By Julietta Suzuki. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.
So in my review of the first two volumes of Karakuri Odette, I noted that the series really hadn’t gotten into typical shoujo romance yet, instead focusing on Odette’s attempts to adjust to society. So clearly I merely hadn’t read far enough, as this volume is simply loaded with love polygons. For those curious, Mika loves Asao, Asao loves Yoko, Yoko loves Okada, Yukimura loves Odette, Chris loves Odette, and Odette has no idea what love is about. Just another day in the life.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the volume is all romantic mush. The main thrust continues to be Odette trying to figure out humanity, and the readers realizing that she’s already there, as she acts very much like any human would given the circumstances. The moral of Karakuri Odette seems to be that we all go through life unsure of ourselves and making decisions based on little information, and there is no perfect ideal for anyone.
The first chapter, which has Odette desperate to find and save a lost cat, has an obvious psychological bent to it. After her earlier experience with a cat getting run over, she’s desperate to avoid anyone feeling sad about that again. (Remember when Asao asked about it, she actually went so far as to lie to him.) So she goes above and beyond to save this other cat, despite missing school, and despite the fact that it turns out saving the cat will cost huge amounts of money. This is one chapter where we *do* see Odette as more of a child, and the Professor calls her out on it as well.
The rest of the book, though, places Odette firmly in the teenager category. We see mopey lovesick teenagers slumped on desks, and later see mopey Odette in a storage room, sure that her bulky new battery pack makes her look ‘ugly’ and ‘horrible’. Every teenage girl in the world has felt like this sometime. Odette can’t distinguish between feelings for friends and what ‘romantic’ love is supposed to be, but thinks this is something unique to her. And worst of all, stress seems to be draining her battery, to a degree where at one point she collapses in the hall.
And of course there’s Odette and Asao. Chris spends most of this volume AWOL due to his own drained battery problems (i.e., utter jealousy), so we get a lot more of these two together. I don’t really want to see them as a couple, but as friends they’re awesome. Asao, a very blunt person, discovers firsthand just how annoying that can be when Odette acts that way. Despite this, he remains very protective of Odette, and even when utterly disgusted and frustrated, refuses to abandon her. He’s pretty much become my favorite character.
We’re now halfway through the series, and I’m very interested in seeing the direction that it goes in the future. I doubt a romantic pairing for Odette is in the cards – I simply can’t imagine Professor making her fully functional – so I presume the remainder will be what the first three volumes have been. Gentle comedy about a more-human-than-she-thinks robot girl learning about the world. That suits me just fine.
