Happy Mania #2 – I think so far out of the josei (manga for women in their 20s) that I’ve read, Erica Sakurazawa’s works are my favorite, but Moyoco Anno’s Happy Mania is a close second. The heroine Shigeta starts off resolving to avoid men and “live for work” but she still summons Takahashi, her besotted ex co-worker and sometime friend to her side whenever she can make use of him. Shigeta continues to display poor choice in men, and she isn’t helped out by her mother’s newfound habit of joining strange religions in an attempt to petition god to find her daughter a boyfriend. Shigeta continues to be selfish and has the emotional IQ of a toddler, but she does display a few signs of growth, and her adventures continute to entertain.
For whatever reason, I think that the plot developments in this series have slowed down to a glacial pace. I can see why this series is 20+ volumes long. The Japanese students continue to unravel secrets about their former life as aliens living on the moon, and Rin continues to manipulate everyone around him. It must suck to be reborn as an elementary school student when your alien soulmate has been reincarnated as a girl several years older, but I don’t know if that excuses Rin from being a such a brat. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with this series, I might watch the anime version just to know how it ends.
Chiaki is walking down the street one day when she sees a boy wearing a dark suit in an alley who appears to be sick. She takes him home with her, and he reveals that he’s a demon named Ororon. He tells her that she seems to be part-angel, a “child of heaven,” and offers her one wish to thank her for helping him. She wishes that he would be her friend and stay with her forever. He agrees. Soon Chiaki’s empty apartment is overrun by Ororon’s demon friends, and some vengful angels start appearing to cause trouble. Chiaki and Ororon are drawn to each other, but she has a hard time dealing with his demonic side. It took a little time for me adjust to the art. It has a loose, sketchbook quality to it, and the characters have impossibly long limbs that sprawl all over the place as they lounge around. I think this is a 4 volume series, I’ll hopefully pick up the rest of the series when I go shopping today 🙂