Where have I read this line? Wait. Let me think.
Oh right, from oodles of shoujo mangas I read. I remembered dropping a lot because they were a lot too similar to each other. It just differs from the art to its supporting characters and leads. There’re a lot of arcs being used over and over and over again. Hotsprings, going on field trips, getting locked in a gym storage room and whatnot.
Of course, Dengeki Daisy springs out the cliché plots at its peak.
As another fan of the shoujo genre, I am once again amused on how Motomi Kyousuke handles his way of manga clichés. I never imagined myself loving another shoujo manga to this point. And to add up to that, the author is male. A he, making a shoujo manga that gets a high popularity, now this is something.
So what makes it differ from the others?
Is it the art?
The art is dramatic and humorous often times. Fully detailed, from emotions to bony structures. One thing I noticed was the eyes for every character describes what they are. For instance, Teru’s eyes. They were set to kill. It helps her give the impression of a strong and honest girl. For Kurosaki’s, his eyes gives off the mysterious and arrogant feel. Not that it isn’t cliché, but it gives the characters a sense of individuality.
Is it the storyline?
It follows a story of Teru, a smart girl who lives alone with a cellphone as a memento from her late older brother and Kurosaki, some weird janitor slash programmer who is actually in imminent danger of having his head bald. Joking aside, the cellphone serves as a communication device between Teru and an unknown guy who he calls himself as DAISY. Teru finds him as her security blanket and often emails him on what is going on with her everyday life. Kurosaki, however comes up and treats her as a servant because Teru, as we all know, is poor. She agrees to be his servant to pay off a debt. The story goes on and eventually, this two, seems closer than before. So at the end of reading a short sneakpeak, you end up questioning yourself, who is DAISY? What happens to Teru and Kurosaki?
Dengeki Daisy is actually easy to predict, at first. But then, when you are at the point of making sure that this event is going to happen, it surprises you with another blast, and this is what makes the story interesting.
Is it the humor? The drama?
There’s always a page or two that you can’t help but laugh. A dramatic or romantic scene abruptly shifts to a comical scene makes it double the laughs. It just pops out when you least expected it. I avoid comparing a manga from another but for Dengeki Daisy, in terms of comedy is one of the best I have read. It feels all natural and not too much of a trying hard.
Dengeki Daisy clearly defines what the word drama means. Its emotionality and depth makes the characters more realistic and melodramatic. Though I say it is dramatic, it can be more of mysteric.
Motomi’s good sense of humor and drama makes every chapter healthy in a theoretical sense. He knows what shoujo manga fans look for and he blends it amazingly well together.
Taking a quick look of another shoujo manga wouldn’t hurt, why not give it a try for a change? You’ll never really know unless you give one. You might end up getting bald if you don’t.
