Genre: Comedy/Romance
Rating: Teen
Price: $8.99
Sachie Wakamura just lost her mother, and her estranged grandfather has shown up to take care of her. The only problem is that Grandpa is the head of a yakuza gang! Sachie tries to continue living her normal life, but she can’t run far since Rakuto, one of the most popular guys in school, is part of her grandfather’s gang and her new protector. Soon, Sachie finds herself falling for her bodyguard. But she’s the granddaughter to Rakuto’s boss, so he can never show his feelings for her. Can Sachie find a way to fit into her new family and seize her chance at romance?
“Yakuza in Love” doesn’t seem like a good theme for a teenage romance title, but with engaging characters spicing up the usual shojo plots, this is a surprisingly fun series.
While romance is usually the main theme in a shojo story, this first volume is more about Sachie’s adjustment to her new life. For almost all of her life, it’s only been her and her mother. Her father apparently died when she was still a babe. Now, she has to adjust being surround by men who all treat her like a princess. The chapters have a more slice of life feel to them as we watch Sachie start in a new school, go to a temple festival, and adjust to the new house rules. There isn’t any feeling of romance between Sachie and Rakuto as he tries to acclimate her to the world she is now living in.
The romance is introduced slowly, with little pieces starting to pile up in each chapter. This is a really nice way to do it. It isn’t Sachie meets Rakuto and is instantly in love with him. It’s little things that they say and do to each other that creates the budding romance. Sachie first wants to take Rakuto to the movies because she thinks he’s working too much and she wants to help him relax, not because she’s in love with him. And the fact that they argue just as much as they talk to each other gives the relationship a more realistic feel.
The characters in this series are great. Sachie is a great lead. She isn’t the kind of girl who doesn’t know how to express herself. She is very straightforward and outspoken about how she feels. When angered, she can be downright scary. Honesty is a very important trait to her, and this is the cause of some of the tension between her and Rakuto. She doesn’t understand how Rakuto can say and do things that seem contrary to her and still say he’s honest. She’s very black and white in many ways, and it nearly gets her in trouble. Rakuto is hard to read, with his smile. You’re never quite sure when he really means it. Until you see his real smile. He seems to genuinely care for Sachie, beyond his duty. The New Years chapter explains some of why that might be, and has you wondering if maybe he was being set up. The dichotomy of his character is nothing new, but it’s at least a good one. No “Jeckyl/Hyde” syndrome here. The men in the yakuza gang make up a lot of the comedy. I doubt that Yakuza gangs look anything like these guys, but it great to watch them freak out when Sachie wears a camisole, or fawn over her when they take her shopping for a birthday gift. They’re like a bunch of big brothers, all tripping over themselves to please Sachie.
I really like the art too. It’s clean and simple. It’s easy to tell characters apart (a problem as far as I’m concerned in shojo manga). They’re all cute without being bishi. And of course the Yakuza are funny-scary.
I wasn’t expecting to like Wild Ones. It looked like just another romance title. But I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I didn’t mind that the romance took it’s time to develop. It’s a refreshing change to know the characters before starting on the road to romance.
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