shut up and let me see your jazz hands

Title: Kamisama no Orgel
Author: Mizusawa Megumi
Number of Volumes: 3
My Rating: 4.5/5

I read the first vol. of this years ago, but then never could find the later volumes for cheap and sort of just forgot about it. I recently found them, though, as well as vol. 1, so I could refresh my memory, and I'm glad I finally got a chance to read the whole series.

It's a cute story as is everything by Mizusawa Megumi. This is from Cookie, so the characters are college students, rather than middle- or high-schoolers as you usually get from Ribbon. Yumi is a second-year college student and has recently broken up with her boyfriend when she finds out she's pregnant. At first she is going to have an abortion, but eventually she decides to keep the baby and she and her ex, Kouta, get back together to raise the baby. However, there was a good reason they broke up: Kouta is immature and kind of obnoxious, and it's not easy for them to make a go of it.

I liked that it wasn't a fairytale romance and that I really wasn't 100% sure that they were going to be together in the end. I also liked that it didn't glamorise having a baby. Despite being married, Yumi essentially has to raise Tsubasa on her own, while still going to school, and it's not easy (even though Tsubasa is a very easy-going baby).

There's a second story in vol. 3 called Pocket Cafe, which is also very cute (not a one-shot, but complete in two chapters).

The first vol. has been scanlated and is up on Manga Fox, though it looks like the series was abandoned after that. (I'm adding it to my list of possible things to scanlate, though, you know, who knows when that might be.)

I've been going through all my one-shots and reading those before deciding what series I want to tackle next. Here is one by Mizusawa Megumi and two by Yoshizumi Wataru, two of my favorite shoujo writers.

Title: Orange Kakumei
Author: Mizusawa Megumi
My Rating: 3.5/5

I've always liked Mizusawa Megumi's stuff. This wasn't one of the best I've ever read, but it was cute. The first three stories are about a girl named Natsu who's classmate always teases her and jokes around and says he likes her. She doesn't take him seriously at first, but eventually grows to like him, too. The fourth story is about her sister, Aoi, whose best friend is really pretty and outgoing and Aoi is always jealous of her. I liked that the pretty best friend was a genuinely nice person, and that when a bunch of other girls accused her of using Aoi to make herself look better, that wasn't the case. (There was a romance in this one, too, but the friendship was equally important.)

Title: Cherish
Author: Yoshizumi Wataru
My Rating: 5/5

I love Yoshizumi's shoujo stuff, but I've never read any of her ladies manga before (in fact, I didn't know she wrote ladies at all until I saw this). I don't know if she's written any more, but if she has, I hope I can get my hands on it, because this was awesome.

There are two stories. The first is about a girl whose mom dies when she's three and she's then raised by her mom's best friend and his partner. Flashforward to when she's in college, where she's reunited with a boy she broke up with in jr. high because he couldn't accept her gay dads. If I had known that's what the story was about, I would have read it a lot sooner! Gay supporting characters aren't too rare in shoujo, but I've never seen one where the parents were gay (outside of BL). It's great to see casual positive portrayals like this in manga.

The second story was about a guy who falls for a woman who has an eight-year-old son and tries to convince her that he's not put off by her being a single mom. This was a cute story, too.

Title: Quartet Game
Author: Yoshizumi Wataru
My Rating: 4/5

This is a collection of some really early manga of hers. It's not the best of her stuff I've ever read, but all the stories were enjoyable.

The first story was a mystery. Four kids at a music school are assigned to play as a quartet. One day as they're practicing, they stumble onto a clue that may have something to do with a missing teacher. I was totally not expecting the mystery in this, so that was a nice surprise.

The second story was a fairly ordinary school romance. A boy has a crush on his classmate, but thinks she's going out with their teacher.

The third story was the best. It was about a girl who gains the ability to "time slip" after being hit by a truck. She can't control it, but she usually only slips back a few hours or at most a day or two. Then one day she slips back five years and meets two boys who try to help her get back to her own time.