Sunday, February 5, 2012

Manga Review: Ai Ore!, Vol. 4: Love Me! (AI Ore! Love Me!) [Paperback]


I've finished "Ai Ore! Vol. 4" by Mayu Shinjo.

Product Description

Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T+.

Mizuki is the female "prince" of her all-girls school and the lead guitarist in an all-girl rock band. Akira is the male "princess" of his all-boys school and wants to join her band. Love may be on his mind, but romance is difficult when everyone keeps mistaking Mizuki for a boy and Akira for a girl!

Now that all St. Nobara Girls Academy knows Akira is a boy, the students want Mizuki to stop dating him because of Dankaisan Boys School’s awful reputation. Pressured by her classmates and the student council president, Mizuki decides to do the unthinkable: she goes to Ran for help.

About the Author

Mayu Shinjo is a prolific writer of shojo manga, including the series Sensual Phrase. Her current series include Ai-Ore! and Ayakashi Koi Emaki. Her hobbies are cars, shopping and taking baths. Shinjo likes The Prodigy, Nirvana, U2 and Glay.

Product Details
Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Original edition (February 7, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1421538733
ISBN-13: 978-1421538730


My Review:

I highly recommend this manga for the 18+ crowd because it has very adult situations, yakuza references, violent scenes (in this issue someone gets shot in the head from behind), etc.

In this volume everyone at St. Nobara Girl's Academy school knows that Mizuki is dating Akira who goes to Dankaisan Boys School.  They want her to stop dating Akira so strongly because of Dankaisan's bad reputation that St. Nobara's President cages Mizuki into the Student Council room with just her blouse.  She challenges Dankaisan she will let Mizuki go if they can raise their grades by 70% and lower their delinquency level by 30%.

Ran and Rui come up with a plan for Akira to live in the dormitory with a roommate which he finally agrees to after this challenge is announced.  His roommate is #134 Kojiro Banbi the strongest delinquent in the school who is very tall and has a scar on his face.  Everyone is scared of him but Akira tames him and they get along fine.  We find out Akira's weakness - he becomes weak when someone blows into his ear.

Akira collapses because of the stress he is going through and he is taken to a hospital managed by the Banbi family (which we learn later - he included Banbi in his plans).  When he comes home his brothers have hired a tutor Sho for him - his former classmate which horrifies Akira because he doesn't want Mizuki to find out his past with him.  He runs to his room and finds Sho watching porno on his TV - he starts talking to Akira that he knows he has a girlfriend and if he has slept with her yet, etc.  He also said this time he will teach him to be manly.

I really enjoyed the enlightening conversation that Akira and Banbi had in the men's shower room.  Rui and Ran are perverted as usual - which is hilarious (glad we got to see them more in this volume) and also a delight to see Akira's older brothers.

5/5

Thanks Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me this manga to review, greatly appreciated!

Other manga in series:

1.  Ai Ore! Vol. 1
2.  Ai Ore! Vol. 2
3.  Ai Ore! Vol. 3
4.  Ai Ore! Vol. 5 - May 1, 2012
5.  Ai Ore! Vol. 6 - August 7, 2012

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

Wow! Sounds like this series can be intense in a good way. Great review.

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