But anyway...
Creator: Yoshizumi Wataru
Genre: romance, shoujo, slice of life, school life, drama
Volumes/Chapters: 3 volumes (15 chapters with extra ending)
Ever since reading PxP, I ended up becoming a fan of Yoshizumi-sensei's work. Her character designs are very pretty and very cute, her stories are usually quite laxed with a made for drama feel, and her female protagonists are typically pretty strong-headed types. Her artwork is great, in my opinion, as there isn't too much noise in the background and a good amount of attention to detail.
Random Walk is a cute little story that centers around a girl named Yuka who goes through several relationships which end up in heartbreak for her each time. But because her father had told her to "experience good love so that you can be a good person" Yuka-chan seems quite ready to brave the topsy-turvy storms of having a love relationship with boys. Throughout the three volumes, she falls in love quite readily with some of the guys who walk into her life including an old boyfriend who had been caught cheating on her before as well as a boy who already has a five year relationship with another girl.
All-in-all, the manga is just another cute story to pass the time. The only thing that would keep one hooked to Random Walk is the idea that Yuka-chan needs to find a boyfriend at the end, at the very least. I felt very sorry for her throughout and only hoped that she would finally find someone.
I have to say that Yuka's choice in boys are quite... bad.
The first candidate was the son of a friend of her father's. Shiki Nozomu is a second year at her high school whom she meets for the first time when she and her friend Touko go to a karaoke. Touko had planned on playing the meet, play and ditch card on Nozomu and his friend so that they wouldn't have to pay for anything, but end up getting caught. Yuka later learns that Nozomu goes to her school and is the son of her father's friend who wants her to meet and date his son. And so when she reveals this as well as showing Nozomu the letter of recommendation that his father wrote, they agree to try dating. When they finally become serious, it appears that Nozomu is not only not serious about Yuka-chan, but he also ends up falling for another girl he meets at the library.
And thus ends the first love story in Yuka-chan's high school career.
As she is crying over her break-up with Nozomu, the second love story walks passed her in the form of Furuya Kaito, a third year in her high school. She meets him the second time outside when she's photographing a ladybug, and then the third time she meets him is at her step-mother, Youko-mama's studio where he makes his first move, kissing her and telling her that he thought she was cute. The relationship would have progressed quite nicely except for the fact that we learn that Kaito already has a girlfriend and this girlfriend is the head of the photography club Yuka just joined, a girl named Saori who is very nice and very kind to Yuka. Thus, even as Yuka knows this, she begins to date Kaito while feeling extremely guilty as Saori and Kaito have been together for a couple years.
As this relationship was doomed to end in the beginning, I was pretty shocked that Yuka actually went through with it. While it was true that Kaito really expressed genuinely that he was in love with Yuka, that still didnt' change the face that he already has a girlfriend whom he is also in love with. That said, he was quite pushy and I think that that was what got Yuka interested in him as she's the type to give in to someone as pushy as him.
The last of Yuka-chan's heartbreaks had also been the first. In the second year of junior high, she met a boy named Tsutsui Hikaru who fell for her and came on strong. Because of this, she ended up falling for him as well since his pushy personality won her over. But later on, she found him cheating on her with a tutor and so the two broke up. At present day, Hikaru is back and he wants to do things over with Yuka. But lo and behold, of course, this relationship does not play out the way Yuka wants and so she is left broken hearted again. In the end, Hikaru ended up choosing another girl over her.
To be honest, I'm all for giving second chances and all, but this relationship was kind of short and ridiculous considering how much time Hikaru spent trying to get Yuka to go out with him again. And then he just turns around and breaks her heart all over again.
By this time in the storyline, I pretty much predicted the ending very easily.
Throughout, we are introduced to all of Yuka's friends including an older ex-stepbrother of hers from her father's second marriage. Even after the divorce, Yuka still keeps in contact with her second stepmother, Sachie-mama, and her father had kept in contact with Touwa, the stepbrother. Upon seeing how Yuka easily spouts off her relationships to him, it wasn't hard to guess who the main couple in the end would be.
I would have to say, even though it was highly predictable, it was also quite sudden as Yuka had always mentioned that she and Touwa never got along with each other in the past. Although we do learn that Touwa had been opposed to the marriage between his mother and Yuka's father because he already had a crush on Yuka.
Very cute story, very cute characters. There's little else to say about this manga, and I think I've already said too much.
The manga also boasts the side stories concerning the love lives of Yuka's friends, Negishi Touko and her on again off again boyfriend, Chiba Hirotaka and his relationships, as well as Ishimara Katsura and her little endearing love story with a student teacher.
Overall, the manga was fun to read and I enjoyed watching Yuka go through her high school so dazzlingly. I don't approve of some of her boyfriends, but that's really something I can't really criticize. It's not a must read as far as the story goes, but if you're a fan of Yoshizumi-sensei or a fan of cute shoujo manga, I would highly recommend this one to anyone.
At least for the fangirls out there, there is a good select amount of bishounen goodness in the entire story altogether. lol
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