37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The name speaks for itself, December 29, 2004
This review is from: The One I Love (Paperback)
When it comes to magical girls and whimsical themes of romantic entertainment, I avoid. When it comes to anthologies, "GIMME!"
~REVIEW~
It was in 2003 that I bought and reviewed CLAMP's other anthology, the winter sense of collective fairy tales "Shirahime-Syo." It was beautiful, thoughtful, sad, and it's a four-star manga. Now, in 2004, Tokyopop released another anthology from the Femme Four, so I bought what's possibly one of their best work they have ever done. "The One I Love: Watashi no Sukinahito" is a gem of anthology in its own right.
Like every anthology that was made, "The One I Love" is collection of short stories that followed a similar theme (guess this book's theme). This manga contains 12 "scenes" with a different female protagonist (all nameless) in each one, all at nearly 130 pages. Yea, if you know your math correctly, each of these "scenes" are REALLY short; as short as a celebrity relationship. However, I understood the limitations of anthologies, so I don't consider the length to be a flaw like I use to. As short as they are, the quality of these stories cannot be ignored:
Scene 1 - DIFFERENT: A tomboy, seemingly enough, waits at a park to apologize to the guy she cares about over a little argument, while wearing a pink kimono to look like a different girl. That is, until, she complains if she wears to wrong color kimono (A girl`s gotta look appealing to please her man).
Scene 2 - CUTE: A perky young lady, who has a nerve to think that a manhole is cute, began analyzing how the word "cute" doesn't always justify the mean.
Scene 3 - I MISS YOU: This main girl's lonely, and her boyfriend works at a full-time job as a manga artist. She tries to cope with this limited relationship, but she's so frustrated over her loneliness, because all she wanted was for him to be with her.
Scene 4 - A YOUNGER MAN: She's upright, a reasonable worker, and in her mid-20s. It's Christmas time, and that would've been a great time for her and her lover, if they didn't break up months ago due to an age difference. She was older than her ex, so from the break-up, she became apparent that age made her feel insecure with her love life.
Scene 5 - SUDDENLY: What can I say: it's "instant love" for this girl. Work was stressful for a girl in a design studio, as she has to accomplish many things in a day-only deadline. It wasn't until later in her strict working schedule that she suddenly fell in love with "the big cheese."
Scene 6 - TOGETHER: A short-haired lady reminisces about her kindergarten days where she met her first crush when he lend her a harmonica to play for some "kindy" orchestra. His skills with the harmonica made her tried to be as good with the harmonica, so she can share a similar interest with him. Even to this day, her older self, waiting for him in the street, wonders what else both might share to deepen their relationship.
Scene 7 - PRETTY: She wants to look good for her date, maybe even look pretty. Unfortunately for her, it's raining on the day of her date and she was running late, so she quickly had to wear some unappealing clothes and suffer through the dampness of the weather condition. What will her date think of her now?
Scene 8 - INSECURE: A girl dreamt that she was a cat and that she got her butt thrown out of house, because her boyfriend doesn't need her anymore (typical). She thinks her dream was more of a premonition, believing that her boyfriend might dump her, so she felt insecure of what's going to happen to her.
Scene 9 - COURAGE: The main girl in this scene is probably the most "ugliest" one compare to the different babes from other scenes. It's Valentine Day, and she decides to buy a gift for someone she admire a while back. Now all she needs is the hubris to admit her feelings to that guy.
Scene 10 - NORMAL: When a man and a woman fall deeply in love, they either have a child in a premarital way or they get hitched. Fortunately for saints, this story's about proposal, but the main woman doesn't know if she wants to tie the knot, since she and his "fiancée" didn't interact much together. She doesn't know if she will love him through marriage.
Scene 11 - APART: Let's face it: long-distance relationships almost never work for any couple. This main girl thinks so otherwise, but she decides to give love a chance and asked her lover to meet at the train station, hoping that the distant between each other didn't cause for him to move on with other people.
Scene 12 - MARRIAGE: "...and to love each other `till death do us part." This vow would eventually be spoken from the bride, who starts having second thought about marriage because of what might happen in the aftermath. She has the right to be concerned of possible marital consequences: constant verbal abuse, irreconcilable compromises, divorce. Can she accept the obstacles to be with her hubby?
To make the scenes more enhanced, each scene ends with a written essay by one of the members of CLAMP, Nanase Ohsawa. There's more reading involved, but they brings better insight to how the stories were made; some were semi-autobiographical to CLAMP members. Not only are they stories, they surprisingly worked as life lessons . Though I have some favorites, the best scene has to be "A YOUNGER MAN", because I always had that similar problem with age being the focus of my love life. It used to bother me when the girls I like are older than me, which distant me from them, but thanks to that scene, it broadens my way of thinking and decided to not let age bother me from having dates.
Not only is the content and the art wonderful, but so is the packaging. The book feels so smooth to the touch and not plastic-y like the majority of the manga selection. The manga has color pages, and the paper quality (color and black/white) has that same smoothness as the cover. It'd be perfect if the book is in hardcover format, but as it is, I applaud Tokyopop for producing one of the best packaging I've ever held.
THE FINAL WORD: Lovely. This is a remarkable anthology that deals with issues that can help others adjust to certain parts of intimacy. Despite its female appeal, there's something within this book that can be suitable to any gender. Whether or not you're into romance or CLAMP, you must do yourself a favor and check this out. "The One I Love" is the one I highly recommend.
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