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REVIEW: Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl GN 1




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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1290
PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:10 pm Reply with quote
Rebecca Silverman wrote:
Mizuki does worry that Moe may be falling for Yurine's unparalleled speed (both girls are on the track team, with Moe as the manager),

Minor correction: Yurine is NOT on the track team. Moe is trying to recruit her for the track team. earlier in the school year she did a trial period with the track team, as well as most of the other sports teams at the school, excelling at all of them. The key to her character is that nothing held her interest and she went back to just sleeping her days away and being bored to tears, UNTIL Ayaka caught her interest.

Rebecca Silverman wrote:
(which includes memorizing the entire excerpt from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the English textbook)

Not just the entire excerpt. The entire BOOK. She doesn't have her book. She asks what page they are on and recites from memory, after having read through the book once. (Photographic memory? Most likely...)

One of the keys to Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl is that the story doesn't really focus on Ayaka and Yurine. They are the "primary" couple and the first one introduced, but the method the story uses is that during each story arc, one or more of the characters involved in the next story arc are introduced. During the first chapter, which is a self-contained arc, Mizuki and Moe are introduced, Then it starts the story arc about the track team's pursuit of Yurine, followed by the cute story about Mizuki's short hair. Then there is a the final chapter of the volume which serves to refocus the story on Yurine and Ayaka to some extent, but also introduces the next story arc, in which Ai and Chiharu will be prominent players.

As the chapters roll on, Canno-sensei continues to introduce new characters in this manner, each story line seamlessly flowing into the next. Having read the available translations (with full intent to purchase the entire manga when it is localized...) I have found that her method of introducing each story arc is extremely deft. However, it frequently leads one to wonder when we're going to get back to the "main story line"? Because, despite all of the fine stories involved, Ayaka and Yurine really do feel like the meat of the story over all and they, along with Mizuki and Moe, return to the forefront periodically.

One thing that Rebecca fails to note is that Ayaka doesn't appear to be entirely honest about her own feelings about Yurine either. Even BEFORE Yurine forces a kiss on her, she was having all sorts of fluttery feelings about her but crushing them under the pressure she puts on herself to be the best, which means beating Yurine, which makes her the enemy. So despite the fact that Yurine was actually being extremely nice to her and doing things that were making her swoon quite a bit, her own personal issues were causing her to basically act like the typical tsundere...

If you ignore that aspect of their relationship and concentrate only on Yurine's behavior AFTER Ayaka blew up at her about her grades, you do a disservice to the writing of the characters. Yurine has clearly been socially isolated by her intelligence and the way adults and fellow students have treated her over the years. (Never having done karaoke being one of the prime examples, but the comment later on about her usually sleeping away the weekends is another.) Meanwhile, Ayaka is dealing with extraordinary parental and self-imposed pressure to excel.

All in all, I look forward to the future volumes! I really do love the series. Especially the art.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:25 am Reply with quote
I don't know about anyone else, but I keep reading Yurine's name as "urine."
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Tylec



Joined: 27 Mar 2017
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:23 am Reply with quote
Yeah, pretty much.
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