Uknighted Manganime Life is too short to watch bad anime

Title: W Juliet
Author: Emura
Date: 1999-2003
Volumes: 14
Scanlation Status: To volume 9

Synopsis:

Makoto has been expected to follow in his fathers footsteps his entire life, and continue on the family business, however Makoto’s actual desire is to be an actor. This clashes deeply with his fathers beliefs and finally in an attempt to shut his son up once and for all, Makoto’s father proposes a challenge. To prove his acting talent, determination and dedication to becomming an actor, Makoto must transfer schools and live his last two years at collage as a girl. If he can make it to graduation with no one finding out his secret, then he is free to do what he wishes.

However within the first week of transfering to the new school, he makes friends with another Drama club member, Ito-san - a tomboy who usually wears the male school uniform and has a boyish haircut. While at her house, Ito discovers Makoto’s secret, but after hearing the story behind the at-first-disturbing-act, she vows to help Makoto keep his secret and defeat his fathers challenge.

W Juliet revolves around the growing relationship and love of this young couple, and the barriers that face them as they gradually move toward their goal of graduation and the development of their acting ability.

One of the most beautiful aspects of W Juliet is the purity and depth of the the bond between Ito and Makoto. Common themes in other shojou manga include jelousy, distrust, misunderstandings and long chapters of drivel about a new character introduced who falls in love with the main character and then the main characters love interest sees these two in a compromising position and jumps to conclusions. They then spend the rest of the chapter in a huff before it all comes right by the end of that segment. Its for preceisly these sort of plot-props that I haven’t properly read manga in over a year. Sick to death of cliched romance clones, I withdrew from the routine of reading manga. However fortunately fate led me to meet a less caustic soul who amazingly shared my admiration for this beautiful story and amazingly had the last 5 volumes I had given up searching for last year. My interest was captivated and I was finally able to finish this magnificent saga.

Back to what I was saying before to what I was saying before that rant, WJuliet is an excellent example of a trusting and loving relationship. Obviously life isn’t perfect because then it would be a very boring 14 volumes. However enough external conflict is generated to keep the pace moving and help grow the strength of their bond. This story comes close to illustrating the beauty of love and friendship, and the joy I’m sure many of us would desire to be fulfilled by.

Rating:
5/5

Other good manga with similar story lines are:
Pretty Face, Minto na Bokura, Hana-Kimi