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

Loyal readers may recall my twisted love of the first volume of this series, which featured a heroine so gloriously over-the-top annoying that I felt it might almost be parody. Volume 1 of the manga stunned me in its sheer brazen appallingness in regards to its heroine, and I hoped that the pace could keep up.

Sadly, it was not to be. Yes, Kokona is still very annoying, and many computers are still broken in her desperate quest to be loved, but now that she and Renji are a couple, the story turns to far more ordinary devices. The first chapter sees her trying to help her friend Aery with her own love life. I’d wished in Vol. 1 to see more of Aery’s plot, but unfortunately, it’s the standard shoujo “I wanted you to be jealous, why weren’t you?” plot, so no surprises there.

After this, Kokona gets obsessed with first kisses, and like most shoujo heroines, turns to incredibly bad advice from love magazines. This goes about as well as you can expect, especially as Renji is clearly pictured as a painfully shy repressed guy, who is unlikely to dole out first kisses for just anything. The “Kokona is sick” ending also felt very forced.

The last two chapters were the best, both in terms of Konoka being ludicrously over the top and in terms of being the most genuinely interesting. For one, they remind you of how rich she is, something that had been played down in the earlier part of the book. She invites Renji to a hanami party that turns out to take place on a cruise ship owned by her parents, who are the usual lovey-dovey couple who adore their daughter but have little time to devote to her. We also get the traditional rival, who would be interesting if we remotely believed him as a threat, which we don’t. On the other hand, Kokona and Renji’s fight was pretty well done, with Kokona noting she loves Renji even when she’s angry with him, and Renji wondering if she thinks “I love you” can solve any problem.

This ends with the best part of the book, as it was also the most inane. Kokona decides to announce that she’s going to study abroad and stay with her parents, in an effort to get Renji to say something. He’s certainly affected by it, but not in enough time to do anything – Kokona’s parents SPLIT THE BOAT IN TWO and take her off with them while the rest of the boat (with Renji) goes back to port. Kokona, realizing that she needs to get back to Renji, makes a 50-foot dive off the boat onto a small speedboat, drives after Renji, then crashes into a rock and has to be saved. If only the rest of the manga were like this.

(Also, I note that Kokona’s father is drawn so femininely, with a ludicrous fake mustache, that I have to wonder if they’re a lesbian couple keeping up the charade for an adopted Kokona).

Pink Innocent Volume 2 definitely improved on Volume 1, and Kokona goes from being the worst heroine ever to merely annoying. Sadly, that gets rid of the one reason to read the series. With this, Pink Innocent becomes merely average shoujo – and as such, there are better series to give your time to.

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.