Weekly! Fuuka 1

Since I saw this after downloading a ton of weekly magazines, I decided to pick it up for a review. I love Seo Kouji's Suzuka (I have only read up to volume 3 since that's all I bought, but I have 5 now, including 4 and 6) and the story of it. I looked at his other works and what do you know? He wrote Kimi no Iru Machi, which just finished airing last year. I'm really looking for something that started this year to review so I have a ton of stuff to post while the real reviews are still incomplete. I know, I need to stop wasting time and get on with the regular reviews. Anyway, here you go! Summer Wind!

風夏

The title is FUU KA (夏 FUU = WIND [or KAZE] and 風 KA = SUMMER [or NATSU]) which is really hard to translate but thanks to the FURIGANA beside the Kanji, I can translate it (after 10 years) to FUUKA.

It's basically the same story as Kimi no Iru Machi and Suzuka where a boy comes from a different town and gets involved with some girl somehow. I'll let you in on more of the story if you come with me... I don't offer candy though so your expectations are broken!

Spoiler Alert! If you are gonna read this post, please read the actual manga first!

Warning! This series contains mild-nudity!


Summary: Yuu Haruna is a teenage boy who loves to post on his SN (Social Network). As someone who always looks at his phone, he bumps into a girl who was in a hurry to get to school. The bump of fate perhaps? She falls down on her bottom and Yuu--still holding his phone--looks like he is a Tousatsu (a person who takes pictures secretly [victims are mostly women.]) She sees the phone, grabs it, throws it on the ground and slaps Yuu so hard that he ends up getting some air time and landing 3 meters away. Somehow, after landing he notices that one of her CD's was underneath his hand.

DAT CENSORING!

Coming home after buying a new phone, Yuu was greeted by his 2 hungry sisters. They both knew about Yuu's situation since they have followed him on SN for a while now. The family of four have dinner and Yuu explains their family situation.

His father's company did some reorganizing and he ended up working overseas and since he can't live alone, Yuu's mother went overseas with his father. Maya--Yuu's eldest sister--is working in Tokyo, Hibiki--second oldest--is currently attending college and Chitose--youngest--is in 8th grade.

Next day, he goes to the high school he'll be attending on Monday. Presumably after talking about Yuu's transfer, the teacher suggested that Yuu look around the school for a while. He reluctantly asks his teacher about the girl he seen yesterday but he pulls away just before he does. He then heads up to the rooftop of the building.

A New Fart.

After reaching the rooftop of the school building, he tries to takes a snapshot of the surrounding scenery. He pans to his left to get a better angle (I guess) but he instead sees the girl from yesterday. She, from the top of the rooftop entrance, catches sight of him taking a picture of her. She immediately recognizes him as the Tousatsu and jumps down from where she stood. Yuu tried to explain to her but it was too late, she grabbed his new phone and threw it as far as she could. He stood there trying to protect himself from a slap while holding the CD she dropped. She recognized it to be hers and Yuu started to tell her about what really happened yesterday. He then leaves like a wuss.

Phantom Fart.

Searching for his phone, Yuu is struck by the summer heat. Surprisingly, the girl came to help look for Yuu's phone. He suggests making a call to his phone but claims that she doesn't have one and reveals that she is using a portable CD player (hence, the CDs). She finds his phone, lying on the grass.

A guy comes out mid-conversation, looking for her, calling her "Fuuka." He says that he wants something from her, persistently convincing her to come with him. Yuu leaves but overhearing their conversation, he couldn't help but stop the guy. He confront hims and tells him to stop because she clearly doesn't want to go with him. The guy then clears up the misunderstanding. He was only trying to convince Fuuka to join the Track club since both her parent's were once runners. After feeling stupid for the heroic act he thought he did, he flees like a wuss.

Revenge of the Farts.

Later, Fuuka finds Yuu mumbling about the embarrassment he felt. She asks him about his name and she then smiles at him and exclaims that he was "cool" because of what he tried to do. Fuuka Akitsuki, was her name and Yuu can't stop himself from being pulled in towards her by some magic force.

We end at him remembering to upload the photo he didn't send. He sees the picture and it was of Fuuka's... let's just say it was capture when the wind blew the strongest.

DAT ANGLE!

Likes: I'm not sure what I like about this yet because it's just starting but for now, I'll keep reading it and I'll decide whether to drop after maybe 10 chapters? Just one volume.

Dislikes: The same story Seo Kouji comes up with. Like I said, this just feels like his former works. He knows how to do sports manga and romance at the same time but maybe he needs to come out of his safe zone and just venture out of the "slice-of-life" genre and go into fantasy or sci-fi. Give it a try and then see if it fits.

Yuu needs a new hiding place!

I also don't like the art he does because this looks more like a shoujo art style rather than a shounen style. I guess I'm just too picky.

Quirks: Who uses a cd player in this day and age? I mean, an mp3 player can play better audio quality sound than a cd who can only play 16bit 44.1 kHz while an mp3 player/phone can play 24 bit, 92 kHz quality audio. That's audiophile level and she still sticks with a CD Player. I don't know, I don't use CDs except for when I play tuned in my truck but other than that, I always listen to music through my mp3 player.

Slap from hell.

Predictions: Well, what do you know? The second chapter came out already! See you there!

I'm always trying to pick up another series to review weekly so watch out for that! Hopefully it's good too (haven't read it yet so it's just a candidate for now) so I can review it! So many thing to do!