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.

The stories included in Confidential Confessions vary in subject matter, but they usually have one thing in common: a teenage girl will live through some dark and troubling experiences and come to an important realisation about her life -- a lesson not without its cost. The first story of Volume 4, however, doesn't reach these depths. After experimenting with prostitution, Megumi regrets her actions but doesn't really seem to suffer any consequences, and rather than try to learn from her experiences, she decides to act as though they never happened. Her life easily returns to normal and her biggest regret seems to be that she can no longer afford to buy designer accessories. Reiko Momochi has proved herself adept at handling these adult themes in a realistic and moving manner, so it's disappointing that this story is so shallow compared to the others, when the theme is one of the most controversial.

Fortunately, the other three stories in this volume are more rewarding. The second is the story of a meek student who learns to stand up to the abusive teacher who drove her best friend to suicide. It's truly moving and one of the best stories in the series.

The third story is about bullying, a fairly common theme in shojo manga generally. What makes this story stand out is that it is told from the perspective of the best friend of the victim, who feels guilty that she lets fear stop her from intervening. Where most such stories focus on the interaction between the persecutor and persecuted, this story adds extra depth by showing the pressures inflicted upon the victim's relationships. This is another very touching chapter.

The final chapter is a romance between two girls. As with the previous chapter, the story is told not by the victim (this time of incest and sexual abuse) but the best friend, and a further twist to the usual story structure has her almost become an aggressor herself. Ririko falls in love with her best friend Kanno, but her love becomes obsession as she blurs fantasy with reality and her desire to protect Kanno from harm borders on possessiveness. There are some tender, romantic moments in this dark, unique love story and it makes for a rewarding read.

For fans of the series, the quality of the last three stories make up for the disappointment of the first, whilst newcomers to the series would be better starting elsewhere.

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.

The One I Love is a collection of twelve short stories all about love -- ranging from such topics such as marriage, long-distance relationships, age-differences, honesty and insecurity.

At only half the thickness of a typical manga tankoubon, The One I Love may not seem like good value for money, but if you enjoy romantic feel-good shojo, you can't afford to miss this. The stories are short -- only seven pages each -- but each succinctly manages to sum up an idea in their brief pages, and each is accompanied by a mini-essay by lead CLAMP author Nanase Ohkawa, detailing the inspiration behind the story. The artwork is, of course, beautiful, as you would expect from CLAMP, and the first ten pages are fully in colour. A nice touch is the table of contents, which takes the form of a gorgeous (colour) illustration of the twelve protagonists together.

Despite being about modern, real-life issues, these stories all have a very innocent fairy-tale feel about them. This makes for a touching, cosy reading experience, but by the end you'll probably be wistfully wishing that love really were so simple.

Yesterday I went to Borders to get Chobits 5 and once again was drawn to Kashimashi, which I looked at last time but wasn't sure about. The basic plot is this: a boy called Hasumu is rejected by his crush, goes up to the mountains to brood over it, only to have a spaceship crash into him. The alien manages to revive him, but somehow turns him into a girl. Not only does the crush turn out to like Hasumu better this way, but Hasumu's childhood friend/neighbour starts to develop romantic feelings for him/her too. As if that wasn't complicated enough, the aliens decide to move in with Hasumu's family in order to learn about love.

It's the kind of thing that could turn out to be a very cute, romantic comedy, but could just as easily be repetitive, cliched with little development. I read the first few pages in Starbucks and decided to take a chance on it. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this first volume. There are plenty of running gags, but they're funny and don't detract from the serious side of the romance, which turns out to be quite touching. Despite the sci-fi elements and the fact that it's kind of hard to picture sensitive, gentle Hasumu ever being a boy, the developing emotions of the three main girls are believable and never over-played for the sake of humour or drama. I am looking forward to seeing how this love triangle works itself out.

As this is only a five volume series, hopefully the romance will continue to develop tenderly and believably, and not be pushed aside in favour of clichéd farce, as is the fate of many promising romantic comedies. Fingers crossed.

(I also picked up the latest Tokyo Sneaks and really enjoyed the Star Trek manga preview. Going to have to get that next time.)

What took me so long to get into Chobits? It'd been recommended to me several times, is exactly the kind of manga I've been looking for, and yet I've only just got hold of it (thanks to BookMooch again).

For ages I've been looking for a funny, cute, romantic manga in which pretty girls wear not a lot of clothes. Negima was fun at first, but soon got repetitive and it wasn't all that romantic, being as the protagonist was only ten years old. Ai Yori Aoshi was very romantic, but I got irritated by how shy the main characters were around each other and the fact that four volumes in, their relationship hadn't really developed at all. Ah! My Goddess irritated me for the same reason. People aren't so innocent and naive in real life!

So I love that Hideki is a bit of a pervert, haha. I like that he thinks about porn a lot. I like that any romance between him and Chi will actually have genuine reasons for not being straight-forward. Chi is funny and cute. Sumomo is adorable. I like that this series is only eight volumes -- I've only ever finished one manga series before (Paradise Kiss) but I think this will be the second.

The anime seems quite cute too, although I am not watching any further than I've read. Even my boyfriend (who isn't really into anime) thought it was pretty funny, which is good -- I lack the patience to sit and watch anything without company.

A friend recommended this manga to me, so I bought the first volume and was disappointed by it. The male characters didn't seem to have any depth, and Hatsumi irritated me by not standing up for herself. I didn't want to spend any money on the second volume, but when I saw it on BookMooch I thought I might as well give it a chance, seeing as it's a pretty popular series.

I'm really glad I did, because I enjoyed the second volume a whole lot more! The male characters suddenly gained a lot more depth and now I can't work out who's good and who's evil, and who I want Hatsumi to end up with. I now hate the one I thought I liked, am warming towards the one I thought I hated, and the guy I never really paid much attention to the in the first volume has now become the one I am most intrigued by.

I can't wait to get hold of the third volume!

Initially I was drawn to this manga because of its subject matter of real life issues, such as self-harm, rape, blackmail etc, but after reading the first two volumes, I'm disappointed. The story is simply one depressing thing after another, and the main character has little depth to her. I find it hard to sympathise with her because I just keep wondering why she lets other people influence her so much.

I can't imagine this manga interesting anybody other than those who just want to fuel their own depression. Each volume includes a postscript from a clinical psychologist advising anyone who feels similar urges to self-harm should seek help immediately; it would've been nice to see the protagonist follow the same advice and at least try and help herself. It may be more realistic this way, but it leaves me wondering what the point of the story is other than to deal with dark, controversial themes.

Having said that, I'd have been disappointed if this book had simply been a thinly-disguised education book for teenagers. A little bit of that would've been a good thing though, as it is this manga is just hopelessly depressing. I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.

NANA is titled for the shared name of two young women who meet when they both move to Tokyo, and become room-mates and best friends. They couldn't be more different -- one is candid, idealistic and ruled by her turbulent love life, the other is enigmatic, independent and the singer in a punk band -- but together they make an for an intense, strong partnership which is more endearing and compelling than any of the romantic relationships in the story. To avoid confusion, one Nana is nicknamed "Hachi" by the other, for her affectionate yet attention-seeking personality, Hachiko being the name of a famous dog in Japan.

The first volume serves as a prologue and introduction to the characters, telling the story of how each of the two protagonists chose to leave their small hometowns to move to Tokyo. The first half of the book tells Hachi's back story, the second half, Nana's. With two separate stories and two years worth of backstory to tell, there are a lot of characters and relationships to introduce, but the strong personalities of the characters make the story very readable and engaging. It is in volume 2, however, that the real magic of NANA begins, when the two girls meet on the train to Tokyo and later become room-mates. For the next few of volumes it's Hachi's love life that takes centre stage, but in volume 5 Nana's past becomes a central theme and provides some of the most emotional scenes of the manga so far.

NANA is funny, romantic, heart-breaking, enthralling -- every thing a girl could want from a manga. Though often classed as shojo (for girls), I would say NANA is more josei (for women), centering around young women and their real life troubles of sex, work, and independence. As with her previous works, Ai Yazawa shows she has a creative eye for fashion -- Nana always looks effortlessly cool and Hachi looks great in any style. Music is another strong theme in this manga. Nana's biggest passion is for singing, even at the cost of her love life, and the characters of both her band and their rival band play an important part in the story.

The anime adaptation -- consisting of 47 episodes -- is very faithful to the manga, almost a picture for picture word for word representation which on the whole works very well, but it lacks the immediate excitement of the manga. The first episode covers the two Nanas meeting on the train, and then each girl has two episodes of backstory from the first volume of the manga, before episode six which is simply a retelling of their meeting (apparently to please Ai Yazawa who hasn't happy with the first episode). This makes for a very slow start to the story that could put many people off. To someone who hasn't read the manga and who is getting bored with all the backstory, I would recommend skipping to episode 7 to get a true idea of what NANA is really like and then returning to the backstory later, when you have an interest in the characters. It really is worth the effort of getting into, and if you can't get hold of the manga then this is a very good alternative as it really does do it justice once it gets going. One thing that gives the anime an advantage over the manga, is that you can actually hear the music. The songs used really suit the characters and bands and really bring some of the scenes to life.

NANA was also adapted as a live-action movie. Whilst the actresses playing the lead roles and the music is very good, it really lacks the emotion of the manga. Hachi's stories feel rushed, and she doesn't even get any flashbacks, whilst Nana's story is dragged out and becomes the focus of the movie. If you've read the first five volumes of the manga (or seen the first 21 episodes of the anime) then the movie is enjoyable despite its shortcomings, but if you're new to NANA then the manga or anime will be a much more rewarding experience.