By Aya Kanno. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Hana to Yume (“Betsuhana”). Released in North America by Viz.

Note that I say ‘serialization ongoing’ up there. One might be forgiven, after reading the final two chapters here, in thinking that Otomen ends with this volume, wrapping up on a high note where we finally see a bit more into Ryo’s psyche and see Asuka struggle with what he wants to do with his future. But fitting as it might be, it’s not the end – these chapters ran in early 2011 in Japan, and the manga is still going in Betsuhana, so we have at least three more volumes to go, including one Viz has scheduled for January.

This is not, however, to take away from what might be one of Kanno’s best volumes in this series. It was deliberately written to focus on Ryo, who also gets the cover, albeit disguised as a boy. 3/4 of the book has her meeting up with a judo club that’s being taught poorly by its physically skilled captain whose frustrations make him completely incapable of leading. After seeing him attack one of his students, Ryo throws him into a wall, where he “breaks his arm”. Now Ryo has to dress up as a boy and lead the judo team to victory against their opponents… who happen to by her own school. This means she will have to fight Asuka.

If this sounds incredibly cliched, clearly you haven’t read Otomen before, which specializes in taking the most hideously cliched plots imaginable and doing something with them. In this particular case there are two plots interweaving, both involving Ryo. The main one has her making the judo team into a force of awesome. They have skills, as Sakata (the captain Ryo took over for) has drilled things into them, albeit poorly. Seeing what she can make of them sends Sakata spiraling into despair and self-loathing (not helped by the fact that he doesn’t realize the boy teaching them is Ryo at first, so we get a standard ‘why do I have feelings for this guy?’ reaction) and declaring he’s quitting. Ryo, who can see the good guy underneath, asks if he’ll stay if Odo is victorious. Eventually we *don’t* get our expected Asuka vs. Ryo match, as Sakata breaks his cast (showing he was faking, as we suspected) and demands to fight Asuka himself.

Asuka has a smaller role here, but it’s important – Juta plants a seed of uncertainty in his head about Ryo, and Asuka can’t stop thinking about it. Even after he learns what Ryo is doing, he still puts on a false front in front of her. Because let’s face it, Ryo is not the most demonstrative of people. He’s said he loves her three times now, as well as dated her, and her reactions seems to be more of a cheery “Okee doke!” than anything else. Here, helped out by her father and Sakata, Ryo is starting to realize that her lack of direct expression is bothering Asuka, and she does something about it. THIS. This is what I wanted from this series all along – a direct, honest statement from Ryo that she is also in love with Asuka, as well as some insight into her inner thought process. Very well done.

Then there’s the last chapter. It’s Valentine’s Day, but this is Otomen, so naturally the guys are the ones giving out the chocolate. In between this, we see them all discussing plans for their future, as he’s expected to inherit the family business… but isn’t sure he really wants to do that. Making matters worse, everyone else seems to have a firm goal in mind – including Ryo, who is following in her father’s footsteps in becoming a police officer. This is another chapter that’s more about the heart than the laughs, though I did laugh at Asuka’s realization of what it is he truly wants – or more accurately, what he’s focused on when it happens (truly an otomen to the end). His response, however, is fantastic, and leads to that ending which I told you feels like the end of the series, but isn’t. I hope (and pray!) that finally we can move away from “are we truly a couple?” stories and show Asuka and Ryo growing and getting closer.

Of course, Asuka’s mother probably has a few things to say about this. We’re not done, and I will look forward to Otomen 14 in January. But this particular volume put its foot on the ‘heartwarming’ pedal and never let up, and finally gave focus to one of my favorite characters in the series. Very well done.

Also, anyone notice that the guys in Otomen blush constantly, and Ryo never does? There’s only one time in the volume we see her blush, and it’s not at either of the two places I expected.

By Aya Kanno. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Hana to Yume (“Betsuhana”). Released in North America by Viz.

Well, in my review of Volume 10 I asked for an end to these ‘minor villains’ coming in to try to de-Otomen our hero, and do a degree I got that. But that’s because the series main villain makes her big return. Asuka’s mother is back, and she is not about to let her boy do anything girly whatsoever. But that’s not till 2/3 of the way through this volume. First we have to finish off the cycle of teachers who were brought in to clean up the school.

When we left our heroes, they were on a field trip to learn to become perfect samurai and geisha. Unfortunately, a landslide has destroyed the only way out to get food and supplies, and trapped them. Luckily, our heroes are not content to let gender stereotypes get in their way! Asuka creates festival decorations to distract the class, while Ryo goes hunting for giant fish, having earlier proven that she can’t be trusted with mushroom gathering. She also rescues an injured Tonomine, and in general is pretty badass. (Given I’ve whined about her so much in the past, I will grant her this.) She also cleans up nicely when she goes dancing with Ryo later.

The best chapters in the manga are the ones back at school dealing with Valentine’s Day, which naturally leads to another Otomen challenge, this one disguised as it’s based around punishing an anonymous person who wrote soppy romantic poetry. Asuka steps in to stop the punishment, and finds himself battling the school nurse, Oji, who is not only handsome and sexy, but also exudes pheromones to make all the girls fall for him. Asuka has merely his natural charm, handsomeness, and politeness to fall back on.

It’s a tough battle, especially as Ryo has seemed distant and keeps brushing him off. (If you’ve guessed what she’s doing, you’re right – this is Otomen. Surprises in the plot are for other manga.) But in the end, Asuka realizes that the shallowness of this competition is not for him, and throws it by giving all the chocolates back (notes he grabs each chocolate from a huge pile and remembers who gave it to him exactly), as the only ones he can accept are from Ryo, who of course has spent the last few days making her lethal chocolate for him. Awwwwww.

Unfortunately, after this we hit our Worst Case Scenario – Asuka’s mother is back, taking over the school as Kasuga and his squad of teachers failed. So Asuka is back to desperately hiding everything, which is even more unfortunate given there’s a class in teaching men how to bake cakes going on! This is the most cliched of the chapters, but does continue to lean on some heavy foreshadowing, and of course I can’t hope for his mother to give in right away, as otherwise where would the plot tension be?

The manga ends with a sample of the first chapter of Love Chick, Juta’s manga based on Asuka and Ryo only gender reversed. It’s a good thing it’s only fictional, as I found it quite dull. Oh well. More importantly, Otomen has now caught up with Japan, which mean we won’t get another volume for 6 months. So I hope you didn’t mind the cliffhanger. As ever, I want slightly more out of Otomen than what it gives, but an reasonably happy with it regardless.