Like most transfer students, Salome is trailed by rumor, innuendo and scandal. In conjunction with her dark, gothic image and her lonely expression, this makes her a target. In Salomelic, from Hirari Comics, Salome is indeed a melancholic character.
The rumors say that Salome is a witch, that she uses magic to cheat on her grades and that *something* – what exactly, no one is sure – caused her to move from her former school. As with most lives, the reality is a bit tamer…Salome moves around a lot because her mother is a fortune-teller who leaves town after her love affairs fall apart. Oh, but Salome is a witch.
Salome is befriended by the allegorically named Hikari, who brings light into her dark life. As they grow closer, Hikari is rejected by her old friends, but it all gets patched up after a bit. Salome is happy using her magic making chocolates for Hikari and her friends, but nothing stays the same for long. Salome’s feelings for Hikari are not just “friendship” and she appears to be losing her magic…and to add insult to injury, her mother wants to move again!
Even typing all this out, it is a tad exhausting. Hakamada Mera has squeezed in all of her pet plot complications, making Salomelic into a bit of a rushed mess. But of course, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after – and kind of nicely, even after happily ever after. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 7
Character – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 1
Overall – 7
I’m never honestly sure if I’m being extra hard on Hakamada-sensei or if I really think she has something special in her that we just haven’t seen. I’m going to presume its the latter and hold out for a story by her written with some real conviction and passion. ^_^
Hakamada Mera has always struck me as an intriguingly anomalous entity in the manga world. Her output is prolific and, perhaps even more unusually, enduring. There are so many Yuri manga artists who put out a handful of one-shots, maybe at most a serialization or two, and then are seemingly never heard from again.
There’s also the fact that, as fond of her works as I am, they aren’t…all that impressive in terms of either artistic technique or strength of writing/storytelling. To me this only increases the mystery of her endurance in the industry.
I really wish I knew more about the situation. Until I do, I’ll probably always ideate her in the same improbable way: as a ganbaru-ing artist whose passion for creating Yuri manga is continuously overflowing even if she’s not spectacularly good at it (ironically just the sort of stock moe character that would appear in one of her own works).
@Cryssoberyl – Well said. ^_^