by Luce, Okazu Staff Writer
It’s Luce, back with a double review, which brings us to the end of this little series – were we spoiled, or was it more spoiled milk?
In volume one, we met Hinamori Ichigo, a girl who has looked up to the seemingly prefect Suo Yaya… Only to become Suo’s outlet for her crushing desire for validation and praise! Honestly, this girl is a mess, but what can she do? Ichigo is weak for a pretty girl… Even if they’re kind of pathetic at times.
In Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san! volume two, Ichigo and Suo go on a ‘date’ – to get some clothes for Suo, whose fashion sense is… non-existent. We meet Kujo Hitomi, the girl who is always second place in their year, angry that she’s always losing out to Suo. Turns out… she needs some praise, too. Finally, after some competition between her and Suo, all three girls end up starring in the film club’s movie – and it’s a romance!
I honestly started to wonder how Suo functions at all with how many things she’s shown to be useless at. It was just too over the top with Suo’s inability to do things. How has she done readings in class if she’s that bad? How is she top of the grade when she’s… like this? Have they never done swimming lessons in physical education? I guess she studies, and I know book smarts aren’t necessarily people smarts, but in the second volume, the gap felt too wide to be the same person. Ichigo makes a good point at the start that kindness gone too far is more like self-sacrifice, and I preferred the vignettes that focused on those kind of issues rather than ‘actually I’m terrible at reading things out loud’. I feel like a more interesting ending might have been that she was putting some of it on for an excuse to spend more time with Ichigo – which would have worked out, seeing as Suo is pretty awkward.
I guess that’s the issue with gag manga – you have to stick to the gag, more or less. Them walking home in the rain and Suo getting drenched protecting Ichigo, only to complain about it? Yeah, makes sense. Her being horrific at reading a text out loud? Too much. I’m probably taking it too seriously, but comedy only works when it toes the line to a degree. It has to be funny within the realms of the universe, not make you question it. Suo having zero fashion sense made sense for her character. I suppose my issue is that it didn’t grow up from the gag very much. I never felt much like there was anything much behind the characters, even towards the end, it felt quite superficial.
All in all, the second volume was easily the weakest. I really wondered where we were going with Kujo – namely, I’m not bothered about love triangles, especially when there is so little thought in them. And I’m really not fond on the uber competitive always-in-second character… Particularly when I can see no evidence that the character in first had done anything for it! You gotta do a bit more than just have a character say they’ll be studying for me to think they’re smart, especially to the point of being first in the year. Particularly when they shown to be pretty useless at a lot of things.
The third, and final, volume balances things out a bit more. We get what could potentially be considered a part of Suo’s inciting incident for her need for perfection, but it didn’t really hit enough for the level she’s at. The ending was pretty cute, and very true to the series, but it also just kind of fizzled out. I wonder that it might have been cancelled.
Overall, I enjoyed it to a degree, but it’s not really a recommendation – if you like silly Yuri, this might be for you, but there are probably better ones out there.
Story: 4
Art: 6
Yuri: 7
Service: 5, of course there’s a pool scene, and nobody ever wears anything other than a bikini (a personal gripe of mine, YMMV)
Overall: 5
A bit of a swing and a miss, for me. Or a hit, an out and a weak hit. I suppose. At least it was short!
Monthly in the Garden With My Landlord, Volume 4 brings this series, finally, onto the path that it will continue down, until completion. Miyako is deeply, passionately concerned with picking out a good present for Asako…and it’s good for her to care that much about someone. We can see that she’s taking steps to maturing without loosing the qualities that make her her.
