Ranked #98

Moe Kare!! (Manga)

Moe Kare!! is a Shoujo, Romance, Comedy, Drama revolving around an interesting love triangle full of love, jealousy and heartache. The story is certainly typical for a shoujo manga however this doesn’t stop it from being a very enjoyable manga to read.

Of to an unconventional start; the story begins about an otaku girl (Hikaru Wakamiya) who’s always dreamt of getting a prince charming for a boyfriend but one day her first kiss is stolen some stranger. She later meets a guy (Takara Honda) that looks exactly like the one who stole her kiss but he doesn’t seem to be the same person. During the fast-paced beginning it is easy to wonder, what exactly going on here? Not to mention the number possibilities about both the guy’s identities, but thankfully it is all cleared up by the end of the 1st Volume and the messed up high school love triangle begins. From this point on the story becomes truly interesting, with plenty of light-hearted comedy and heavy drama for anyone to be satisfied with.

To make this a love triangle, three characters must be involved and here we have Hikaru, Takara and Arata. Hikaru starts of as nothing much but as she goes through, love and heartbreak she develops so much into a great heroine. Then you have your likable bi-shounen protagonist Takara and Arata; and with Takara being such a stiff unsociable guy, it is fun seeing his exact opposite, Arata and his playful ways. There are quite a few named supporting characters but they rarely play any major role in the story, except one that appears later on.

The artwork is pretty standard for a shoujo manga, with nothing amazing about it to set itself apart from the rest. The characters tend to frquently switch to the chibi look, to add some cutesy hilarity to the situation but sometimes it just fails. Although during normal situations, the characters and the scenery looks plain gorgeous.

Overall Moe Kare!! turned out be a shoujo manga that even a guy like me could enjoy from beginning to end. Sure there were some things I really didn’t like, such as Arata’s annoying attitude in the beginning and I was bothered by the few Yaoi moments. Also the way the characters lips looked in the chibi moments weren’t cute. Yet these are only minor issues that don’t necessary have a huge impact on the overall feel of the manga. With it also being at a manageable length, this is certainly a manga that any shoujo reader should check out.

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The first four chapters try to involve intimate scenes along with ridiculously orchestrated situations and audacious dialogue to make it seem grown up or maybe less childish, but this is the most immature excuse for a romance I have ever read. You can't include too much chibi animation in a grown up shoujo story or readers won't take it too seriously. Also, even though supposedly everything is set in reality, you get this feeling that yes, things are happening in a fantastical universe here because really, logic is completely set aside. Oh yes, and the mangaka believes showing the heroine half naked in the first volume along with a couple of outrageous kisses can make up for the lack of a concrete story. It can't.

The saving graces include the mangakas skill in drawing the heroine in various motions of flight and swooning sequences as well as action poses for the bishoumen. At one or more points, the story included novel situations like Hikaru dousing the evil Arata with a bucket of water, inspired scene! Oddly, within one scene, Hikaru alternates between helplessly ambushed and powerful retaliation. I also can't help but marvel at how everyone from the male Karate club members to the club prez get turned on by Honda.

After two thirds of the chapters though, you start to see the less travesty side of this manga, and yes maybe each chapter includes too little progress, which is what I thought, but they take the story forward all the same. In a good way. Maybe the heroine needed a better reason to be parted from Gentle Prince though. Something like Pearl Harbour would have been justified. This guy, you just felt like smacking his mislead self righteous head! Anyway, it wasn't a complete waste of my time, even though volumes 1-4 can use a ton of improvement. I felt happy for Perverted Prince, he matured, learnt that good things are worth waiting for, and really emerged as an underdog hero. Good for him, I have zero complains with this ending unlike sniff Zettai Kareshi.

Oh and you gotta love the accessories on Arata, they somehow really made his character so much more bad-ass but moeeeeee at the same time! I especially dug the ever changing rings on his hands. read more