High School Debut

Title:  High School Debut
Japanese Title:  Koukou Debut
Mangaka:  Kazune Kawahara
Length:  13 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes, all released by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Slice-of-Life/Romantic Comedy

How did I hear about it?  I had seen it advertised in some of my manga, then found a strong recommendation on one of the blogs I read.

Haruna was a tomboy all through middle school.  She has made it her goal to shed that image in high school, to find a boyfriend, and to fall in love.  There's just one problem:  she has no idea what boys like!  Immediately after entering high school, she meets Yoh, a popular upperclassman.  When she sees how girls throw themselves at him, she thinks that surely he must know what it is that boys look for in girls.  She begs him to become her coach, teaching her how to be a girl that boys will want to date.  He reluctantly agrees, but with one condition:  Haruna must not fall in love with him.  Gee, I wonder where this is going?

I'm really on the fence about the art in this series.  My opinion of it changed from frame to frame.  At times, it seemed really clean and pretty.  At other times, it seemed awkward and childish.  It just felt a little inconsistent.

This is another series that was just plain fun.  HSD never really gets deep, though it does explore the notion that the best person you can be is yourself.  It's a simple, candy-coated moral, but it's a true enough statement that it allows this manga to express itself without ever getting too heavy.  At first, I didn't like Haruna.  She was your average cookie-cutter shoujo heroine.  She was naive, dense, nice to a fault.  Really naive.  Unbelievably naive.  Maybe about halfway through (possibly even later), I did start to warm up to her a bit.  I never outright liked her, but I felt she worked well enough.  I liked Yoh though.  He was a bit more complex.  Haruna just had to learn to be herself, but Yoh had to work out a few issues from his past, though his issues didn't end up being all that heavy when you consider what a lot of other protagonists have had to go through (Fruits Basket or Mars, anyone?).  The supporting cast was functional.  Of Yoh's two best friends, one is a bit too much like Haruna (one was enough, Kawahara-sensei), but the other was a bit snarky, and therefore, more interesting.  Yoh's sister also played a sizable role.  I actually liked her.  She was very conceited to the point of being funny.  I think what made her attitude work was her facial expressions.  Her delivery was calm and aloof, but pleased with herself.  Haruna's best friend was of little consequence.

HSD is a perfect example of a story of a light-hearted teenage first romance.  It's a fun, light read that I think would be good for any shoujo fan.  Do I plan to collect it?  Someday.  I have other titles a bit higher on my priority list though.