<b>Review of L♥DK #1 by Ian Wolf</b>
<em>"He gave her a look you could have poured on a waffle." - Ring Lardner</em>
Kodansha continue with their English-language releases of series of shojo teen romance. This latest title has been running for 18 volumes now, and last year it was turned into a live-action film.
<em>L♥DK </em>begins with Aoi Nishimori confronting Shusei Kugayama, the "Prince" of their school. Aoi is angry that Shusei rudely turned down her best friend Moe Shibuya's love letter, but he ignores her. Aoi then returns to her flat, which she rented solely so that she could go to the same school as Moe. While making a meal her new next-door neighbour introduces himself; he turns out to be Shusei.
At first Aoi hates the idea of living next-door to Shusei, but he eventually reveals himself to be rather kind and hard-working. His main reason for turning Moe down is because he hates people who are not straightforward with him, and would prefer it if they just came out and admitted that they found him attractive. Aoi makes a meal for Shusei in his apartment, but then has a strange turn while cooking. This causes the smoke alarm to be activated, turning on the sprinkler system and ruining Shusei's flat. Luckily Shusei's insurance covers the cost of the damage, but now he has to find somewhere else to live. Thus he moves in with Aoi.
Aoi tends to find Shusei annoying at times, but then at other moments he is rather helpful. Aoi tries to hide their new arrangement for everyone, especially from Moe, but it is not long before things slip out. The first volume ends with another girl named Eri appearing on the scene, who seems to have connections with Shusei.
It has to be said that when I first came across <em>L♥DK</em> I did think that this would just be another manga to go alongside all the other rather predictable shojo titles that Kodansha have started releasing. <em>My Little Monster</em> seemed to be the first, and that was a decent enough series, but then others came along like <em>Say I Love You </em>and <em>Manga Dogs</em>, and it started getting a bit tiresome. While there are several things in <em>L♥DK</em> that do seem rather similar (another romantic comedy, a schoolgirl coming to terms with loving someone she wasn't expecting), the comedy is slightly more pleasing than in most of these works.
The humour would be best described as farcical. There is a mix-up in Aoi and Shusei's bathroom; Aoi sees a shadow on a curtain which leads her to think that Shusei and Moe are having sex but in fact Shusei is just giving Moe a backrub; Aoi and Shusei get handcuffed together just before Aoi goes shopping for a swimsuit. If you like your farces then this is the manga to buy.
Ideally though, while <em>L♥DK </em>does have some merits, I would like Kodansha to expand into some other types of shojo manga, or some other types of romantic manga - possibly something in the realm of josei. One romantic manga that they have released which does differ slightly form their other titles is <em>Kiss Him, Not Me!</em>, a reverse harem manga in which the central figure is a fujoshi, a review of which is also on AUKN by Sarah. I have read this and did like it more that <em>L♥DK</em>, even if they think that in a football match you score points rather than goals.
However, in terms of the current batch of shojo manga Kodansha are currently bringing out, <em>L♥DK</em> is one of the better ones.
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>
<em>"He gave her a look you could have poured on a waffle." - Ring Lardner</em>
Kodansha continue with their English-language releases of series of shojo teen romance. This latest title has been running for 18 volumes now, and last year it was turned into a live-action film.
<em>L♥DK </em>begins with Aoi Nishimori confronting Shusei Kugayama, the "Prince" of their school. Aoi is angry that Shusei rudely turned down her best friend Moe Shibuya's love letter, but he ignores her. Aoi then returns to her flat, which she rented solely so that she could go to the same school as Moe. While making a meal her new next-door neighbour introduces himself; he turns out to be Shusei.
At first Aoi hates the idea of living next-door to Shusei, but he eventually reveals himself to be rather kind and hard-working. His main reason for turning Moe down is because he hates people who are not straightforward with him, and would prefer it if they just came out and admitted that they found him attractive. Aoi makes a meal for Shusei in his apartment, but then has a strange turn while cooking. This causes the smoke alarm to be activated, turning on the sprinkler system and ruining Shusei's flat. Luckily Shusei's insurance covers the cost of the damage, but now he has to find somewhere else to live. Thus he moves in with Aoi.
Aoi tends to find Shusei annoying at times, but then at other moments he is rather helpful. Aoi tries to hide their new arrangement for everyone, especially from Moe, but it is not long before things slip out. The first volume ends with another girl named Eri appearing on the scene, who seems to have connections with Shusei.
It has to be said that when I first came across <em>L♥DK</em> I did think that this would just be another manga to go alongside all the other rather predictable shojo titles that Kodansha have started releasing. <em>My Little Monster</em> seemed to be the first, and that was a decent enough series, but then others came along like <em>Say I Love You </em>and <em>Manga Dogs</em>, and it started getting a bit tiresome. While there are several things in <em>L♥DK</em> that do seem rather similar (another romantic comedy, a schoolgirl coming to terms with loving someone she wasn't expecting), the comedy is slightly more pleasing than in most of these works.
The humour would be best described as farcical. There is a mix-up in Aoi and Shusei's bathroom; Aoi sees a shadow on a curtain which leads her to think that Shusei and Moe are having sex but in fact Shusei is just giving Moe a backrub; Aoi and Shusei get handcuffed together just before Aoi goes shopping for a swimsuit. If you like your farces then this is the manga to buy.
Ideally though, while <em>L♥DK </em>does have some merits, I would like Kodansha to expand into some other types of shojo manga, or some other types of romantic manga - possibly something in the realm of josei. One romantic manga that they have released which does differ slightly form their other titles is <em>Kiss Him, Not Me!</em>, a reverse harem manga in which the central figure is a fujoshi, a review of which is also on AUKN by Sarah. I have read this and did like it more that <em>L♥DK</em>, even if they think that in a football match you score points rather than goals.
However, in terms of the current batch of shojo manga Kodansha are currently bringing out, <em>L♥DK</em> is one of the better ones.
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>