Customer Reviews

Marmalade Boy, Vol. 1

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Marmalade Boy is a shojo (girls') manga by Wataru Yoshizumi, centering around high school student Miki Koishikawa and her crazy circle of family and friends. In this, the first volume, Miki's parents are divorcing in order to swap spouses with another couple, the Matsuuras. While Miki's less than thrilled with this turn of events, the other couple's son, Yuu, is awfully good-looking...

Once Miki, Yuu, and their parents have all moved into one house as one big happy family, a new wrinkle is added. Ginta Suou, Miki's tennis club captain and long-time friend, rejected her in junior high when she wrote him a love letter. They're just friends now...or at least Miki feels that way. Ginta may feel a bit differently...

Yoshizumi's elegant (though anatomically disastrous) art does a handy job of realizing the quirky characters, and the top-notch localization helps pull you into Miki's world. The plotting is expert also (though on occasion soap-operaish). This is one of my favorite manga series, and I highly recommend it.

Marmalade Boy is something that many people have said would never be licensed, because it has no audience in America. This applies to the anime in particular, since there are over 70 episodes. However, thankfully that's been proven wrong in the fact that both the anime and manga have been licensed by TOKYOPOP.

Marmalade Boy is like a soap opera in a way. There are no magical powers, no giant robots and no dragons. Instead we follow the day-to-day life of Miki Koishikawa. The story starts with a bizarre turn of events that result in teenage Miki living in one house with four parents and her new step-brother, Yuu. Yuu seems like a jerk (albeit a very good-looking one) to her, but is very popular at school. Naturally she finds herself getting caught under Yuu's spell, but things become complicated as it is revealed that both Miki and Yuu have old flames (Ginta and Arimi respectively) who are still interested in them.

Marmalade Boy is light-hearted, romantic fun. This highlights a fundamental difference between Marmalade Boy and most soaps: Instead of making you want to throw things at the screen because the characters are so stupid, Marmalade Boy makes you smile when you read it.

I have one word to describe the translation: Incredible. Anyone who still holds a grudge against Mixx/Tokyopop for how they treated some of their older titles will find themselves converted upon reading this. And anyone who's worried that reading right-to-left style will confuse you, don't worry, it becomes second nature after a few minutes :D

And what's the title of my review all about? Simple: I have to wait a month until the next book. What should I do!?

Revised Grammatically and Structurally Friday October 22, 2010.

Marmlade Boy has a soap opera-esque premise: Revolving primarily around a young teenage girl named Miki, her parents go on a cruise and meet another married couple, both couples fall in love with the opposite couples spouse of the opposite sex, decide to get divorced, and move in together in one big house so when they remarry that their respective family can stay a family.

Now of course this turns the childrens lives upside-down. Especially Miki's, she is very determined to make them see what a mistake doing this is, while concurrently the other couple's child Yuu appears to solely care about his parent's own happiness and disregards his own. Miki is taken aback by his calm and collected attitude, and fails to understanding how a living breathing human being could remain so calm in a crazy situation such as this.

On top of having to adjust to the changes in not only her parents marital life style, but her house hold life, she still has to deal with her school and normal life as a teenage as well as trying to move past the pain she feels every time she sees her close friend Ginta, whom she previously confessed her love to and was completely shut down.

Marmlade Boy may have soap operish themes, but that doesn't make it a Soap Opera in the traditional sense of the word, most soap operas either border on high camp or are completely devoid of humor all together, whereas this treats not only its characters and subject with a great deal of sensitivity, but is also very aware of the absurdity of its premise and gives most of the situations a knowing wink and a good sense of humor/satire, and I found this continues on in to the later Volumes, which, believe it or not, contain even more sensitive subject matter.

It is also more than a little refreshing to see young characters that look their age and aren't either exaggeratingly beautiful (whether male or female) or look 10x's older then they are. The majority of the characters are High School freshman, and they look like High School Freshman!

I highly recommend not only Volume 1, but the entire Marmalade Boy Series, it is funny, touching, and thought-provoking and worth reading regardless of what kind of manga you may normally prefer. :)

God Bless & *enjoy* ~Amy

This book was soooooo much fun! Poor Miki, ARE HERE PARENTS INSANE?????????Her parents go on vacation and meet another couple their age so immedeatley take a liking to each other. sooooooo they come back from vacation and have decided to get divorced from their original partner and get remarried to the other couples spouse.... umm did you get that? I hope you did anyways that is just the BEGGINING of Mikis problems!!!This might have a couple spoilers so don't read anymore if you don't want to here them!.....A few of Mikis other problems consist of a VERY cute step-brother who is a total jerk, living in the same house with her original parents, both her step-parents, and her step-brother(I have NO idea how she can live through that!). A few other problems are she thinks shes fallen in love with her step-brother!!! AND just before her life-long crush/love has confessed his feelings for her.Something or rather someone else who doesn't make things any easier for Miki is Yuus (Mikis step-brother) old girlfriend, Arimi! She immediatley starts a competition with Miki over Yuu which Miki would much rather avoid because choosing who she loves more (Yuu or her crush Ginta) is hard enough without Arimi interfearing! Poor Miki, CAN'T A GIRL JUST LIVE IN SOME PEACE!!!!!!!!!! I think you'll enjoy this story very much!^_^ Later!

I must admit, this wasn't a blind buy, so I can't take credit for my clairvoyant ability to choose fabulous manga. Quite the opposite, I was intrigued by an anime magazine which listed Miki and Yuu as the 5th most romantic couple in anime/manga. And let me assure you, it's the truth.

"Marmalade Boy" is a triumph of beautiful artwork and characters that you will love from the moment you open the book. Koishikawa Miki has an ordinary life, with an ordinary family. Until her parents return from a Hawiian vacation with the news that they are in love...but not with each other! Miki's parents have fallen in love with another couple, the Matsuura's. Enter Yuu, the Matsuura's son, and a crazy plan for all six of them to live together, and wacky, romantic and touching hijinks ensue.

"Marmalade Boy" is a fun loving, romantic story with memorable characters and enough twists to keep you guessing. And even better, it is published right to left, so none of the artwork has been altered in any way!

I was first introduced to the Marmalade Boy series back in the year 2000. Of course like most others I was introduced to it by the 76 episode anime instead of the 8 vol. manga, but I really enjoyed the series, so i purchased the original Japanese manga from a Japanese book store. Let me say that the manga is quite a bit different than the anime.

I really liked this translated vol. of the manga, unlike many other of Mixx's translations Marmalade Boy shimes. I did notice on one page though that they forgot to put the words back in. On page 133 there is a panel in which Miki is yelling, but there are no words in the original Japanese vol. she said in the first word ballon "So" and in the second "Sonnna koto nai!" which basically translates into "that is not true!"

Other than that thi book is very well done. It is a sweet girl's comic that really pulls at the heart strings. Guys can enjoy it too, I am one of those, hehe. Anyway, just prepare yourselves for a bunch of weirdness and anguished teenage love! Good series check it out!

Marmalade Boy is one of my most favorite shoujos of all time! Miki Koishikawa WAS a normal high school girl until her life got turned upside-down. One day, while Miki was drinking tea (with the special tea set!), they (her parents) announced to Miki that they were going to divorce. What's weird is that her parents still love each other, just not in a romantic way. What's even more weird was that they had met another couple that felt the same way, on a trip to Hawaii (Miki was not on the trip). The two couples decide to divorce their current spouse, then remarry the other couple's spouse.

So, the Koishikawas and the Matsuuras (the other couple) divorce and of course, remarry, as I had mentioned. Now, the Koishikawas had a daughter, Miki (our heroine here), and the Matsuuras had a son, Yuu, who was the same age as Miki. At first glance, Miki had thought Yuu would be a great step-brother, until she realized that he enjoyed playing quick 'pranks' on her. Soon afterward, Yuu transfers into Miki's school.

*SOME CHARACTERS YOU WILL ENCOUNTER IN THE FIRST VOLUME*
Meiko Akizuki...she is Miki's best friend
Ginta Soui...he is in the tennis club with Miki; he and Miki have some sort of relationship (maybe)...
Na-chan...Mr. Namura; teacher at Miki's school

What I think of this manga series...Yoshizumi-sensei has done a great job with this manga. The story has an interesting plot, and difficult to understand romances (not really, I just wanted to say that^_^). This series is 8 volumes long. If you enjoy shoujo manga as much as I do, I suggest that you get yourself a copy and start reading!

*OTHER POPULAR WORKS OF YOSHIZUMI-SENSEI*
-Handsome Girlfriend...not yet released in the U.S. (sorry)
-Mint na Bokura...?
-Random Walk...not yet released in the U.S. (sorry)
-Ultra Maniac...published by VIZ
I know of 2 other titles, but they aren't released.

Thank you for reading this review!! ^_^

*by the way, I refer to myself as 'Manga-Addict'*

I've read the whole Marmalade boy series. Its a story that has love, comdey, surprises, and most of all...twists! Usually, I'm a person whos not into too mushy of a manga, but this series was cute and proved to be worth the 10 bucks. Though, I can recommend it, this won't be for everyones liking.

Check out: Paradise kiss, Fruits Basket, Kare Kono

Marmalade Boy is in my top three favorite manga titles of all-time. That's how good it is.
It has no magical girls. No magic powers. No cat-girls. No fanservice. Just an all-around good story.
I picked this title up a while back, sometime last year around October or November.
After I had only read a few pages of the books, I was already in love with this series.
16-year-old Miki Koishikawa's life is turned upside down when her parents tell her that they're getting a divorce and switching partners and re-marrying to a couple named the Matsuuras.
The Matsuuras have a son the same age as Miki, who is named Yuu.
And as if that isn't bad enough, all of them have to move into a house TOGETHER! Oh no!
Oh and did I mention Yuu is REALLY cute?
This has kind of a soap-opearish theme to it. Buy this if LOVE shoujo filled with romance and cute characters!
Great artwork, too. Hope this helped!!

This was my first manga that I read. It's more gear towards girls. There isn't alot of action if that is what you are looking for. It is more focused on human relationships and development of the characters. It was very addictive. What is going to happen next and what are their secrets. The story is fun and there is alot of humor. It's a sugary sweet off the wall love story. The art is cute and appealing. It's great. I enjoyed it so much.