[Manga] Orange and Kageno Datte Seishun Shitai

Heya! The first half of May was pretty busy which included going on a trip in my Dad’s hometown. The 5+ hour trip could get really boring and what better way to spend your travel time than to read manga! Reading BL in public was too risky so I opted for a more innocent read. (๑´ლ`๑)

I’ve been meaning to start Orange since I heard so many good things about it. But I’m also on the fence about it because I’m not sure if I’m ready for anything sad at the moment. I read a couple of chapters and stopped. Not because it wasn’t my type. It was actually right up to my alley. If I hadn’t stopped, I’d probably buy the rest of the books and read them all in one go. But I couldn’t so this manga had to wait for a few more weeks for me to finish my otoge backlog and get the remaining volumes.

I loved everything about it so far. Kakeru’s got the watered down version of Kazehaya (Kimi ni Todoke), the sawayaka vibe and all. Everyone’s my fave though there’s some ominous feeling that surrounds the story. And all I ever wanted was for everyone to be okay. Please let them be okay. o(╥﹏╥)o

Another free volume I got from Rakuten Books other than Orange was Kageno Datte Seishun Shitai. I read through the first few chapters before casually flipping through the rest of the pages. Then I noticed that I have volume 2 in my library and skimmed through it as well.

You know, I wanted to like this one so bad. It had its funny and cute moments. The art was adorable. But the story…? /deep long sigh

It has all the overly used shoujo manga tropes and cliches without added spin. Cliches are fine when used well and when it makes the story stand out from the others. Instead, it makes the manga pretty much like everything else that I’ve seen.

Let’s see what kind of tropes this manga has:

• popular guy (PG) x unpopular girl (UG)
• popular guy refuses to date anyone
• unpopular girl has no friends
• UG is clumsy, trips and faints a lot
• PG is the knight in shining armor and an overall angel
• fake dating in exchange of friendship
• classic bullying and jealous bitches
• forced to sleep in the same room/study together
• PG confides to a mascot (who is actually UG) and adds to misunderstanding
• lots of misunderstood scenario

I don’t know if it gets better in the succeeding books. But I guess reading this right after Orange is a big mistake. Orange deals to a more intricate plot and themes which makes Kageno look shallow with its light, seishun feels.

While Orange is an instant love, I don’t think I’ll ever touch Kageno Datte Seishun Shitai much less buy the other books. It was nice knowing you Kagenocchi!