Honey Hunt 3

Honey Hunt Volume 3

The worst thing about reading Honey Hunt is the long wait between volumes. Yura continues her quest to prove herself to her parents by joining show business. She begins to come into her own a little bit, and happens on the inspired trick of taking her contacts out a table reading so she’ll be able to perform without being self-conscious. She’s still in the grips of her crush on the singer Q-ta, but her manager warns him off. Q-ta is about to go to London to record, and Yura asks him if he’ll e-mail her when he’s away. He kisses her and leaves.

It is obvious that Q-ta’s gruff twin brother Haruka also has a crush on Yura. She notices that while his mannerisms seem harsh, he actually gives her good advice when they are preparing to perform together. She suspects that he is secretly a sweet guy. Haruka isn’t happy about Yura’s feelings for Q-ta, and he reminds her that Q-ta’s motivation is to get close to her famous father. After reading this volume, I am firmly in the camp of Team Haruka, but knowing Aihara’s penchant for unsatisfying endings I am very afraid that Yura’s going to end up marrying her manager at the end of the series.

Haruka is a popular actor and a rock star and it isn’t until one of his bandmates points out that girls think musicians are cool that it occurs to him to get Yura to one of his concerts. Of course since he can’t tell Yura directly that he wants her to see him perform so he informs her that if she manages to get tickets to the sold out concert all by herself, he’ll tell her anything she wants to know about Q-ta. Yura falls for this and tries her best to get tickets.

Even though I’d normally find a heroine as unconfident as Yura a little annoying, she does seem to be working towards changing herself. She also has an unguarded quality to her personality that is unusual and refreshing for someone who is entering show business, and I hope her ambitions of becoming a successful actress work for her instead of against her. I think the emotion that Aihara is best at portraying is teenage embarrassment, and it is used to high effect when Yura realizes that Haruka has the ability to make thousands of girls scream at his pop concert. When she goes backstage to tell him how impressed she is by his talent, he finally reveals his feelings for her. They then proceed to have a blush-off that is extremely adorable. I’m waiting impatiently for the next volume of this series!