Category: Romance

Time Traveler: It’s Cruel but It’s History

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I loved the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, who didn’t? That was a sequel to the original novel story The Girl Who Ran Through Time. This movie doesn’t really have any trigger like leaping or running so I’d call it the Girl Who Fell Through Time, maybe. It also only has one big movement through time as opposed to a bunch of little ones.

Well “The Girl who Drank a Magic Science Potion That Made Her Then Run Through a Weird Blue Screen Sequence to Go Back in Time” does not really roll off the tongue. It is possibly better than what I was going to name this article, “Time Travelers Never Do Nothing For No One” or just have a link to a certain anime song that I use whenever time travel comes up. But I guess that is why we trade-off writing the article names.

But in all seriousness Time Traveler: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is based on one of those stories like A Christmas Carol or Romeo and Juliet that is constantly remade and re-imagined. The original story The Girl Who Runs Through Time is a Japanese science fiction classic. It has been remade in several movies, TV series, and specials. This and the film by Mamoru Hosoda are both sequels that deal with younger relatives of the orignal protagonist. Thankfully you don’t need to have experience the orignal story to get into this movie. While familiarity with the original does add a bit of depth you might have otherwise missed it is not vital. The wink and the nod to the smell of lavender can be caught by fans of the original but are not necessary to anyone watching this as a stand alone experience.  This story stands well on its own as its own time traveling love story.

Akari Yoshiyama seems to have luck on her side. She just got into the school of choice and her life seems on track for a brilliant future. But when her mother is hit by a car it seems that her problems actually lie in the past. Before falling into a coma her mother asks Akari to go back in time and give a message to a young man. As ridiculous a request as that seems it appears her mother has a formula that can make it happen. But when Akari is two years off in her trip back in time she must team up with a young science fiction director to deliver her message. Can Akari find this mysterious man without permanently damaging the time space continuum?

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Manga of the Month: Paradise Kiss

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Paradise Kiss (パラダイス・キス) by Ai Yazawa

With the first volume of Vertical’s beautiful new edition having gone on sale in September, it was an easy choice on what to highlight this time around.

Paradise Kiss combines high fashion, mature romance, and a bittersweet coming-of-age tale. Central to this is a cast that has more flaws than perfections; people who readily get swept up in their ideas, their passions, and their emotions. Paradise Kiss is all about relationships. Friends. Co-workers. Families. Lovers. And even yourself. How those relationships start is also something that at times is quite out of control as are the long-term effects you might not even be aware of.

Yukari starts the story at a very different place than she ends it. She has great grades, looks, and a bright future ahead of her but she has no passion. When she literally runs into Arashi on the street, she has no idea she is about to meet a group of people who will profoundly change her path in life. She is swept away by these fashion students’ dreams so much so that she wants to make it her dream, too.

As Yukari begins this journey for what she wants in life, she also begins her first real romance with the mysterious leader of the group George. His much more worldly point of view is irresistible, but the complexities at his core are very hard for Yukari to truly know.

Ai Yazawa’s elongated stylization is never more relevant than in a world of models, runways, and clothing. The work put into the fashions that everyone wears in the day-to-day as well as those they are create for Yukari to model are full of details. As always, Ms. Yazawa is a master of faces and expression throughout the ups and downs, the laughs and the tears.

I love that Paradise Kiss highlights a piece of Yukari’s life with all the thoughtfulness of how we are both powerful and powerless when it comes to our future and the paths of others. Paradise Kiss is brilliant in how it it shows what it is to step out in the world on your own.

Manga of the Month: The Story of Saiunkoku

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The Story of Saiunkoku (彩雲国物語) by Kairi Yura

Saiunkoku is about a kingdom and a romance, sounds simple enough, but it is anything but. The story while focusing on Shuurei is really about telling us the tale of an entire country’s nobles, peasants, conspiracies, politics, triumphs, woes, romances and even some supernatural forces.

Shuurei is a smart, hard-working, but poor noble princess who is brought to court in the hopes of helping the new emperor. She not only forms a close relationship with Ryuki the emperor, but also many others in his circle. Shuurei at first glance seems to be a too-perfect-nice-girl type but that quickly dissolves as you get into the meat of the story. She is extremely intelligent, on par with her male peers, and shows little intimidation in the many political situations.

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