Please Take My Brother Away

Please Take My Brother Away was a hilarious manga that was turned into an anime as well as a life action K-Drama. 

A brother and sister live together after their parents sticky divorce and must survive each other. It is a short, fast, slice of life that is just too funny. 

I don't know much more to say other than it's hysterical and I finished it in a day. I really want to find the anime for it, but the K-Drama is on Netflix. 

If you're looking for a pickmeup story, this one is great. 

Fly Me To The Moon (Tonikaku Kawaii)

 

Fly Me To The Moon is a slice of life story for a boy named NASA (like the space association) and a girl who saves his life. He vows he will marry her, but she disappears. He goes through school, graduates at the young age of 16, and suddenly she shows up and asks if he still wants to marry her. He's been looking for her for years and says yes, so they get married. They live in his tiny little apartment and get to know each other. Part of the suspense and intrigue in this story is that neither of them knows anything about being intimate and they both think it would be very improper to touch much let alone sleep with each other (other than actually resting). When his apartment burns down, they move temporarily into a bathhouse (run by a mom and her two daughters who are his age, whom he's helped out with accountant work in the past). Jealousies and friendships accrue. 

In going into it, I didn't realize it was a slice of life, so I was anticipating a thick plot and was slightly disappointed. There was this implication that she is some kind of moon spirit or guardian, but then that never really goes anywhere. I haven't finished the whole series because it was getting king of long (as slice of life stories sometimes do), but I did enjoy what I did complete. 

There were many really cute moments that I don't think would happen in real life (because of the attitude of "we shouldn't touch more than hand holding," "kissing makes me embarrassed," "I shouldn't look because I'm not supposed to" when they are actually married and all of that is fine in practically ever culture that I'm aware of). They are sweet and kind to one another and shows a good marriage which is nice for a change when there are so many awful marriage or the "Mom and Dad are off on business trips for the whole story or don't exist all together." 

I really wish they would have added more into the whole Moon Guardian thing. The slice of life aspect of it is fine, but I really wanted them to do something more with her paranormal powers--like how the heck did she actually safe him! 

House of the Sun

This manga was a cute, simple and muchly needed story.

Mao is a girl who's family is broken. Her parents have divorced, her mom has practically vanished, and her cold dad is now remarried to a woman who already has a young daughter. She feels replaced by her new sister and unwanted by her father. There is one place she can go and has gone to every time she's needed to get away, the shrine. The shrine is where she is always found by Hiro who always somehow saves her. Hiro has his own problems and troubles. His parents are both dead, his two siblings are living with relatives, and he is left very much alone in his parents big house.

With Mao having no where else to go and feeling very much abandoned and so much room at his house, he offers his home as a place she can rest her head and sort out her troubles. He is older than her by eight years, but have known each other for years and years so it's not super weird. Except for the fact that they start liking each other, obviously!

Eventually Hiro's brother visits, new friends are made, crushes are realized and denied, and high school love drama ensues. Although it runs side by side with the need for families to come back together. Mending broken families.

I really enjoyed this manga series. Mao is a somewhat shy but strong girl who will do what needs to be done realistically. It takes time to gain the nerve and gumpshin to do it. Broken families aren't mended in a week, normally. Often, I think, not even a year. And this goes through the somewhat sticky process of real life and people and their choices.

I enjoyed the characters and how different they were. They grew in their own ways, each with their own moments of love in different varieties. Love and loss and denial and sadness, all real things in life and they were presented well.

This is one that I would probably read again. Enjoy.

School Rumble

School Rumble is a part slice of life, part romantic comedy with an engaging story. At the beginning of the series, there are lots of small incidents that happen and as the story goes long the plots of the different characters interweave more and more. It isn't some high flying adventure or much of a gut wrenching romance, but it is a story that is light hearted and funny. I feel it very much resembles what high school romances end up being: twitterpated hearts, communication problems, secret crushes, group get togethers, and more.

Harima, the glasses-guy on this cover, was a deliquitent, the big, scary man on campus. But then upon seeing/helping Tenma, our pig-tails girl here, he found himself in love with her and got himself back to school. But the big, aloof manly-man can't be seen in love with a ditz like Tenma. But he must confess and let his choice be heard! Right? Only everything always seems to go wrong. And Tenma is in love with another, more somber boy in class named Karasima. Yes, it's a love triangle, but not an annoying one.

I think the thing that I like most about this series is that it's light and charming. Harima is such a fun character who is very determined and willing to push through anything "for the woman I love." He gets himself into entertaining situations which often made me laugh. And although Tenma can be obnoxious at times you can shake your head at her misunderstandings and move forward. Hanai, Yakamo, Makoto, Akira, Lara (Lala), Karin, and most of the other characters that are Harima/Tenma/Karasima's classmates and friends are all funny. They each get ample amount of time "on screen" and are developed fully as characters. School is not just a "whirling romantic comedy" about our main two characters, but it's about the entire class. Everyone is important. Everyone has their own backgrounds. I was able to find something I like about (most) everyone. There were one or two characters that I didn't care for in that they were overly perverted, which I do dislike, but they were only a small part and I could quickly skim/skip over them. Everyone else was fantastic.

My favorite set of chapters was a war that they had over deciding what they would do for their school festival. They sneak into the school at night, armed with bebe guns and fight it out. I get with the school shootings and things, that some people night not care for it such situations, but it was very comical. Not in funny, "haha" way, but in the intense atmosphere that they all created. I found it entertaining both in the manga and anime. But that's my own opinion. Most of the rest of the series wasn't nearly as intense, again it was light.

The only thing that I disliked really was the ending. I wanted firm confessions of love and solid relationships, and while we got some there were some relationships that I felt didn't get the ending that I wanted to have. There was a build up to it, but then the characters let themselves fall a bit flat in proving that relationship and solidifying it. At parts it was kind of a let down.

Still, read it. Enjoy it. And down get bogged down by the shortness of the chapters.

My Giant Nerd Boyfriend

My Giant Nerd Boyfriend otherwise known as My Giant Geek Boyfriend is another webcomic that I
binged in a half day and must tell all about.

It is a slice of life comic about a girl who is about 5'1" with a 6'5" boyfriend and most days in their relationship. Moments from dealing with parents, to arguments in their relationship, to laughing about everything, to how they met, to dealing with cramps, to getting their new dog, frustrations, good times, differences in height problems, and many nerdy things that I have grown accustomed to in my own relationship with my spouse. There are many gaming moments with hints at games alongside real problems that many people face.

I think the situations here are honest and do occur. These are real people in comic form. It was simple, but very much fun and had me laughing out loud in many spots.

A book with some of the comics has been published but you can find all of the stories on webtoons.com . On the book cover here says for "mature readers only" though I'm not 100% sure as to why... It was a good set of stories.

My Neighbor Seki

In one word, I'd call My Neighbor Seki "delightful."

This slice-of-life manga is about two middle school aged kids in the back of a classroom. Seki, the boy, is always goofing off in class and is never paying attention. But instead of simply staring out a window, Seki has a teddy bear rescue going on via remote control helicopter. His games are elaborate and well thought out and Yokoi, the girl, is constantly being distracted by everything he does. Simple games of "Go" get turned into a massive battle between good and evil. Seki refinishes his desktop to look like stained glass and so on. These are small skits are comical and good for a much needed laugh or (at the very least) a good smile.

I enjoyed how they seemed to get closer and closer as the series went on though a romance doesn't actually happen, no matter how much Gato (Yokoi's friend) believes there is a relationship between the two. At the beginning Yokoi gets so very angry that Seki and his games are so distracting, but as the series goes on she gets into it. On the book covers, their desks move closer and closer as Yokoi becomes more engulfed in the stories Seki ends up telling as well as the intricacies of the contraptions.

I also think it's fun that not only does Seki have the imagination to come up with his games every class period, but that Yokoi gets it. She gets upset that he's playing and distracting himself from studying, but then she is distracted as well and ends up understanding what Seki is trying to do.

It is also interesting that throughout the whole series, Seki never says a word. A lot of it is Yokoi's internal dialog with little bits of dialog from surrounding students, though they don't actually notice the games. This way of conversing and getting the information across to the reader is different and is helped out a lot by the artwork. This too is well done and fun to look at and read through.

This would be a good series as in introduction to slice of life for anyone, most especially middle schoolers. It is a simple series, but very much fun.