Marmalade Boy Little Deluxe Edition – Review of the first volume

How many of us, between the end of the 90s and the beginning of the early 2000s, spent our afternoons watching cartoons broadcast on Italia 1 or Canale 5? Among those souls who, perhaps unconsciously, were somehow already leaving a mark on our growth process, he also stood out Marmalade Boybetter known by its title Little ones heart problems. The series, based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Wataru Yoshizumishe told school events and the first loves of the two protagonists, Miki and Yu, and their classmates. After several years, the author returns to talk to us about that world by telling us a story new story, but somewhat similar to the previous onethe one of Rikka And Saku, younger brothers of Miki and Yu. Last September Planet Manga has in fact published the first volume of Deluxe Edition of this sparkling series, which we at Akiba Gamers we have read and reviewed for you! Let’s immediately take a closer look at the plot and the various details.

Rikka Matsura And Saku Koishikawa They are both twelve years old and attend middle school associated with the university Toryo. Their family has a decidedly complex structurefor this reason Rikka is convinced that Saku is her brotherbut as soon as she discovers that this is not the case, the world collapses around her… Not to mention the confession that Saku himself makes to her: he has never seen her as a sister, rather as a childhood friend who he really likes!

In short, practically a declaration of love, which however Rikka welcomes with confusion and dismay, because she likes Aoi Namura and because she has always considered Saku as a brother. Rikka will therefore begin to reflect on her feelings and she will slowly realize that she does not know the potential of Saku at all, who also turns out to be a model student. Will Rikka continue to feel indifference towards Saku, or will she change her mind?!

A brotherly love, or almost

THE protagonists of this romantic comedy are Rikka And Saku, two twelve year olds who have lived together since childhood, so much so that Rikka grew up with the belief that she was Saku’s little sister. She is a very spontaneous, cheerful and perhaps a little naive girlWhile he appears mature, responsible and casual, regardless of the topic being discussed. Growing up together, a relationship was created between the two very deep bond: if on the one hand this affection has for some time now ignited in Saku the desire to marry Rikka one day, the latter doesn’t want to know about it and considers the boy to be like a very important brother or friend, for whom however, for the moment, he doesn’t seem to feel love.

One of the strengths of this manga certainly lies in the pace of the narrative, decidedly fast and quite full of twists and turns: the events follow one after the other and this directly involves the reader, who can’t wait to find out what will happen to the protagonists and how their feelings and relationships will evolve. The topics covered are mainly falling in love and family, in particular this view in its broadest sense, which goes beyond the mere blood bond; we also talk about the concept of cohabitation, marriage, children, work and being able to reconcile everything, which is often a very difficult undertaking!

A new work… or reworked?

From a technical point of view, we can say that we are faced with tables with attention to the smallest details, within which both the characters and the landscape and the surrounding environment are rendered in detail: starting from the expressions of the faces, passing through the locks of hair and the folds of the clothes and arriving at the natural and architectural elements, everything is created according to the rules of perspective and depth. There is certainly no shortage of simplified figures made in a certain sense “funny”, as if to create a caricature of those characters who at a given moment find themselves in a particular dramatic situation.

The price of €9.90 justifies the fact that we are faced with the “sequel” of a practically historical series? Perhaps. Surely we can recognize once again the enormous talent of the author, to which, as she herself tells us in free talk special of the last pages, he was asked directly by his editor-in-chief to write something new, which however took up one of his best previous works. Together the two discussed what to do and their discussion led to the choice being made Marmalade Boy: instead of writing a real sequel, which would have distorted the work of mangaka as he already imagined the story of Miki and Yu concluded, the new project entitled Marmalade Boy Little is in some way obviously connected to those characters (since there is a kinship between them), but the protagonists are different. In any case, the work appears very similar to the previous one in terms of topics covered, which is why it does not appear to be very original, at least evaluating it after reading the first volume.

Who do we recommend Marmalade Boy Little to?

If you loved Marmalade Boy And you too dream of finding your soul mate at school or university, Marmalade Boy Little is definitely for you: between classwork, trips to the Skytree and requited and unrequited loves, you will be thrilled and have fun again, just like you did in the company of Miki and Yu.