entertain

By Zinmar:

What do you do when all the guys around you are jerks or perverts and just don�t meet up to your standards? Why, you train your fianc� to become your ideal man, of course! That�s what sixteen-year-old Urara Haru from Sodatte Darling is doing! Read on to see how Urara did it if you�re interested in having your own ideal man, too!

When Urara complains to her parents about how indecent guys are these days, she�s informed with surprising news that she�s already engaged. It�s something her grandfather promised a long time ago on the battlefield. Urara decides to meet him after her mother tells her that he has the pure heart of a young boy. Sakamoto Touma has the pure heart of a young boy, all right, but that�s because he IS a young boy who is only in the fifth grade! Touma says he will grow up to be an ideal man and Urara makes a decision: if she can�t find an ideal man, she will just have to bring one up herself!

As fate would have it, Touma�s dad is transferred to Tanzania and he is forced to live in with Urara since he doesn�t want to move and leave his friends. And so begins Urara�s mission to transform Touma into a perfect gentleman.

So far, I�ve only read five chapters, but I love this manga series. It is cute, extremely funny, very strange, and very unrealistic. The only major setback is that I do not agree with how Urara�s mind works because she thinks in such a stereotypic way about how girls should be treated. However, I read it this solely for the humor. It�s funny because Urara is the older one and says things like �He�s just a child.� Yet, at times, Touma is the calm, rational and mature one, while Urara reverts back to behaving like an elementary school kid.

Urara�s guide to becoming a wonderful man:

1. A man must do things to please a woman

2. A man must never leave a woman to be lonely

3. A man must always consider a woman’s feelings and respond to them

4. A man must always protect a woman

The rules she sets for Touma backfire on her at times because he applies them to daily life. For instance, when he�s told to please a woman, he tries to be nice to ALL girls, and not just Urara. This leads to her fighting with the young admirers of Touma.

I don�t like Urara at times because she forces him to do things he doesn�t want to, while he tries so hard to become a �good man.� The question now is whether Urara thinks of Touma as just an object to shape into perfection or as someone she can love for who he is. Urara seems like a snob because she thinks no one�s worthy enough for her. On the one hand, it might be good because she has high standards and has confidence in herself. On the other hand, she seems very picky and full of it.

Touma is a sweet kid who just wants to make Urara happy (and not scold him) because he�s a good kid and treats her like a beloved sister. I don�t think he�s at the age where he can think of Urara as a girlfriend yet. I found his na�vet� and childish way of thinking to be very adorable. He�s too young for her at the moment, but if two people really like each other, I�m okay with age differences (as long as it isn�t more than about 10 years). When she�s eighty-six, he�ll be eighty, and at that time, the difference in age is no longer significant.

What I find funny about Japanese mangas is that parents seem very trusting and willing to allow their children to live on their own. Even Touma is left alone with his "wife" (by the way, where the heck are HER parents? I haven�t seen them since Touma�s parents left) and they’re not the least bit worried he’ll be lonely or properly taken care of.

The art was unique, a bit eccentric and simplistic. The people were a bit too square (by that, I mean pointy) and sometimes un-proportional. Urara has unusually long eyelashes that are as long as her eyes. I got used to it quickly though, and it actually grew on me since the art looks so different from other manga series I�ve read.

Some instances from the manga that I liked:

On Valentine�s day, Urara told him that he must repay the girl three times if he receives chocolate. Being popular, he receives a lot and after doing a lot of calculations, gets freaked out and thinks he�s in a big debt.

I loved the part when he just received the rule about being considerate of a woman�s feelings. A girl comes up to him looking shy and says, "Um…" Touma doesn�t understand and then it dawns on him: she needs to use the bathroom, of course!

When Touma was supposed to protect Urara from a fake kidnapper (she got her friend to pretend), he runs past her and comes back with a policeman.

When a real kidnapper calls his house, saying he�s got Touma�s young wife, Touma says he doesn�t have one and hangs up, saying afterward that he doesn�t have a young wife because his is six years older than him.

Urara sends out a paper airplane with a cry for help, which her friend finds. She thinks it�s lyrics for a band and saying that Urara can�t write lyrics, fixes it to say, "Help, help! I’m a prisoner of your heart! I need your heart! lalala, I love you, lalala. I’m a prisoner of your heart!�

When Urara introduced Touma to her friend, �You have kids already?!�

Sodatte Darling, by Kumeda Kouji, is a shounen (targeted toward boys) manga that is published by Shougakukan. I haven�t been able to find any web sites dedicated to this obscure series, nor do I know how many volumes it has. I�ve been told it�s a short series, but all I know is that there�s more than one volume. It�s one of my favorite comedy series now and I think in the end, Urara will come to realize that she�s being a bitch and perhaps change. If you�d like to buy the manga (you know you want to), I�ve found one site where you can order it from:

http://www.japan-manga.jp/jsp/details.jsp;jsessionid=vzfymw15w1?HanID=54383