Well, I picked all three volumes of this series at half price because it was all there and it looked cute.  And it is cute.  And it does a few things that I didn't expect, like try to have suspensful parts.  And truthfully, it actually did keep me on edge for a few parts in the middle to the end of the second volume and the beginning of the third.  But mostly, it's really cute.  And kind of predictable.  But not really predictable.  What I mean is this....they try to set it up for you to feel that one of the characters is a certain way, but you know they're setting it up that way, yet you still think the set up might actually be right.  It's confusing (as if THAT wasn't obvious from my fumblings in the last 2 sentences).  Maybe we should talk about the plot a bit.

Hina is a high school girl who pretty much acts like a young middle schooler.  Her three friends are typical high school girls, and they kinda baby Hina.  Apparently Hina's dad is really really rich, and this has caused problems between Hina and her dad in the past.  She lives on her own in this really big house (even though she acts like she's about 10) and there are hints that she's living there to prove to her dad that she can stay out of whatever trouble she got into in the past.  It starts with a new guy (Asou) moving in next-door to Hina at midnight and Hina meeting him then.  She's really trusting of people (which we learn is her problem as the series goes on) and she helps Asou move in. It turns out the next day that he's the new homeroom teacher for their class (ironically).  As the series goes on Hina gets a bigger and bigger crush on Asou, and Asou seems to be reciprocating her feelings.  We also meet his friends, who seem nice enough, if not kind of creepy at times, and they often warn him about getting too close.  Essentially, the writer sets it up to make us think that Asou-sensei is trying to kidnap Hina.  And sometimes you actually think that he is, even though you know he isn't.  And it's a cute story.  There's not a lot of substance there, but it's cute and at least a bit interesting.  Hina's a complete idiot, and sometimes you think Asou is a creepy middle-aged stalker, but it's not too terribly bad.  I mean, I've read series that are worse than this that are a LOT longer than 3 volumes.

I'll give it a 4 out of 10  Or something like that.

posted by Yukino at 11:21PM