I’ve been reading New Moon in preparation for the movie, which I admit I am very excited about. I will never like the style, but the pacing is totally engrossing. I forget where I am and what I’m doing every time I open that book… But I left it at Jonathan’s, so I’m using my day without New Moon to read volume 4 of Otomen.
Otomen: 1) a young man with girlish interests and thoughts; 2) a young man who has a talent for cooking, needlework and general housework; 3) a manly young man with a girlish heart.
This is the first manga series I’ve ever followed, and it’s pretty darn cute. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but it’s very interesting, and I might not even have as much of an appreciation for it as I should if it weren’t for the fact that I am constantly looking for books that are safe to share with my students.
The protagonist, Asuka Masamune, was abandoned by his father at a young age when his father became a transvestite and decided he wanted to live his life as a woman. Ever since, there has been extreme pressure on Asuka from his mother – and society in general – to be manly, to shy away from “cute” things, and not to end up like his father. Asuka is generally respected as the toughest, manliest man and fighter in his high school, and the only people who know that he is an otomen are his love interest, Ryo, who is not very girly at all, and his friend, Juta, who is secretly using his relationship with Ryo as the basis for the shojo manga he writes. In other words, it’s just adorable. It’s a very quick read, and each chapter is like a separate episode.
I didn’t know that the fourth volume was out until I happened to see it when Jonathan and I were at a comic book store on Friday. I don’t know what made me think that there were only going to be four volumes in the series, but now there is a volume 5 and volume 6 in the works, apparently. They’re a lot of fun to read and a few of my female students just love them.
