ケダモノ彼氏 8 [Kedamono Kareshi 8]

ケダモノ彼氏 [Kedamono Kareshi] #8

by Saki Aikawa, 藍川さき

「おまえじゃないとダメなんだわ」固まった圭太の気持ち。一方、クリスマスが近付き ひまりを2人きりでのデートに誘い 最後の勝負に出る佐伯。決まらないのは、ひまりの心だけ…？

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Comics Manga, Contemporary

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 24, 2015

About the author

藍川さき

Reviews

[Bibliothecat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review for complete series



A Note on Aikawa Saki
If you've read one, you've read them all.
If there's an author who I love and read despite my better judgment, it's Aikawa Saki. I absolutely adore her artwork. However, her plots and characters are virtually all the same and filled with cliches. Knowing all that, I still seem to love each and every one of her works.



Himari's mother has married again so a new home and school are waiting for her as they move to live with their new family. The first shock comes when Himari finds out the boy who used to bully her years before is in her new class. The second shock comes when she arrives at home - he is also her new stepbrother.

Stepsiblings falling in love seems a popular trope in manga. I don't mind the trope itself so much but I am rather surprised how each time the parents rush into things. By that, I mean that they get married and move together before their children get a chance to meet each other; wouldn't it be more normal to gradually let the two families get used to one another rather than having first introductions take place in the doorway of the new house?

Either way, Aikawa Saki does it again: Kedamono Kareshi's characters, situations and plot directions are more or less interchangeable with all her other school romances. And despite that, she once again manages to make me love it. Himari and her new stepbrother Keita are much the same as all her other protagonists. Although, this may be down to translation, but the way Keita talks reads as though he's never been to school in his life. I suppose they were opting for a cool slag or something, and my guess is he did have some form of slang in the Japanese original, but goodness it's irritating, especially for a character who is supposed to have good grades. Luckily, I can more or less ignore it and just mentally change his dialogue to normal speech.

To be fair in Himari, I think she is a tad more assertive than previous Aikawa female leads and she is a lot more clear about what she does and doesn't want. Meanwhile, there's also Saeki - the friendly classmate who Himari initially falls for. Poor Saeki, I think Aikawa really needs to make a manga where at least for once, the nice guy gets the girl. Aikawa always adds quite a few love rivals and Kedamono Kareshi makes no exception, introducing a total of three boys who are genuinely interested in Himari. The problem is that she always makes them all perfectly likeable so that at the end, you don't even know which one you're rooting for.

That being said, I really did like Keita - the teasing in their early school days was your typical boy teasing the girl he likes. Himari would probably disagree, but from a reader's perspective, it was pretty cute. His teasing ways continue as they're older but he also shows a lot of care for Himari and becomes rather cute when he realises that he likes her.

Of course, the main issue lies with them being stepsiblings and how their parents and society would accept it. While it doesn't seem to be a big deal at school - rather, they are often suspected - they mostly worry about their parents. I like how Himari and Keita reacted differently about these worries, with one being more cautious and considerate of the other. Especially Himari's struggles were well written.

I felt as though the end was a little rushed and some things dragged a little with their back and forth. It's also Aikawa's longest series to date and I've never been a big fan of drawn-out Romance stories, but apart from the rush at the end, Kedamono Kareshi has good pacing and as always with Aikawa, the art is beautiful - I would read this entire series just for that.

[Catwithbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weihnachten steht vor der Tür. Eigentlich ein Fest um mit der ganzen Familie gemeinsam zu feiern, so hatte sich das Himari gewünscht, aber durch Keitas Auszug wird das wohl nichts. Und so übernimmt sie kurzerhand die Schicht im Restaurant. Zu blöd das kurz danach sowohl Keita auch als Saeki Himari an Weihnachten sehen wollen.

Saeki lässt nicht locker und möchte nu gern wissen wie sich Himari entscheidet. Tja und Keita kann nicht mehr einfach nur zu sehen wie vielleicht Himari jemanden neues finden könnte. Himari ist mit der Situation einfach überfordert und flüchtet mal wieder. Keita findet sie und es kommt zu einer Aussprache die alles verändert.
Es scheint nu endlich voran zu gehen was das ganze Chaos an geht, aber ob sich das so einfach alles lösen läßt ist fraglich.
Das Himari sich endlich ihre Gefühle eingesteht wurde auch endlich mal Zeit, schon leichte Panik das sie dies erst im Abschlußband macht.

[GuisBell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los pretendientes son una lata...

[Isabelle_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arrrrr ! c'est quoi cette fin de tome? 😭
Espèce de gros sadique !

Et dire qu'il va falloir attendre jusqu'à mardi pour que j'achète les "5" suivants et peut-être plus longtemps pour que je les lise...😭
vais-je résister ? Je ne sais pas 😉

[The Reading Ghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐