By Tachibana Higuchi. Released in Japan as “M to N no Shouzou” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

Honestly, this manga continues to drive me crazy. Despite all attempts at comedy (and there are some here, though not as many as Volume 3), this continues to be a series about watching a fragile, shy young girl get horribly abused by life. At least with Gakuen Alice Mikan was allowed to be spunky and upbeat. Whereas Mitsuru, a girl who glows with happiness whenever someone remotely notices her, spends much of the volume in despair about her horrible family, her somewhat callous boyfriend, and her innate masochism.

One thing I liked is that the misunderstandings from Volume 3, with her new friend Ririko thinking that she was dating Hijiri, are very quickly cleared up, allowing the two of them to stay good friends. It’s always nice when an author knows which jokes to drag out and which ones can be safely stopped short. (There was also an amusing bit where the two girls hug after making up, and two passing guys go “Ah, lesbians!” “What, where? Lesbians?” It reminded me of some of the yuri fanboys I see online.)

The trip to the beach also began on a very amusing note, with Natsuhiko and company dressing up in drag and essentially kidnapping Mitsuru to get her on their vacation. (I did feel sad at one point; the Nibley twins and Jamie Rich translated one bubble as ‘Big Success!’ rather than ‘Huge Success’, missing out on a great Portal reference.) The vacation itself works less well, with a horribly shoehorned in island shipwreck designed to do nothing more than get Natsuhiko jealous; and his subsequent jealousy, which is understandable given his lack of experience with love, but his taking it out on Mitsuru is like stomping on baby ducks. Luckily, he knows this and resolves it fairly quickly. Unluckily, he resolves it by accident by getting drunk, kissing her, and sleeping on her breasts all night.

And so, after the summer vacation of awkward, we reach the culture festival of even more awkward. This is, if anything, even more uncomfortable as we’re dealing with Mitsuru’s wretchedly horrible family. The class is doing a cosplay cafe, with Mitsuru dressing up as The Crane Wife (from that story where the man helps an injured crane and she takes human form and marries him). This involves her wearing a very skimpy costume with a crane ‘hat’, something that even the most-self-possessed woman would have trouble carrying off. And once her brother and her ‘intended fiancee’ (something she only vaguely knew about before this, and is rather horrified to hear about) show up, things quickly descend into a giant chase.

It all ends up with a confrontation (at long last, I should add), with Mitsuru’s mother slapping her across the chops for being such an ungrateful daughter. Which, naturally, gets Mitsuru to ask her to do it again harder. You can imagine how well this goes. Luckily, Natsuhiko is there to drag her off, and the volume ends with the two of them running away from her marriage interview, fiancee, and family… except now they’ve no idea what to do next.

The author comments that M&N; was scheduled to be 2 volumes, but the author was asked to extend it, and she didn’t have any other material. I think what we see here does extend naturally from the plot, but the execution… Gakuen Alice, the work she did after this, has a much better blend of comedy and gripping drama, and manages to make Mikan incredibly sympathetic without making her a doormat. Mitsuru… you want to hug her, but at the same time reading about her life is like sticking your hands in boiling tar. I want to find out how things work out for these two. Sadly, that involves reading the manga to do it.

By Tachibana Higuchi. Released in Japan as “M to N no Shouzou” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

Yes, at last, THIS is what I was talking about. After 2 volumes of some of the most depressing comedy I’ve read, Tachibana has figured out how to play up the funny with her two leads. Oh, there’s still lots of serious, and Mitsuru’s reprehensible family is still a problem, but at last we can momentarily forget about these things and just watch all the misunderstandings and physical humor.

Nowhere is this more apparently than in the first chapter, which takes place on a class skiing trip. Mitsuru is hoping for a nice romantic time with Natsuhiko but keeps slamming into trees or getting accidentally run over by skiers (leading to her immense pleasure), Hijiri is hoping to teach the “clumsy” Mitsuru how to ski (sadly, she knows and is better than he is), and Natsuhiko is running into reflective surfaces everywhere that cause him to go into paroxysms of love for himself. Add to this a new girl, Ririka, who gets to be the normal one reacting to all these freaks, and then toss them all down a few cliffs and onto some moving logs.

Ririka’s cute, and not only does she get to be the normal one, but she allows Mitsuru to have an ally who’s not male. In a manga filled with jealous females out to destroy the heroine, this is important. Of course, naturally she’s fallen for Natsuhiko, and thinks Mitsuru is actually Hijiri’s girlfriend. But that’s just standard shoujo misunderstandings. At heart, Ririka is there to stop Mitsuru being too serious and depressing. It doesn’t work, mostly as Mitsuru is so far down that crawling up to happy is almost impossible, but the thought is there.

By the way, nice cameo in the author’s notes from Shigeru Takao, the author of Teru Teru x Shonen, which ran alongside M&N; in the magazine. I suspect ‘beautiful, big-breasted young lady with a homo fetish’ is not how she wanted to be introduced, though. :)

The most amusing part of the volume for me was the fake gay subtext between Natsuhiko and Hijiri. Originally done as a gag for the ski trip (and really, Ririka’s seeing them as gay is TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE given what she saw), apparently the female audience for Hana to Yume went over the moon at the idea, so Tachibana added even more goofiness with Hijiri trying to break them up by saying Natsuhiko is secretly gay, and Mitsuru proceeding to tell the school this in a wacky hypnosis story. It’s the chapter that feels the most scattered (the author notes it was hastily rewritten), but also the funniest.

In amongst all this welcome comedy, Mitsuru and Natsuhiko finally confess and become a couple. These are the sweetest moments of the book, mostly as the two leads are so earnest and serious that you really root for them to become closer. Of course, this is then followed by self-doubts and still wondering what the other thinks, but that’s standard shoujo. Their relationship also leads to the weak point in the book, which is Mitsuru’s family. Her Oedipal brother is introduced, and he seems to treat her just as badly as her mother does. I say seems as mother comes in towards the end of the volume, and reaches new lows of emotional abuse. I think Tachibana gave Mitsuru’s backstory too much realism. Mitsuru’s life to date is simply HORRIBLE, and while there’s far more comedy here to save it, the ending just reminds you of that fact. At least she’s finally starting to rebel a little bit.

So, slowly getting there. I don’t expect the book to become a laff riot – like Gakuen Alice, the series seems to revel in its emotional whirlwind – but adding lighthearted moments makes Portrait of M & N a title that is worth your time, provided you don’t mind all the protagonists’ emotional baggage.

By Tachibana Higuchi. Released in Japan as “M to N no Shouzou” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

I’d noted when reviewing Volume 1 of M&N; that I felt it had a big problem, which was its premise. That has not changed. Hoerver, the focus is now firmly on love comedy, with the masochistic and narcissistic qualities being an afterthought. Strangely enough, this makes it work better.

The lead couple are still painfully earnest, even when going through comedic situations. Mitsuru is still shy and meek, blithely accepting all the bullying from the other girls that’s coming her way. (Speaking of which, what is it with Tachibana and bullying? I know it features in a lot of shoujo titles, but both of her larger series have it in spades, and with Gakuen Alice it’s almost the main plotline.) Natsuhiko, meanwhile, works best when he’s freaking out and being overprotective, as when he’s repressing everything, he just comes off as dull.

Even Hijiri turns out to be your typical rival guy, though at least by poking at the main couple he is doing something to make them move closer, as it’s very clear that this couple needs help. Neither of them would dare make a move on their own, being tormented by crippling self-doubt. This is where their peccadilloes come into play, with Mitsuru fighting against her masochism whenever she trips and falls, and Natsuhiko trying to avoid self-absorption (though he’s really too nice a guy for that).

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the one-shot at the end of this volume, written two years before Tachibana began M&N.; It’s about a school that’s a way station for ghosts, who have to have someone realize they’re dead and mourn before they can pass on. This can be tricky – one girl was killed in a bombing raid during WWII, and was listed as ‘missing’, so is still there. It’s a pretty fine premise, and the first few pages have some nice comedy that tends to be missing from the main M&N; series. It also has heartwarming moments (Yurie finally being reunited with her mother) and ends in a sweet, yet also dark scene where the hero promises to love a ghost the rest of his life. (Tachibana says the audience wrote in to ask if it was a happy ending or not.) Good stuff.

The concerns I had with Volume 1 have not really gone away. This series is far too serious for its premise. Even the cover art is sedate and mature. However, that’s actually less of a problem in this volume, as the focus is far less on the masochism and narcissism and more on the two shy leads crawling slowly towards each other as a couple. Which is sweet, but I have to wonder about a series whose weak point is still its basic premise.