It's Just Another Manga Monday: Missions of Love Vol 1 by Ema Toyama

Three words for you.

Cell.......
.......Phone.......
..............Novelist.......

Wha what???? Listen, sweetheart, I'm a pager novelist, so top that!!!

Missions of Love is a new title from Kodansha Comics, so I figured I needed to give it a read. But I have got to wonder what was I thinking? Here's the plot.

Book Description:

Release date: November 6, 2012

MY WISH IS YOUR COMMAND

Cell phone novelist Yukina Himuro has decided that, in order to satisfy her fans' demand for love stories, she must experience romance firsthand. But with her icy reputation, how can she find someone willing to play the part of boyfriend? By blackmailing the most popular boy in school, of course!

My Review:
Yukina is a keen observer of the student population, but she is always on the outside looking in. She is a famous (oh man, I can't even type it without laughing) cell phone novelist that goes by the name of "Yupina". Yeah, right. Like no one is ever going to pick up on that. Why don't you wear a pair of glasses while you're at it, because no one would know who you are then. Oh, wait. She does wear glasses. She wears the glasses to protect herself. Her glasses are her kryptonite.

While she may be a keen observer of human behavior, she really knows nothing about love or romance as she has never been in a relationship. She seems to have one friend that I didn't even realize was a guy until the end of the book. Seriously. I should have known, though, with a name like Akira.

Obviously, she can't send an entire novel via cell phone, so she releases her novel in chapters, but they have to be short chapters. Her novels are all the girls can talk about at school and while they love the chapters, they wish they could have more romance. But she knows nothing about love.

Anyway, she catches resident hottie, Shigure Kitami, who everyone thinks is wonderful, being an absolute jerk. He has a list in his student handbook of all the girls in class and he is seeing if he can get them to fall for him and then he is rejecting them. He then checks them off the list.

Yukina finds his handbook and hatches this brilliant scheme that she is going to blackmail him into being her experimental love bunny. He wouldn't want the knowledge of what he has been doing to be made public as that would ruin his carefully crafted reputation, which seems to be based on lies.

First she orders him to hold her hand. Then she writes about the experience. Shigure keeps trying to find ways to manipulate Yukina, but she always seems to gain the upper hand. Her second command to him is that he hold her in his arms. Then she demands that he kiss her. At that point they get caught and Shigure convinces his fan girls that she's forcing herself on him and that is making her very unpopular. She retaliates and gains the upper hand again and then again demands he kiss her, but he only kisses her cheek. She tells her sad story about why she wears glasses and then confesses to Shigure that she wants him to teach her about love. End scene.

I have read a lot of manga in my time. Some of it was pretty ridiculous. This one by far is the most ridiculous I have ever read. So, if you want to give it a go, please remember to leave your sanity by the door, because you won't find it here. It may work.  The whole romance angle may prove to be not so ridiculous.  As I said, I have Vol 2 as well, so I will give it a chance before I toss the series by the wayside.

Alison Can Read started a weekly Manga Monday meme which I have jumped on. I've been reviewing manga from the start, but it is nice to have a place were like minded Otaku can meet and share our favorites.