a light comedy, but then I noticed that I was more and more often holding my breath, and it was not because of my Autumn catarrh. Then I made myself read slowly so that I wouldn't let it end too fast. It was dangerous to read fast because I would simply explode. You could cook pancakes on me because I was probably hot enough.

When there were still 3 volumes left I already felt the end was close and it made me very empty. It's a kind of feeling that only arises when I feel extreme attachment to the characters and their story. There is a good Japanese word for this feeling - 'munashisa'. It's when you see something different and then realise you don't want anything different, even if it is by the same author.
Now this is where I must stop pretending that I'm writing an unbiased review considering all pros and cons. I just loved the way the characters' relationship developed - and by the way, not only the main couple. Just to maintain justice I must note that all characters were lovable and, running a few steps forward, I was very happy to see that all of them were doing fine in the end.
But speaking of those two, I just love it when the guy is passionate, if not too impatient, and expresses his feelings in a straightforward way. And I just love it when he makes such painful expressions when there happens something unpleasant about their romance.

Citing myself, I love it when guys "dry up" (in other words, slobber over, dote on and suffer from their love). And I love it when they suddenly get all serious. I mean, really, what girl wouldn't want to hear 'I told you I'm doing it so just stand still here' having his head just 10 cm away?

You might have guessed, but I consider the Hero hot. If you haven't seen lots of shoujo manga heroes I shall tell you they are not always, 100% hot, but this one is. But I just wanted to present you a quiz: what keeps his pants from falling considering that nothing actually protrudes in the pants below the shirr?

Um... And if I created an image in your head that this manga is your pure romantic story, then I'm sorry. It's not entirely. And it has another side... How should I put it... Well, just imagine that in order to scare her daddy the Heroine makes a crab position and drives him to the edge of the roof until he almost falls down but then rushes to save him. 'Is it only me or this kind of situation is strange? And how am I supposed to react?' Exactly the Hero's thoughts.

And if you agree with him, the author asks you to keep up with her. You see, the vertical line under ※ mark in the left.

As you can see, Ms. Mikimoto is very well aware of what she's doing and has enough self-criticism, which she never fails to express - I think by her ? she meant something like 'I drew a saliva drop on her mouth to show that she herself is eager to see the Heroine wear the clothes, but you would probably say 'what's that?' so I'm putting this ? mark here'.

Oh, this is my favourite moment: the Heroine accidentally sees the Hero topless while he is changing his clothes, and her reaction is not your simple blush or KYAAA or running away. Her reaction is natural. Just what I would do if I were her.

By the way, if you wonder what it means, it says 'A dog was biting Ivan'. In Russian. I wonder why in Russian, but no matter what the reason I was happy to see some accidental Russian in a Japanese shoujo.
'Wha? Is it ok just to do it simply like this? It's strange, isn't it? It must be strange!' - says the Hero when simple cosplay of a doctor made it possible to enter the hospital. Again ※ mark answers us: 'just interpret it like it was ok'.

Now that I talk about it, I can finally articulate the second reason I enjoyed this manga, the first being the passionate romance: the mangaka's sense of humour was close to how I usually fool about with my friends, the same kind of imagination running wild and brain recalling absolutely irrelevant things.

language
I would recommend this manga to all young students who learn Japanese and want to read something in Japanese. School romance has never been a difficult genre, but I guess 'Kinkyori' is even easier than average. The only hardship you'll face is that the manga contains a lot of author's associations that require thorough knowledge of Japanese pop-culture, from the 'Great Teacher Onizuka' live-action (by the way, the first one, not the new ones you might know) to T. M. Revolution's songs, from Battle Royale II to to Momoe Yamaguchi's last concert.
Like I said, Mikimoto's imagination flies up to the sky every time she notices she herself created a situation that induces associations with something well-known, like a phrase that matches a quotation from some popular song, or resembles its title, or the performer's name, or a character gets into situation that reminds something well known. I can totally imagine how this was created: the mangaka makes her heroine say 'I cannot even tell him what I want to say so much', and then suddenly the song 'Poison' from GTO starts playing in her head, which she immediately puts down to paper.

graphics
It certainly takes some time to get used to it, and it certainly grows better with every new chapter, though it does not change drastically like it does in works of other authors I've read. What I appreciated most in this manga is that the mangaka was able to convey very strong feelings with just one or two frames, and make me, the reader, feel the whole situation, not just one simple emotion.
She looks aside. He looks at her. Suddenly the wind brings sakura petals through the window and inside that pick whirlwind she seems to be very different and specially attractive, just for a second. What would be his unconscious reaction?

Even though Mikimoto only used the usual tricks widespread in all shoujo manga, she used them so wisely that every time she did, the time seemed to slow down giving me more time to fell the moment through.

Ms. Mikimoto developed a style that made it possible to feel a second like it lasted for much longer when it's necessary, and enabled the readers feel the situation the way the characters felt it. Just look how wonderful she drew the scene of falling down the stairs.

Or this awkward moment when no matter how you try all your creations look the same, while this pro made only one picture and managed to show how the heroine changed very slightly, subtly, when she had natural makeup applied, which made her look certainly cuter even though there were nothing special done about her.

Ms. Mikimoto is obviously very fashion-conscious, because she didn't simply create something simple and easily forgotten, but rather developed a full set of clothes for every new situation that allowed it (read: except for school uniform), and I do cherish such efforts, it's always pleasant to see that the author puts a lot of thought into her work including even chapter covers and backgrounds.

And basically, the same wonderful mangaka is actually capable of creating something like this. A-ha.

I don't know, maybe she had her unlucky days, too. But I won't get angry at her. Who cares about such things if the next page gives you this:

I know I showed it. I can show it many times you know? And never get tired of it.

conclusion
I must add at least one fly into this ointment. When I read to the end, I was not very happy with the kind of story when the Hero deliberately pushes the Heroine away so that she wouldn't end up sacrificing herself. At first I was angry. For about half an hour. Then I thought of something that made even this flaw disappear. While as a girl I usually put myself into the shoes of the Heroine, I imagined just for once what I would do if I were in the same kind of situation as the Hero, having someone I think dear and seeing I'm not the best variant for him right now, even though hoping that he wouldn't change his mind after some time passes by. This is what we, people not having the natural aptitude to understand our own and others' feelings and emotions, do: we cancel our relationship altogether and then wait, and when we get sure we do love the partner and the partner returns the feeling, we come back. And then I stopped being angry. All the more he became honest with himself very quickly.
To sum it up, you should read this manga because... you know, I'll just repeat the words from the very work in focus: cause it's funny, why else?

p. s.
Don't make the same mistake as me and don't buy 'Genshoku Tsundere Danshi. Ikenai Sensei' that contains a special chapter of 'Kinkyori'. This chapter is included in the end of volume 4. Instead, read 'Sensei to kinkyori', which contains another special chapter. It was really cute and filled the gap between the graduation ceremony and Uni's departure to America.