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While browsing the new titles picked up by my local library, I stumbled across the title Stolen Hearts by Miku Sakamoto. Checked it out on Amazon.com, and the summary sounded interesting, so I added to my reading list and picked it up on my next trip in. It was first published in Japan in February 2007, and is apparently still being serialized in Hana to Yume. The fifth Japanese volume was released in June 2010. A romantic-comedy series, it pairs together Shinobu, a cute high school girl who is 4'10 despite her name meaning "big bear", and Koguma, a towering 6'2 classmate who everyone is afraid of due to rumors of his being a vicious fellow. While drinking some milk, Shinobu accidentally spills some on his bag, which contains a kimono. To pay for damaging it, she agrees to work part-time at his grandmother's kimono shop drumming up business by dressing up in the beautiful garments and going out with Koguma to hand out fliers.
The longer they work together, the more Shinobu realizes that not only have people totally twisted some very innocent stories of his past, but that that he really is a big "bear cub" (the meaning of his name), who is gentle, kind, handsome, and blushes a lot (at least around her). As the become more comfortable with one another, romantic feelings blossom. Some guys kidnap Shinobu, wanting to make a name for themselves by fighting Koguma, but he quickly dispatches all 20 to save her. Afterwards, he breaks off all contact wanting to protect her, but Shinobu isn't about to let their new found feelings disappate and she returns to the kimono shop to tell him she loves him and wants to stay by his side, which he happily (and adorably) accepts.
The first volume packs quite a bit of story into its volume, as Shinobu works to help others see Koguma the way she does, so that he can have more friends at school. Its takes her friends seeming him frantically searching for her after she gets lost at a street festival and his showing his own nature at a school festival before the others in their class seem to start to loose their fear. Along the way, of course, is the developing relationship between the two shy lovers, who endure a bit of good natured torment by Koguma's grandmother and frequent teasing on how tiny she is beside him.
The artwork is nice, with distinctive character designs. Neither the hero nor heroine are drop dead gorgeous, just normal(ish) and cute. They both blush frequently as they feel their way around this unfamiliar territory, and there are lots of scenes with the main characters and others in beautifully illustrated kimonos. Most of the panels have no background scenes, but the few that do are simply drawn with clean lines, and the major components of the items being shown without minute detail. The translation reads fine, and I didn't notice any glaring errors.
On the whole, I quite enjoyed the first volume and hoped to read the second one (my library, alas, does not have it). Shinobu and Koguma are a very cute couple and its fun watching them falling for one another and learning to be comfortable with one another. Normally, I'd be highly recommending this title to anyone who likes a sweet first romance story, with some light comedy. Indeed, I do recommend giving the first volume or two a read if you can get it from a library. But I cannot give it a full recommendation primarily because it was licensed by CMX Manga. In June 2010, DC Comics, which owned that imprint, shut it down. At this time, it is unknown if any of their manga titles are being transferred to another of DC Comics lines, so there is no way to know for sure that the rest of this series will ever be released in English. And while the first volume certainly got lots of reviews from some well known manga review sites, ANN doesn't even have an entry for it yet and I could not find any sign that even the scanslators (which I do not endorse the use of for licensed titles) have taken notice of it beyond a single listing. So while you might get to enjoy the first and second volumes, you may never get to learn the rest of the story without having to learn Japanese.
Rating: A
