Princess Bibliophile
<> Ch 10. oh man. this was so boring =_=. they have a whole scene *talking* about how smart and useful and suitable for the throne the princess is, but they never show it! Literally the only thing she does on screen is read, carry stuff, or pine. But she's supposed to be super smart?? naaahhhhh. show don't tell. it's the golden rule of storytelling and this story ain't it.
Tomodachi No Hanashi
Two girls, Eiko and Moe, are inseparable friends. Moe is beautiful and extremely popular with guys, but she always has one condition for going out with them: they have to put Eiko first. I liked this. Moe's got a blunt personality that's difficult to deal with, so she's struggled to make friends her whole life. Eiko's too much of a pushover and I was rooting for that to change. It seems like it did, just a bit. I like their friendship dynamic. They look out for each other. I liked Narugami-kun, the dark haired guy who winds up falling for Eiko. Him battling with Moe over her was fun. I was hoping this would be a friendship story mostly devoid of romance, but I liked it regardless. I'll give it a high 7/10. It's too short to do much, but what it did do, I really liked.. minus the side story at the end.
Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare
Dropped at vol 1. All the dialogue is cheesy and unrealistic to a point that I was struggling to shout "no one talks like this!!" every time someone spoke. Once everyone's introduced, it's like well there's your light haired guy and the light haired girl, and there's your dark haired guy and dark haired girl. And we all know who's gonna end up with who. I only got so far so can't speak for the rest of the series, but volume 1 was very cliche and predictable. Not a bad thing, but I'm also just not that interested in romance, so it's extra sloggy for me I did like the dynamic with the two main girls even if it was pretty surface level. TBH, I clicked on this because I saw two girls on the cover, which is rare outside of yuri, so I set myself up to be disappointed on this one. :< Anyway
Amazing Agent Luna
(Read this from my local library. Support your libraries kids) Uhhhhh what do I have to say about this... I did not like Control / Jennifer / Worst Mom. Well, there was no shortage of terrible mothers in story but yknow. There were SO MANY characters in general, they couldn't balance the screen time for all of them. The main love interest himself is irrelevant to the story for three whole volumes. Luna herself was your standard shoujo protagonist, generally chipper but cries if the guy she likes is mildy not nice to her. I kinda felt bad for her. She was just a teenage girl trying to navigate her emotions and succeeding in dangerous missions. Control / Jennifer suuuucked. I thought she would have more growth and complexity given her situation. She was in the impossible situation needing to be a nurturing mother and detached manager at the same time. But I just don't think she... grew. Like the story just kinda... pretended the revealing that Control was Luna's biological mother was the fix for their messy relationship instead of really grappling with it. What little growth she did have was just repeated. Like she'd realize she was treating Luna as a tool and not a human with emotions and needs and you'd start to see her grapple mentally with what to do---and then she'd reset. I don't know how to explain it. It was like the narrative was letting her make progress. Her relationship with Luna remains cold and distant the WHOLE time, despite the story attempting to convince us otherwise. There were so many random story threads that didn't go anywhere. What was the point of the robot girl? Or Francesca hating clones and lab grown life? Did they just decide they didn't want Francesca to be complex? That could have been an interesting conflict!! Instead of more jealous romance drama!! What was with all the clone stuff anyway?? That didn't seem to go anywhere?? Also what about that dude that got Love Interest 1 (Jonah) expelled? He just shows up, causes one (1) drama and then disappears? Where did creepy science kid---the one obsessed with making himself a lab grown girlfriend---go after everything fell apart. Why the heck was Count von Something a *count* but also the ruler of his own country??? Wouldn't he be a king??? I did really like the friendships with all the characters. Most of Luna's dynamics were Oliver was annoying at first, but he kind a grew on me even if he remained a little useless. I loved the weird dynamic he built with the PE teacher by the end. Francesca was just cute and I'm sad she didn't get to have a more nuanced relationship with Luna. Dr. Andy (or Dandy as I called him) was the only reasonable, emotionally stable, reliable adult in the room, which checks out since he was a live-in therapist. Actually the PE teacher was also a 10/10 adult. We stan a teacher who cares for his students' safety. The main villain was too silly and pathetic to feel like a threat. He was marginally funny as a weird uncle after he was taken prisoner. I thought his wife would be scarier, but she literally didn't do anything? Was NOT worth bringing her back. I was not rooting for a single person in this story to win any of the conflicts. Every organization we encountered were self-serving, morally corrupt pawns for unknown causes. Kinda made reading all 9 volumes feel pointless, but here I am. Overall, I guess it kept me entertained. 3 or 4/10
Otokomae! Beads Club