GRAPHIC NOVEL
Mamotte! Lollipop
Volume 2

Author: Michiyo Kikuta
Artist: Michiyo Kikuta
Tanoshima
RRP: £5.99, US $10.95
ISBN: 978 0 099 50664 5
Ages: 13+
Available 07 June 2007


Nina is your average schoolgirl who has come to that point in life where love becomes important. Whilst wondering when her dream boy will turn up, two drop straight out of the sky. Both cute and available, they have come to the human world for their magician's exams, which involve protecting Nina. Now Nina has her hands full, two cute boys but which one of them is destined to be hers...

Mamotte Lollipop is a Shojo manga from Michiyo Kikuta. As so happens with many manga's Mamotte was turned into an anime show, directed by Noriyoshi Nakamura, which ran in Japan, from 2003 to 2005. You can see why as this romantic comedy, squarely aimed at a teenage audience has a lot of charm about it - though it may be a little too sweet for anyone other than a preteen female.

Volume Two takes up the story with Nina still looking for love and being protected by Ichi and Zero. The book has five further chapters of the story - pop 5 through pop 9 - as well as a bonus Manga Kaito Papillion. To flesh out the book it also explains the use of Japanese honorifics, gives you some useful translation notes and adds a little bit about the author.

The first story has the stench of filler to it. In Summer Event is too Stimulating we see Nina and her friends play Kimodameshi, which is a strange dating game. To be honest apart from the introduction of two more people, Nanase and Yakumo, who are after the magic pearl that Nina has swallowed, little in the way of plot development happens. Of course as the kids are paired off Nina and Ichi are paired, which leads to opportunities to kiss and express jealousy.

Pop 6: Torment in Love on the Beach and we learn more about Nanase and Yaumo, such as where they know Zero and Ichi from and why Nanase hates Zero - apparently it is for exposing him for a boy while he was posing as a girl at school.

The rest of the chapters continue on in very much the same vein, with the back-story being slowly filled in. One of the things which I really liked about the book is the asides from the author. These pop up all over the place explaining some of the finer points and some of her thoughts on the manga. This makes the whole experience a little more intimate and has the likely affect of making the young reader feel a lot closer to both the work and the author.

So, if you like your love sweet and slushy then this book is going to be for you.

Charles Packer

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