Karin has not returned to her glasses. This sums up the aspect of this manga that I don't really like. In one scene, a friend makes her over and lends her some trendy clothes, and the boys who usually refer to her as Four Eyes are so dazzled by her beauty that they fail to even recognise her. Geeky girls can be beautiful without having to resort to stripping away their individuality, and the idea of a "secret" beauty residing beneath a nerdish appearance is a cliche that irritates me. On the positive side, Karin promptly returns to her comfortable casual clothes, and Kiriya likes her just how she is.

Karin's meekness and lack of self-esteem can be irritating at times, but I'm hoping that this just means it will be all the more rewarding when she finally finds herself. Kiriya on the other hand is just the perfect boyfriend -- never angry, polite to her mother, and always ready to make time for her, even if it means ditching his friends. A guy so perfect should be boring, but Kiriya's attraction is reinforced by his mysterious past, of which so far only hints have been revealed.

Just as her drama starts hinder plot development, Yuka retires from the main storyline, leaving it free to move in other directions. Nanri and Karin become closer friends, whilst Karin's mother becomes the new antagonist. This reshuffle of characters refreshes the plot and prevents it from getting tired. The cliche of the over-protective mother who insists upon perfect grades is perhaps just as over-used as that of the manipulative best friend, but in this case it feels more natural and realistic and is resolved before it becomes frustrating.

I still haven't entirely made my mind up about Kare First Love, but I'm sufficiently intrigued to buy the next volume.

I'd heard plenty of good things about Kare First Love but somehow had been put off buying it. Shojo manga is abundant with stories of push-over protagonists being manipulated by the bully best friend. It's a plot device that usually irritates me at the best of times, and so I decided that Kare First Love wasn't something I'd enjoy. Faced with no better prospects on the shelf at Borders, I reluctantly bought a copy, only to return it immediately after flicking through it at the cafe above the bookshop. Luckily, a couple of days later, it arrived in the post as the result of a forgotten trade -- lucky that I hadn't wasted my money in the bookshop and lucky that I did end up reading it in the end because this manga really is much better than it appears.

Kare First Love takes a cliched storyline -- shy, innocent Karin finds herself involved with confident popular Kiriya, the boy her selfish best friend Yuka happens to have her eye on -- and manages to make it move involving and absorbing than other shojo manga. Perhaps the reason why it succeeds is because Karin, whilst not quite seeing the full truth behind Yuka, at least recognises that there is not really any genuine feeling between the two of them, and the fact that Kiriya sees right through Yuka's schemes prevents the story from feeling hopelessly stagnant.

Despite wearing glasses, Karin is thankfully not given a stereotypical nerd appearance. So many stories centring around a shy, bookish heroine will have her lose her glasses and succumb to a dramatic make-over before the end, resulting in her looking just like everybody else. This is something I worry about happening in Kare First Love, so when Kiriya says to her "you look cute even without your glasses on", it came as a refreshing surprise. However, only pages later, Karin is experimenting with contact lenses, something I really hope isn't going to be a permanent thing.

I have a lot of hopes for this series. After a promising start, it could easily sink beneath its cliches, but I'd like to think it will continue to rise above them.