Kamikaze Girls by Novala TakemotoMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Kamikaze Girls is one of my favourite movies. I also really like the original novel, though I do rate the movie higher, and when I was aware there was a manga adaptation, I was really interested to see and read it. After all, I quite enjoy manga and the fact that the original novel has a lot of reference to visual styles that I've seen work well in other manga made me think that it was bound to be a great thing. It was a single volume which I did have some apprehension on, but at the same time was a bit glad of because manga can be pricey.
... The problem is the actual movie adaptation is a very short part of the overall volume, and heavily truncated, leaving good parts of the story out. The art is quite nice, though there's a tendency to make any male under a certain age look ridiculously handsome, which admittedly may just be a thing to me - I quite liked that there wasn't an entire pretty boy cast in the film. The volume also contains a manga adaptation of the sequel which has never really been translated to English as far as I know. It features Ichigo falling for the twin brother of the guy she fell for in the original story. Said twin brother happens to be a ballet dancer. I will give credit, they take the time to point out that ballet dancers have to be strong and very in shape, but overall I felt this sequel story a little lacking.
There's also a bonus story by the artist that... I was not into. Had it been excluded I wouldn't have been bothered.
Overall? ... It was okay. I didn't feel as into it as I did in the way of the film or the actual novel. I'm still glad to have it and to say I've read it, but I don't think it's going to be one that will be often re-read, and my main go to when someone mentions this title is always going to be the film.
... I really would like the see the whole sequel novel translated to English, though...
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