Short-Tempered Melancholic and Other Stories (Shojo Beat Manga) (Paperback)

~ Arina Tanemura (Author, Illustrator), Nancy Thistlethwaite (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to this book, the four most romantic things a Japanese high school girl can hope for are walking home from school with her boyfriend, baking for said boyfriend, sharing an umbrella and going to the aquarium. All four are central to the stories of Short-Tempered Melancholic, a collection of short early works by Tanemura (Gentlemen's Alliance, Full Moon). The title story follows Kaijika, a ninja girl. Her love interest, Fujisaki, wants Kaijika to be more ladylike (and less ninjalike) while childhood friend Tanimoto is fine with Kaijika as is. In This Love Is Non-Fiction, a pair of pen pals exchange false pictures of themselves and then agree to meet on a date at the aquarium, employing their best friends' help. In Rainy Afternoons Are for Romantic Heroines, a girl realizes that by turning down her current crush the previous year, turning him bitter toward all girls. The Style of Second Love is Tanemura's inventive debut work about a girl in love with her best friend's boyfriend. Tanemura's work never lacks energy in pacing and layouts, but she occasionally reuses character designs across books. Despite the ninja on the cover, the bulk of the book is straightup romance, which is too bad, as Kaijika is an appealing protagonist. (Aug.)
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Product Description

A collection of four short stories from the famed mangaka Arina Tanemura!

 

Short-Tempered Melancholic:                                                

Kajika Yamano is a female ninja whose job is to protect her family's legendary weapon. But when a boy she has a crush on tells her she should be more ladylike, she vows to give up all ninja deeds.

 

This Love is Nonfiction:

Yuri sends her pen pal Ryo a picture of herself--but it's really of her best friend Karin, who is prettier than she is. Now Ryo wants to meet her, so she has no choice but to send Karin instead!

 

Rainy Afternoons are for Romantic Heroines:

Minori falls in love with Takato, a boy who shared his umbrella with her one rainy afternoon. Now she "forgets" her umbrella every time it rains in hopes of becoming closer to him.

 

The Style of the Second Love:

Mana secretly likes her friend's boyfriend, but Nakamura, a younger boy, is determined to win Mana's heart.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421518015
• ISBN-13: 978-1421518015
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,032,919 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Collection of 4 Short Stories, August 15, 2008

By	J. Gebhard (CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Short-Tempered Melancholic is a collection of four short stories from the early years of Arina Tanemura. By far the best work is the title work.

In Short-Tempered, the reader get a nicely packaged story of a female ninja, Kajika, determined to protect her family's secret weapon. The story moves quickly and maintains the reader's interest. In fact, I would have loved to see a series with Kajika in it. She is an addictive character.

Two of the stories have their hit and miss moments. Rainy Afternoons is a sweet story, but the main female, Minori, is so clueless that it detracts from the story quite a bit. It is similar to This Love is Nonficiton. The characters are enjoyable, but something is lacking. The story fails to be engrossing (and is somewhat contrived) and is easily forgotten.

The last work, The Style of the Second Love is the oldest work, but shines. The love triangle in the story is played out nicely and you actually want the characters to get together in specific pairs. Moreover, Nakamura has to be one of the most enjoyable male leads I've seen. He funny, determined, and clingy enough to be cute.

The art is beautiful and standard Tanemura. However, the panels are less crowded and less screentone is use. (A plus for some).

Overall, this is a collection of works that has a few flaws but still a good read. Plus fans of Tanemura will deem this a must have.

5.0 out of 5 stars I like it!!, June 26, 2009

By	Neyen "Neyen2000" (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews

I like this book because the first stories of Arina tanemura in 1990's. all of them are very good. I especially like The style of the second love.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great one-shots for fans of Arina Tanemura!, November 27, 2008

By	ChibiNeko "Sooo many books, so little time!" (Whereever I go, here I am.) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Being a fan of Arina Tanemura's other works, I quickly snapped this volume up. Rather than have one volume devoted to one story, this manga collects several of her short stories. I'll review each one individually below:

Short-Tempered Melancholic: A story in two parts, the tale follows a modern day ninja by the name of Kajika. She's well known around her town for being valiant, but when her crush tells her to be more ladylike she tries to stop her ninja ways. Of course nothing is as it seems, especially when her childhood friend is trying to warn her about her crush & there's a rival group of ninja that is trying to steal her family's valuable secret weapon! The second part of the story is more of an "after" story that mostly surrounds Kajika's childhood friend & his attempts to woo her.

This Love is Nonfiction: This story is about a young girl named Yuri who sends her penpal a picture of her friend Karin, believing that she herself isn't attractive enough. Trouble ensues when her penpal wants to meet her & she has to have Karin stand in for her... only for it to seem that the pair are actually falling for each other!

Rainy Afternoons are for Romantic Heroines: Minori loves Takato but can't properly express herself other than asking him to share his umbrella on rainy days. However Takato has been rumored to be someone who is completely against the idea of falling in love...

The Style of the Second Love: Mana has a problem. She's completely infatuated with her best friend's boyfriend. She also has the problem of a hot younger guy that's competing for her attention. All of life's problems should be so terrible, shouldn't they?


Overall, I really loved this volume. Sure some of the stories were a little simplistic, but that's usually what comes of a one chapter story. All of the characters are incredibly likable, even the characters that are supposed to be "bad". For the most part I think that these single servings are just right & that too much would ruin the great flow that these stories have.

4.9/5