Recently, I’ve been in my study mood and haven’t been able to keep up with the latest seasonal episodes of anime. Deciding to leave them behind during my short hours of leisure, I wasted time making my mecha on Spore, which is rather ghey, joining the fencing club and reading my old manga. Of the numerous different manga I have, I only have a handful of completed sets, the best one which I have read is Ichigo 100%. Whilst reading it, even for the second time, the story was still able to tear my heart into shreads, twist it and reform it again. Well, that is generally the story, twisting and reforming the main character’s heart, like a magic carpet ride.
Honestly, if a girl would clean my room, bake cookies and sleep on my bed, I’ll be the luckiest man the the world.
The misunderstanding
On the surface, Ichigo 100% was a harem book. As easy as that, 4 girls and 1 guy, although the fourth didn’t come in till much later. However, to think that a harem book is totally bad is just being judgemental. The real strength of the book comes from the romance it provides through the maturation of the main character, Manaka. Still, luckily I used to be a shallow teenager who needed scantily dressed anime girls and I bought the whole set in a go(at a discounted price of course), something I have never done except for Slam Dunk. I always buy manga by the book.
The cover was what attracted me.
As I read it, friends around me borrowed the book, and were attracted to the scantily dressed babes too, including Sojourner. Somehow this made me question the type of people I’m mixing with…
Anyway, all of us read on and and 10/10 of us ended up saying it was a great book.
Important Notes
First things first, if you haven’t read the manga, go read it. It was worth every penny of my 30 pounds spent. Honestly, for 21 books, it was epic.
If you haven’t watched the anime, DON’T. The anime totally ruined it by not showing the most important arcs in the storyline.
Meanwhile, for the rest, the winners who read the manga, the mediocres who watched the anime or the lamers who haven’t heard of it and aren’t convinced to read the manga yet or if you are someone who is heavily dependant on walkthrus in RPGs and don’t mind your story being spoilt by a video, read on.
The main character and the girls(SPOILERS)
I wanted to do a write up but i believed that this video did a great job, which also gave the ending.
(END OF SPOILERS)
How to know a manga is good
There is no way to know how good a manga is by reading its description. The only way to truely know the rating of a good manga is by the comments of people who have read it. Now, not everyone has read this, but it does tie your heart in knots. It is a very emotional and touching book, especially when it gets to book 13-17. I hope everyone reads it all the way to the end before rating and commenting. I am expecting really good comments about this book in the comments box below but if someone has a different idea, then please say so as well, I may be blind after all.
SOJOURNER… RATE THIS…
Lastly, if your read Chobits and Tsubasa Chronicles and liked it, I bet you’ll like this as well. It is seriously better and it will be a crime not to tell people about it.
4 Comments
October 15, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Are u saying that Mich is not even half as good as Nishino? I’ll tell her!
October 15, 2008 at 10:56 pm
You’re right. I actually have a high bias towards harem-like manga because they normally come in combo with fan service like huge tilts and lots of undies but I’ll give this a try since it has been highly recommended by everyone. (:
December 6, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Wow.
Unbelievable experience
Just finished reading, it’s 2 o’clock in the night and for the last two days I’ve done nothing else but reading.
I’m 26, and I did feel uneasy whenever my fiance was around due to all exposed parts and such, but really, I can’t remember last time when I was so moved!
I am a worshiper of Berserk, but Ichigo stole my heart and left me feeling more alive then I was for the last ten years.
Mizuki Kawashita is a truly great artist. Thank you. Maybe one day I’ll be able to thank him personally.
December 7, 2008 at 11:43 am
@ Guardian
=) YAY, another one to join the club to know the true meaning of life. Share the love!!