By Kotori Momoyuki. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Del Rey.

Sometimes, when reading a new title by a publisher, you have to try to put yourself into the shoes of the people who work there. What made this title stand out, what made Del Rey feel that this would be a good addition to their shoujo line, a manga that both teens and adults would like? (The manga was written for Japanese girls age 6-12, but is rated 13+ here because… well, actually, I dunno why. Possibly the fetishey outfit her best friend is seen in at some point, but that’s about it.) What made Del Rey think that Pink Innocent would be *it*?

After reading the first volume, I’m pretty sure I have the answer: they knew that people would buy volumes 2 and 3 to see if the cast finally snaps and kills the heroine.

Even by the standards of Nakayoshi, a magazine that specializes in overbearingly perky girls going after uninterested guys, this one really goes above and beyond the call of duty. You can’t even argue this time that the heroine is supposed to be a reader stand-in – she’s shown to be one of the richest girls in Japan, and habitually goes to school walking on a red carpet. She is appallingly naive to the point of utter stupidity, and spends the entire volume either living in magical happy shoujo fantasy land that only exists in her head, or in the depths of despair as her brain attempts to shriek at her that she’s appalling.

Into this mix comes the lead guy. He’s an emotionally repressed blond loner (in Nakayoshi? You jest!), and he also loves to work on computers. Four of which are broken by the heroine. In this manga’s four chapters. See, cause it’s funny! Oh yes, and she also BURNS HIS APARTMENT DOWN. By accident, I grant you. She has the rest of her class (all of whom are strangely agreeable) do Romeo and Juliet so that he can declare his love to her in a play. She dresses up as a miniskirted nun because he asks her to. (This last one is actually his perverted brother disguising himself as the hero – our hero would not be nearly that interesting.)

Despite this, Renji (the guy) is shown to slowly be falling for Kokona (the girl). He first decides she’s interesting when she leaps out of a helicopter at about 50 feet (and lands unharmed, I might add) to get his attention. Then at Christmas he buys her the charm she wanted, admitting that he likes her because she’s insane. Well, at least he’s honest. The final chapter has us meeting his weird family, and is probably the weakest for me, in that it’s the most normal. Yes, she destroys another computer, but that’s not enough anymore.

All of this is served up with very Nakayoshi-esque art. If you hear people talking about manga as being girls with huge eyes that take up their entire face, they mean either a title from this magazine, or from its competitors for young girls, Ribon and Ciao. And sure enough, Kokona is supposed to be 16 but looks about 6. Those impossible-in-real-life princess curls don’t help. It’s especially jarring when you see her best friend, Aery, drawn as a normal high-school shoujo student. It’s as if she wandered over from Betsufure (Kodansha’s magazine for teen girls, basically the next step up after Nakayoshi). Speaking of the best friend, we get occasional glimpses of her life, as she works hard as a part-time model. I wish we’d had more of that plotline instead.

This manga is bad. But it’s bad in a very entertaining and funny way. Your jaw will drop when you read about Kokona’s antics, and I suspect that you too will at least flip through the next 2 volumes (as least it’s a short series) to see if it ends with Renji finally snapping and burying her body behind the forge. I’m not sure what Del Rey was looking for when they started licensing tons of shoujo to find the next Kitchen Princess, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t it. Still, recommended for those with twisted sensibilities. Like myself.