Questions are good things. They are there to get to know others and to find the common ground with each other, with the people we want to love. Well, I would think that the biggest thing I need to learn is to love myself. I think at least. I like lists, I make lists, mainly about anime and manga that I want to read and watch. And sometimes about American books too. My life does revolve around things that I consume. And I do not know if I am fine with that. I would like to fancy myself that I like philosophy, but in truth, I like the idea of philosophy. In the sense, philosophy means the love of knowledge, because we cannot know everything. So we need to start with things that we do not know, even though there are many famous figures in philosophy, I do not want to read from them. Because the biggest thing that I do not know if myself. And, as I am right now, I am more interested in filling the emptiness in me, if that makes sense. But I like questions. So, I went out and looked for que
The quasi-delinquent Akagi Koremitsu ends up being haunted by a schoolmate of his, Mikado Hikaru he is stopped into fulfilling one last promise that Hikaru had made. Otherwise, Hikaru's spirit can't rest in peace. However, Saotome Aoi is mad at Hikaru and wouldn't have anything to do with the feared Koremitsu.
I decided to write my thought as I go in reading the manga since even though I find it decent I don't have much hope to it being something that would impress me too much.
The art of the manga is beautiful and simplistic. Here I mostly mean the characters, the two leads, Koremitsu and Hikaru are complete opposites of each other and that is shown nicely in the rendering of the characters. The background is something that should have gotten a little bit more polishing, it is boring to look at but helps to make the characters pop out more. However, this runs the risk of the arts seemingly being uninspired and hard to remember.
It is interesting. You can skip ahead past the stars if you are not interested in volume reviews.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 1.
While Hikaru is a prince in school and every girl loved him, he doesn't have any friends. In this sense Koremitsu and he are similar and that's why Koremitsu is the only one he can depend on. Hikaru is a little bit of a playboy who likes girls and likes to talk with them - he is more like the gentleman of playboys, him being beloved and well-liked gives him the aura of a prince or idol.
Koremitsu is someone who is feared as the Yankee king after fights he had involuntarily gotten himself in. He doesn't have any luck with the new high school either, his bad reputation follows him everywhere. He is feared because of his scary-looking face that is always glaring. [Spoiler: Koremitsu himself has a good reason why to not trust people, and in fact, he is the opposite of the girl loving Hikaru. After his grandmother divorcing his grandfather, and his mother running away with another man, and his father suffering a heart attack and dying the only one he can rely on is his aunt.]
Aoi's hatred towards men, and especially hatred towards Hikaru is the number one thing that puts an obstacle between fulfilling the promise. She hates Hikaru.
Volume 1 is decent. It sets up the characters very well and everything is clear, no confusion, but I can't say that I am that involved in this point.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 2, is far better. It talked more about Hikaru and Aoi's relationship and the reasons why Hikaru feels the need to go and flirt with other girls.
Hikaru had a difficult childhood and still thought that if he puts on a smile, then he will be able to please people. I don't really like boxing people in, talking about every girl being a flower is cheezy and in real life, it would be bothersome and annoying to deal with someone like Hikaru, but in this story it kind of works. Especially after it was explained.
His friendship with Koremitsu starts to deepen too.
"One forgot how to smile. The other one never learned how to cry. We're complete opposites, and yet so similar. It's not a bad feeling. The hand that felt creepy when it went through me now feels warm and comforting." Koremitsu about his and Hiraku's feelings.
This happened right after a scene that almost bought me to tears. I have respect towards authors who can bring emotions out of me, especially when I thought that I was indifferent towards it in the beginning.
We get introduced to two new characters, mainly out Love Master Shikibu Honoka, who thinks we had blackmailed her into helping us with romantic advice. She is harsh with Koremitsu, but she turned out to be a kind person in the end who is lonely and even though she is trying to teach others about the ins and outs of love, she was never in a relationship. And slowly, she develops a crush on Koremitsu. I like her character, even though she is a little bit of a tsundere.
The other character whom we get introduced to is Saiga Asai, the head of the student council and Aoi's cousin. She was named in volume 1, she is the one who wants to keep Koremitsu away from Aoi, sensing that something is not right with him.
The end of the volume comes with a cliff hanger, building up to the next chapter. [Spoiler: Right now, looking over the characters, I do not know who would have been the one who had cut up the picture of Hikaru. Asai doesn't like Hikaru, she is overprotective of Aoi, but I don't think that she was the one.]
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 3.
I never would have thought that I would be a sucker for romantic stories, but they had a certain charm to them. The last volume of the series is a good closure of the storyline, however, as I understand that there is a novel that is much longer. I do not recommend the last chapter because that ends up in a 'read the novel' kind of way, however, it can read like an open ending to a pretty nice and touching story.
[Spoiler: There is a plot point that is brought up, that hints that Hikaru's death is not an accident but a murder. I will live with Hikaru's words: "It doesn't matter." This point is not explained, but that is understandable, seeing that the story is far from over.]
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
"Aoi" Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Ita Koro...... is a short manga consisting of 3 volumes written by Nomura Mizuki and drawn by CHuN made between 2011 and 2012. It was serialized in Gangan Online - information from myanimelist. Subsequently, it is the manga adaptation of the first portion of the novel Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Ita Koro...... by the same writer but illustrated by Takeoka Miho that is all in all 10 volumes. So this story is more of a little taste of what the novel has to offer for us.
All in all, I can recommend this to people who are only starting out with romantic novels and want to try or just in general like these kinds of stories. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it makes good use of the tropes that you can notice in the genre and spins a good tale.
The end is open-ended, in a 'read the novel' kind of way. And there is another plot element regarding one of the characters that will never be explained, and it is just baiting. You will see it coming though
The characters remain likable throughout the entire story. The only thing that the conflict is more based on lack of communication both on Hikaru's side and on Koremitsu's side. Koremitsu's side is more understandable, being haunted by a ghost and running errands to him is not believable. If you are bothered about this - because of this the main villain, yes we have one in this story, she appears quite late, but okay, this is not that kind of a story, I can run with it - is not that much of a bad person, more like a rather responsible one.
Oh yeah, another plot element that appears, a trope that I do not like, is arranged marriage, there is one in this one. I know, tradition and whatnot, it still makes my eye roll around uncontrollably. It didn't take anything for me because there is not that much attention to it, it is more like a fact.
Final score: 6/10 decent and moving but nothing new. It is not a bad score in my reading.
Trivia: The translator who had done a fantastic work [CKM scans and RAYNS&LELE scans] pointed out to me that 是光 how Koremitsu's name is written and this is how Hikaru's name can be written光. The basic explanation for this comes from mentioning a detail that 是 can apparently read as 'is' that means that Koremitsu can be literally read as 'is Hikaru.' I don't know, it was just interesting to mention it.
[Spoiler: .｡*ﾟ+.*.｡(❁´◡`❁)｡.｡:+* The original score would have been a 5 but Hikaru looks damn cute in a maid outfit so, the manga gets an extra score.]
Also this:
Extra trivia: [Spoiler: It didn't let me off and since I don't know if I would have time or patience in what the novel has to offer so I kind of looked into how had killed Hikaru to put the mystery to rest and someone on in the forum had already spilled the beans. It is on myanimelist, by the way. If you don't mind finding out what happened then read on further because I won't just spoiler the novels but a few things mentioned in the manga as well: Hikaru was the bastard son of a wealthy man, his mother was the mistress. Then, after her death, he came to live with them when he was four years old. On the vacation, where he had died he meets up with his step-mother. The step-mother and he were in a secret relationship. The step-mother wants to kills him - either because of jealousy or because of despair that she can't be with him. However, her attempt fails and Hikaru is left to die. Hikaru then takes his own life - that kind of explains the who secrecy towards his own death and the identity of the attempted murder.]
I decided to write my thought as I go in reading the manga since even though I find it decent I don't have much hope to it being something that would impress me too much.
The art of the manga is beautiful and simplistic. Here I mostly mean the characters, the two leads, Koremitsu and Hikaru are complete opposites of each other and that is shown nicely in the rendering of the characters. The background is something that should have gotten a little bit more polishing, it is boring to look at but helps to make the characters pop out more. However, this runs the risk of the arts seemingly being uninspired and hard to remember.
It is interesting. You can skip ahead past the stars if you are not interested in volume reviews.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 1.
While Hikaru is a prince in school and every girl loved him, he doesn't have any friends. In this sense Koremitsu and he are similar and that's why Koremitsu is the only one he can depend on. Hikaru is a little bit of a playboy who likes girls and likes to talk with them - he is more like the gentleman of playboys, him being beloved and well-liked gives him the aura of a prince or idol.
Koremitsu is someone who is feared as the Yankee king after fights he had involuntarily gotten himself in. He doesn't have any luck with the new high school either, his bad reputation follows him everywhere. He is feared because of his scary-looking face that is always glaring. [Spoiler: Koremitsu himself has a good reason why to not trust people, and in fact, he is the opposite of the girl loving Hikaru. After his grandmother divorcing his grandfather, and his mother running away with another man, and his father suffering a heart attack and dying the only one he can rely on is his aunt.]
Aoi's hatred towards men, and especially hatred towards Hikaru is the number one thing that puts an obstacle between fulfilling the promise. She hates Hikaru.
Volume 1 is decent. It sets up the characters very well and everything is clear, no confusion, but I can't say that I am that involved in this point.
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 2, is far better. It talked more about Hikaru and Aoi's relationship and the reasons why Hikaru feels the need to go and flirt with other girls.
Hikaru had a difficult childhood and still thought that if he puts on a smile, then he will be able to please people. I don't really like boxing people in, talking about every girl being a flower is cheezy and in real life, it would be bothersome and annoying to deal with someone like Hikaru, but in this story it kind of works. Especially after it was explained.
His friendship with Koremitsu starts to deepen too.
"One forgot how to smile. The other one never learned how to cry. We're complete opposites, and yet so similar. It's not a bad feeling. The hand that felt creepy when it went through me now feels warm and comforting." Koremitsu about his and Hiraku's feelings.
This happened right after a scene that almost bought me to tears. I have respect towards authors who can bring emotions out of me, especially when I thought that I was indifferent towards it in the beginning.
We get introduced to two new characters, mainly out Love Master Shikibu Honoka, who thinks we had blackmailed her into helping us with romantic advice. She is harsh with Koremitsu, but she turned out to be a kind person in the end who is lonely and even though she is trying to teach others about the ins and outs of love, she was never in a relationship. And slowly, she develops a crush on Koremitsu. I like her character, even though she is a little bit of a tsundere.
The other character whom we get introduced to is Saiga Asai, the head of the student council and Aoi's cousin. She was named in volume 1, she is the one who wants to keep Koremitsu away from Aoi, sensing that something is not right with him.
The end of the volume comes with a cliff hanger, building up to the next chapter. [Spoiler: Right now, looking over the characters, I do not know who would have been the one who had cut up the picture of Hikaru. Asai doesn't like Hikaru, she is overprotective of Aoi, but I don't think that she was the one.]
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
Volume 3.
I never would have thought that I would be a sucker for romantic stories, but they had a certain charm to them. The last volume of the series is a good closure of the storyline, however, as I understand that there is a novel that is much longer. I do not recommend the last chapter because that ends up in a 'read the novel' kind of way, however, it can read like an open ending to a pretty nice and touching story.
[Spoiler: There is a plot point that is brought up, that hints that Hikaru's death is not an accident but a murder. I will live with Hikaru's words: "It doesn't matter." This point is not explained, but that is understandable, seeing that the story is far from over.]
・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・
"Aoi" Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Ita Koro...... is a short manga consisting of 3 volumes written by Nomura Mizuki and drawn by CHuN made between 2011 and 2012. It was serialized in Gangan Online - information from myanimelist. Subsequently, it is the manga adaptation of the first portion of the novel Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Ita Koro...... by the same writer but illustrated by Takeoka Miho that is all in all 10 volumes. So this story is more of a little taste of what the novel has to offer for us.
All in all, I can recommend this to people who are only starting out with romantic novels and want to try or just in general like these kinds of stories. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it makes good use of the tropes that you can notice in the genre and spins a good tale.
The end is open-ended, in a 'read the novel' kind of way. And there is another plot element regarding one of the characters that will never be explained, and it is just baiting. You will see it coming though
The characters remain likable throughout the entire story. The only thing that the conflict is more based on lack of communication both on Hikaru's side and on Koremitsu's side. Koremitsu's side is more understandable, being haunted by a ghost and running errands to him is not believable. If you are bothered about this - because of this the main villain, yes we have one in this story, she appears quite late, but okay, this is not that kind of a story, I can run with it - is not that much of a bad person, more like a rather responsible one.
Oh yeah, another plot element that appears, a trope that I do not like, is arranged marriage, there is one in this one. I know, tradition and whatnot, it still makes my eye roll around uncontrollably. It didn't take anything for me because there is not that much attention to it, it is more like a fact.
Final score: 6/10 decent and moving but nothing new. It is not a bad score in my reading.
Trivia: The translator who had done a fantastic work [CKM scans and RAYNS&LELE scans] pointed out to me that 是光 how Koremitsu's name is written and this is how Hikaru's name can be written光. The basic explanation for this comes from mentioning a detail that 是 can apparently read as 'is' that means that Koremitsu can be literally read as 'is Hikaru.' I don't know, it was just interesting to mention it.
[Spoiler: .｡*ﾟ+.*.｡(❁´◡`❁)｡.｡:+* The original score would have been a 5 but Hikaru looks damn cute in a maid outfit so, the manga gets an extra score.]
Also this:
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