By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

At last we come to the final volume of Special A. Honestly, most of the plot could have been wrapped up several volumes ago. Indeed, a number of the couples resolved their plotlines long ago, and have simply been sitting there taking up space for long periods. And the plots we see in the final volume are all from the Big Shoujo Book Of Endings, featuring the family resolving misunderstandings, the heroine having to choose between family and her new love, and a final chapter featuring an over the top proposal.

All that said, I quite liked this final volume. Maki Minami is bad at all the actual plotting and pacing, but her writing itself is excellent, and she really knows how to wring emotion out of you. The first chapter resolves the fight between Kei’s mother and grandfather with a minimum of fuss. The surprise here is meant to be that we’ve suspected Kei’s grandfather of hating Hikari as she reminds him so much of his dead wife, whereas the reality is the opposite: Hikari reminds him of his own self, and he (as well as his daughter) feel that she worried herself to death the way that Kei tends to do regarding Hikari. Of course, this is all a giant misunderstanding, but give Hikari the opportunity to leap from tall buildings and be very shiny, her best qualities.

After the weakest chapter of the book, involving Akira growing weary of being treated like a chef/waitress by the others (a genuine grudge, and something resolved far too patly), we find Hikari making that choice that I mentioned earlier. It requires her leaving the school, something she has trouble telling everyone. Once they find out, of course, it becomes a giant farewell party… which, since none of them really want her to leave, turns into a giant contest. Everyone basically straight up admits that this is a way to guilt her into staying, but it doesn’t read as being wrong, mostly as even Hikari’s dad thinks she’s making the wrong decision. Everyone bids her farewell one by one, as Hikari feels worse and worse, culminating in Akira sobbing and begging her not to go.

Until finally, it all comes down to a giant battle between her and Kei. This is the best part of the book, mostly as it’s clear how much this is foreplay for them. We see Kei reminiscing about the history of their battles, and see that yes, he DID try once what all of us wondered about: he let Hikari win. This was back when they were kids. And it devastated her, as she immediately knew he did it. Seeing her on her knees in tears, begging him to fight her again at full strength… is when he fell in love with her, even back then. Then seeing her joyful face as she races from him, knowing that to Hikari the outcome is secondary to the love of the contest… this is the high point of the manga. Really well done.

After that it’s just an epilogue, showing each couple getting about 2 pages to show they’re all happy together. (One part, with Jun and Sakura, seems to be poorly translated by Viz. It notes that Sakura is a free man. I can’t understand that at all.) And, with Kei winning one more contest against Hikari, we are finished.

Honestly, this was a fun volume for me only as I’d read the previous 16 and was invested in the characters. On its own, it’s filled with flaws. But then, anyone reading S.A. 17 will have read the other ones anyway. For them, it’s a decent wrapup to the series, especially for our hero and heroine. Even if it could have been done back at Volume 9 or so.

By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

The penultimate volume of Special A, and the series is definitely in need of an ending. Having taken care of the rest of the cast in the previous volume, this one concentrates on Hikari and Kei, and unfortunately, that means that we have one of the series’ major faults, which is Hikari’s cluelessness. When she and Kei weren’t a couple, this was amusing, especially as it was cranked up to 11. But now that they’re a couple, it just makes Hikari seem rather dumb, as even innocent naivete needs to grow up sometimes.

We have two remaining plots to tie up, the first being Iori. He and Hikari are still bonding, and Kei is understandably getting jealous, mostly as Iori is egging him on. The midterms are coming up, and Iori asks Hikari to grant him one wish if he takes first place. She agrees, knowing that no one’s going to topple Kei. But amazingly, Iori and Kei manage to tie for first – leaving Hikari screwed, as everyone knows his wish is going to be to break up with Kei.

However, there’s little tension there, mostly as we know that Iori isn’t enough of an asshole to actually go through with such a thing. Instead, we see Hikari taking part in a model competition, with Iori as a hairstylist (shades of I Hate You More Than Anyone). Hikari’s a natural model, and even with Kei as a judge, they pass into the finals easily. (Kei notes that Iori has a natural talent that’s far above anyone else in the competition, and is not petty enough to fail them due to his own jealousy.)

Part of the problem we have here is that because the author clearly likes Hikari’s happy dense personality, it’s left little room for her to grow and mature. We see here that Hikari still finds it impossible to read Kei’s moods, even when it’s obvious to everyone in the entire country why he’s annoyed. However, that said, her lack of understanding does lead to the biggest surprise of the volume. Iori has, as expected, bowed out of the romantic rivalry, realizing that Hikari will never see him as more than a friend. Earlier, Kei had admitted his jealousy to Hikari, and admitted he just wanted to find a way for the two of them to be together forever.

Hikari’s solution is fantastic, the best moment of the volume. Unfortunately, it’s undercut by the following chapter, which features the rest of the school overreacting to her solution and freaking out. The chapter reads as if the editors told her to walk it back, and that she still has a few chapters to go. So we get a bit of a retcon, and instead go on to deal with the other main plot point: Kei’s grandfather, who still hates Hikari and insists that he’ll never let her be with Kei. He’s also still fighting with Kei’s mother (or more accurately, she’s fighting with him and he’s wallowing in guilt), and Hikari being… well, Hikari is not helping at all. It’s heavily implied that he sees a lot of his deceased wife in Hikari, which is the root of all the trouble. In the end, Kei decides to resolve everything with a nice trip to Australia as the cliffhanger.

I’ve enjoyed S.A., and it still has great moments, but it also has a frustrating inconsistency, especially with its lead heroine. Hikari’s charm is her outgoing happiness and sometimes denseness, but it’s also a very childlike attitude, and you long to see her mature. Perhaps Ouran High School Host Club, with a similar love-challenged heroine whose maturity is a major plot point, has spoiled me. In any case, Special A ends with the next volume, so it should not be that hard to pick up.

By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

Most of this volume sees Hikari and Kei taking a backseat to the rest of the cast, as the author starts to wrap up the various side plots she’s had going on. The one exception is an amusing chapter where Hikari thinks that Kei has eaten a love potion candy, making him overly romantic towards her. This is particularly hysterical given that Kei has been gaga over Hikari since the start of the manga. Needless to say, he decides to milk this for all its worth, stressing Hikari out with his affection, which he normally keeps a clamp on as it embarrasses her. The whole chapter ends with their first mutual, consensual kiss, and it’s lovely.

The rest of the volume gets devoted to the other couples (sans Akira and Tadashi, who have little to do here). Finn takes everyone to her home country, and ends up competing with Alisa for Ryu’s affections – which is especially awkward as Finn has to pretend to be a guy. And then, as we all knew would happen, Hikari finds out Finn’s secret. This is the weak link of the volume, being a very cliched resolution, with a hideous deus ex machina resolving things (the cast seem stunned when they hear it, as if they know how pathetic it is). Oh well, at the end we have another official couple.

Then we move to the strongest part of the volume, which is the one couple that *doesn’t* become official. I’ve enjoyed the pairing of Megumi and Yahiro from the moment it was first thrown at us, if only as it’s a total crack pairing – you sense that Minami saw they were the two main leftovers, and cackled at the idea of them being a couple. Then started to see how she would make it work. As it has some honest thought devoted to both of its participants, it thus *does* work. If only as it’s clear there’s much work to do. Megumi realizes herself how ridiculous it is having a crush on Yahiro, and knows (as does Yahiro) that he’s still too wrapped up in his past feelings for Akira to do anything right now.

And yet there’s just so much that’s wonderfully sweet here. And hilarious. From Megumi’s pathetic attempts to get a boyfriend off the street (and Yahiro laughing and tearing her apart for doing so), to the wonderful image of an insanely angry Yahiro bursting into Akira’s party (and completely ignoring Akira, I note), screaming Megumi’s name and asking if she wanted to make a fool out of him as he drags her off. And this is capped with Yahiro’s commanding (and browbeating) tone as he gets Megumi to sing perfectly. These two chapters are some of the best in the entire manga.

The volume then ends with a chapter about Alisa and Aoi, another crack pairing that works less well, mostly as it’s a last-minute pair the spares type, rather than showing the thought Megumi and Yahiro did. I was amused at Alisa, not knowing Finn’s secret as the others now do, point blank asking “Are you gay?”.

We have two volumes to go, and we still need to wrap up Kei’s grandfather’s issues, so I suspect this may be the last we see of the main supporting cast. If so, it’s a good issue to go out on. Especially recommended if you enjoy seeing shy wallflower in love with villainous jerk played RIGHT.