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Just a Girl Book 2
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I still can't help but think of a certain song by
No Doubt whenever I even see the cover of this manga. Since we've
started doing manga on the site, we've gotten quite a few of Tomoko
Taniguchi's shoujo titles, and thus far, I don't think we've bene too
terribly impressed with them. Trust me, it's not that none of us are
open-minded, and we've often found ourselves liking something that we
didn't think possible, but there's just something about her writing that
doesn't sit well with me. While her previous releases such as Aquarium
and Miss Me were single book title, Just a Girl is two, and this second
book wraps everything up, for what that's worth.
In case you missed the first book, Just a Girl follows the complicated
life of Erica Fujita, a high school girl who has just started dorm life
at the school of her choice. She's had some problems fitting in at first
due to her quirk of packing stuffed animals around with her, but she's
started making some pretty good friends. She also has started to notice
a young man named Rocky, but the problem now is that she can't manage to
find it within herself to confess her feelings. She's not even really
sure what her feelings are at this point.
This second book finds Erica finally coming to terms with the fact that
she does have feelings for Rocky, and finally admitting them to him, but
that's where things get even more complicated. Rocky is planning on
moving to America to pursue his dream of becoming a Hollywood star and
he doesn't want to commit himself to a long distance relationship. Erica
has her friends standing by her trying to help her, but ultimately it's
going to come down to her and Rocky deciding what the best course of
action is.
I seriously had a lot of problems reading this book. First off, I really
am not a fan of Tomoko's writing in the least. I find it to be very
juvenile and almost nauseatingly cheerful at times. As a matter of fact,
it often comes across as being very unrealistic, and this really has
been the case with most of the things of hers that I've read. For a
while, I had thought that maybe it was just the fact that it was a
shoujo manga that was turning me off, but after reading another shoujo
title, the Duck Prince (which I really did enjoy quite a bit) I
discovered that's not the case at all. I also feel that her writing
tends to just around quite a bit and doesn't always have a good flow to
it.
Tomoko ends Just a Girl in a fashion that in some ways will keep some
readers happy, but it also just feels a bit dry. The manga also includes
another short story, Valentine for Dad, but it's much like her other
works and I found it even more difficult to get into. It more or less
has her same art style (and writing style unfortunately) though her art
can often times look decent in one panel and then have too much of a
cartoon look in another.
I may not be into her works, but like the case has been with her other
manga, I will at least say that for young girls, this is going to be
something that they can get into. It's harmless for the most part,
though I find much of it to be far too cute for my liking. At this
point, I really doubt that this manga-ka has anything that is going to
make an impact with me, unless I was female of course. I guess this may
be a reason to try and find a female manga fan and add her to our staff.
-mike-
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Genre:
Romance
Written By::
Tomoko
Taniguchi
Art By::
Tomoko
Taniguchi
Pages:
168
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