For the month of March, my personal challenge is to read manga with female protagonists. This won't be difficult, either (I am not starved for choices, trust me), but it's more to make picking what to read easier for myself since I've been having difficulty choosing from literally hundreds of titles. BACKGROUND:
As usual, I'm coming in with no prior knowledge at all. I did read the synopsis, though, and it seems like this will be an interesting mix of comedy and a coming-of-age story. SUMMARY: O Maidens in Your Savage Season follows the story of a high school literature club made up of five girls. You have the de facto main character Kazusa Onodera, her good friend and "comrade" Momoko Sudo, the silent, brooding writer Hitoha Hongo, the super prudish Rika Sonezaki, and Nina Sugawara, the most popular girl in school. They're a bit of an odd bunch, but they certainly enjoy their books. The story kicks off right after the club reads a rather erotic book, which prompts very different responses from the club members. For the most part, the manga focuses on Kasuza's perspective, as she navigates being introduced to intense language in the more adult books they've been reading. What complicates her feelings about sex is her relationship with her childhood friend Izumi, who she's starting to see differently. Kazusa already avoids him as it is due to bullies getting on her case (Izumi is seen as attractive by the other girls), and here comes the concept of sex to mess things up further. Things get even more complicated when Kazusa catches Izumi jerking off (that's awkward, obviously, and it puts sex on her mind even more), and she learns that some other girl is looking to confess to him. The latter has the more profound effect on Kazusa, as she slowly but surely comes to terms that she has feelings for Izumi. Kazusa's journey with accepting the nature of sex seems in line with that of a lot of adolescents, so the wrinkle of having a specific guy she likes on her mind makes her journey slightly more interesting. Nina is a curious one, as no one really knows why she decided to join the literature club. In any case, she reveals to the group that she is quite curious about sex (thanks in no small part to its prominence in literature) and is interested in experiencing it for herself. Her appearance has her deal with creeps, unfortunately, although she's able to handle those situations creatively with her theater experience. I'm not really sure what her character arc is supposed to be yet, but it's nice to see that there's at least one person in the club who at least appears to be level-headed about everything. Sonezaki is outspoken when it comes to her aversion to sex, as she cannot stand even the mention of it apart from her idea of tasteful eroticism. She gets a lot of shit for her looks and gets bullied for it, and combined with her inability to process that one guy at school seems to genuinely like her, it becomes clear that her disdain for all things sexual is her repressing something. She's pretty much the extreme when it comes to attitudes about sex, so seeing her wrestle with all that should lead to some big character moments for her. Hongo doesn't really interact with the rest of the group, but you see that she gets plenty out of being in the club. On the side, she's quietly working on her writing, and she's taking heavy inspiration from the club readings to write her own steamy stories. She's even going as far as to submit manuscripts to publishers, but it seems like she has a long way to go before becoming a published writer. Outside of that, she doesn't seem to have a personal journey of her own, though she might get one that eventually influences her future in writing. Lastly, you have Momoko, who sadly gets the short end of the stick in terms of character. The extent of her presence is assenting to whatever Kazusa is saying, so I'm left wondering if she has her own story going on or what her personal thoughts are on everything that's going on. The manga alternates between literature club meetings and the situations the individual members get into, with Kazusa getting the most screentime overall. The club meetings are humorous, as everyone dances around the whole sex thing (not that weird considering everyone's age), but the ending throws a wrench into everything as the club is under threat of being disbanded by the administration. The art is pretty nice with its decent level of detail, and I particularly enjoyed the variance when it comes to the shading and the linework (as some panels really mix it up with lighter tones and thinner lines). That variance really comes across when Nina is present, as she appears to be drawn quite differently from the rest of the cast. VERDICT: O Maidens in Your Savage Season features quite the cast trying to deal with the revelation that is sex, and while there's a solid mix of personalities within the literature club, the amount of focus given to each feels far from equal. I'm curious about the how Kazusa and Sonezaki will grow from their current state, for example, while I find myself left wanting more out of Hongo or Momoko (who don't get as many character moments). I would read more of this if I knew everyone ends up having a fleshed-out and unique arc, though I am interested to see how the threat of nonexistence of the club would actually affect their high school lives. If you find humor and/or something relatable about of a group of high school girls navigating through their awkward feelings about sex, this book might be exactly what you're looking for. I can't really say if they stick the landing when it comes to character arcs, though. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|