By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Sekai De Ichiban Daikirai!” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by CMX.

Generally speaking, when I start to like a series or title, I really fall for it in a big way. Online research, buying other Japanese works by the same author, pasting into Excite’s translation engine – that sort of thing. And I talk about it a lot online, be it Livejournal, Twitter, or here. And while for the most part I’ve started this blog ‘in media res’ and do not, for example, plan to go back and review the previous 5 Magic Touches, there are three series that I feel I should eventually go back and review properly, as they continue to be my obsession today.

Two of them are Gatcha Gacha (no, the other one) and Excel Saga. I’ll be getting to those later. The other one is Banri Hidaka’s first multi-volume series, I Hate You More Than Anyone! This was also her debut work in North America, coming out from CMX in 2007.

This leads to one of the first big problems with the work – it’s a sequel, of sorts. Yes, it can be read as a stand-alone work. In fact, by necessity, it is in North America. But if you pick up a copy of the book, and open the cover, the first thing you see are teenagers you don’t know talking about Kazuha, our female lead, and a note saying that the characters’ ages are from the manga ‘Let Me Hear Your Song’. I wouldn’t blame someone for putting it down and looking for the earlier work.

Banri Hidaka debuted in the pages of Hana to Yume with various one-shots and short series, as do most manga artists these days. As she wrote them, she began to depict some of the protagonists as coming from the same family, the Akiyoshis. A family of father, mother, and 6 children, we gradually meet the family over the course of two one-shots and 4 series ranging from 3 to 6 chapters, which were subsequently collected into 4 volumes of various titles. (They’ve now been released as 2 chunky tomes, called The Akiyoshi Family series – this is the easiest way to find them on Amazon Japan.)

Kazuha, the heroine of IHYMTA!, was first introduced in a short one-shot dealing with her sister Momoka. It showed her as a successful hairstylist, and also commented on her mannish looks. After a 6-chapter series dealing with the eldest brother, Chizuru, and his delinquent high school days, Hidaka-san presumably thought she’d wrap things up with a look at the eldest daughter and her own high school life.

Of course, the series ended up being her first really big hit, and it ran for 13 volumes before finishing. The characters proved so popular that the series spawned an occasional spinoff, As You Like It, which runs in Bessatsu Hana to Yume whenever the author feels like a new chapter; and Rei and Kazuha are minor supporting characters in her 2004 manga V.B. Rose, which Tokyopop is currently releasing.

What all this amounts to is that there’s no way that a North American reader can approach this manga the way that it was written for the Japanese Hana to Yume fan. The series is filling out the plot beats that regular readers already read about in the earlier series. And since CMX is translating it accurately (which I give them credit for), the constant footnotes to prior works and explanations for characters being 6-8 years younger than readers are familiar with can be wearing.

Now, all that having been said, I Hate You More Than Anyone! is the story of Kazuha Akiyoshi, a tomboyish oldest sibling of six, and her relationship with the eventual love of her life, Maki Sugimoto, a fey-sounding hairstylist who’s creepily obsessed with her. As you can guess from the title, she can’t stand his attention. As you can guess from the fact that this is a shoujo manga, they’re totally meant for each other.

Hidaka-san is clearly feeling things out as she goes, and this first volume of the manga is quite uneven, especially compared to later volumes. Maki’s feminine speech (Kazuha calls Maki ‘that gay guy’ at one point) is toned down quite a bit as the series goes along, and the parenthetical asides absolutely litter every panel, cluttering up the already cluttered art. (This last is something that has almost become a trademark of hers – you can still see asides littering the panels of V.B. Rose, for example.) And the entire style is far more broad and cartoonish comedy than we’d seen in her earlier works. Kazuha frequently headbutts, punches, kicks, and ties to ceilings her friends and family, something that will continue as the series goes on, culminating in our heroine being thrown through a 3rd-story window and stomping back into class with a bloody forehead 3 seconds later, no worse for wear.

The last major flaw of this volume is that Tohru Honjo isn’t in it. We’ll have to wait for Volume 2 to meet the best character in the series. And Maki, in this volume, gives the impression of a creepy staker guy at times. This is fairly common with manga that start with the hero already totally in love with our heroine, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Luckily, there’s a chapter showing he can be just as stressed out and flawed as the rest of us, which helps to make him more likeable.

Since I’ve spent so long going on about its weaknesses, I should probably talk about why I love this series so much. Kazuha is a fun lead heroine. She’s an emotional roller coaster, vacillating between hot-headed anger and girlish adoration (she is, in fact, an excellent tsundere example, several years before the type became overdone). But she’s also the eldest of a huge family, and we get to see her be the capable older sister as well. In fact, the last chapter is about her having to stand up Maki as Rei falls ill and she has to rush him to the doctor. She angsts briefly about date vs. family, and quickly realizes it’s no contest – family wins.

She’s also blessed with two strong female friends, although Senko appears to be more of a rival in this first volume. She and Senko clearly come to blows so often because of their similarities – both are pretty girls adored by their underclassmen, both have huge tempers that go off at the slightest provocation, and both are at this point falling for the same guy – even though Kazuha refuses to admit this. (The title of the series no longer applies to Kazuha by about Volume 6 or so, but that’s fine, because by then Senko can take up the reins with HER relationship denial.) And we also get Senko’s spirits, which are the ghost-like things that come out of her mouth. A lot of anime and manga use these when a character is beaten or ‘dying’ in a comedic fashion, but Senko goes so far as to be able to control and strangle Kazuha with them!

And we have the Akiyoshi family, who are allowed to provide humor while still being quite realistic. Having six kids means that both parents are working basically all the time, so the siblings all have to step up and take responsibility. (Well, mostly – Ichihisa is a little brat, though a hilarious one. And he and Tonami, along with their mother, are the only ones in the entire family who AREN’T tsunderes.)

Mostly, I enjoy the manga because it’s fun to read about these people. There’s some angst, but usually it lasts only a page or two before being undercut with a comedic moment. The characters have immature temper tantrums, but are also allowed to act like adults. Despite the cartoon violence, Kazuha feels like a high school girl discovering love for the first time, and realizing how it can make you crazy. We laugh at her antics but root for her. And everyone turns out to be correct – she does look more feminine with the short haircut.

I’ll review later volumes of the series when I can as well. Likely they will not be as long as this one was. I did mention the obsessed thing, right?