By Yutaka Tachibana. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Melody. Released in North America by Tokyopop.
First off, it has to be said, this volume has offensive gay stereotypes. The gay male stalker type who likes to molest young boys? Is here. The insane psycho lesbian who will crush anyone in order to have no one else but her sister? Is here. The latter is handled better than the former, but neither are handled with what you’d call grace. The author even notes in a sidebar that she’ll get angry letters saying she doesn’t understand gays, and admits she does not.
That having been said, this is overall a good volume of Gatcha Gacha. The author has now realized that Yuri is not the reason anyone reads this, and though Yuri is still our ‘viewpoint’ character, much of the focus is now on Motoko and her screwed-up life. That said, Yuri is a very important part of this volume. Yabe is continuing to try to push her away at the start, and notes that her love is too “heavy”. Unfortunately, that awkwardly translated word is exactly what all her other boyfriends used when they broke up with her, so it sends her into a spiral of depression.
Yabe, of course, is still trying to deal with Kanako’s death. Seeing how awesome he was in the past, especially through the eyes of one of his kendo counterparts, really drives home the fact that he’s been unable to deal with anything since her death. Surprisingly, though, he seems to finally appreciate Yuri for who she is (Yuri getting hit by a truck and living might have helped a bit) and is ready to confess. Motoko being Motoko, she demands that he confess at her mansion, convinced Yabe won’t be able to handle the traumatic memories.
Which we finally get to see, in a flashback to some of Motoko and Yabe’s past. This is the best part of the volume, with some fantastic turns of phrases, and some nice subtlety. We first meet Motoko as a short-haired gangly tomboy, trying to defend her sickly half-sister against… well, against herself, really, as Kanako’s jealousy is even now a major issue. We also see that she and Yabe have been friends since childhood, and that Yabe, upon meeting Kanako, instantly falls in love with her. Sadly, Kanako only has eyes for Motoko. We flash forward a bit, and see Motoko growing her hair longer. She says she just felt like it, but the implication is that she’s trying to fend off Kanako’s incestuous tendencies. (Wearing t-shirts that say ‘Juicy American Princess’ is not helping much, IMO.)
Things come to a head when Kanako sleeps with Yabe, so that she can drive him away from Motoko and Kanako has her all to herself. This is a chilling scene, with Kanako bluntly telling her sister that she doesn’t care if Yabe lives or dies.
Something inside Kanako had shattered. And when it did, the broken, razor-sharp shards exploded from her and cut into everyone around her.
We then end by seeing, with a little more detail, the scene implied in Volume 1. Kanako running off in the snow, Motoko angrily looking all over for her, and finding her crumpled on the sidewalk. So now Yuri knows the truth, and what’s more, she and Yabe are finally a couple. The end!… wait, no, there’s 5 more volumes to go. What’s missing?
Well, I suppose I could mention Hirao. It has to be said that the guys in this manga do not fare nearly as well as the girls. Yabe is a slacker who can’t let go, and even now looks to be getting together with Yuri so he can try to blot out his past with Kanako. And Hirao is still pretty pathetic. Yelling at Yabe for making Yuri sad is not the same as telling Yuri your actual feelings, even if life is conspiring against you every time you do. He gets a bit better later, but the love triangle of him, Yuri, and Yabe is still a bit malformed.
It’s also worth noting that Motoko’s grandfather attempts to tell his own version of “the truth”, and tells Yuri that Kanako and Motoko had different mothers, and that her father abandoned Kanako. Luckily, Motoko arries to leap in here, pointing out that her parents wanted to have Kanako as well, but the grandfather refused to let her go, using her medical bills as an excuse. Ah, family drama. I know all about that myself.
Oh yes, and Sekine turns out to be a cute l’il bishie when he takes his huge glasses off. Who here’s surprised? The first chapter is the closest we get to comedy here, proving that Motoko can take a baseball bat to the head and get right back up (albeit with severe bleeding).
It’s a good volume, with a couple of exceptions, and one has to wonder where they can take this now that we have all of Motoko’s backstory… wait, what’s this? The preview for Volume 4 notes that they meet a girl who looks exactly like Kanako? Oh dear! Could it be that we STILL don’t know the whole truth? Stay tuned for the next volume of this pretzel-like series!
