Dakara Koi to Yobanaide/穿越时光的歌声 Chapter 1 - 11

First and foremost, a big thank you to all who have voted and some even shared your thoughts for the magazines I should subscribe. Thank you that you care enough to do so! I'm touched. ^^ Till date more have shown their preference for Betsufure. I've not decided yet. I may just end up getting both! (My poor shelf... No space...). Will ponder over this dilemma carefully... ^^

As promised, I'm going to talk a bit on Dakara Koi to Yobanaide. ^^

I have in my collection another works of Fujiwara Yoshiko. That is Koishi Tagari no Blue. I love the story. It was touching and interesting. However, when I first read Dakara Koi to Yobanaide, I thought the story was interesting but slow, thus I couldn't be bothered to translate. However, now, I feel the story is developing and moving on. ^^

A quick summary of the chapters before giving you the latest chapter serialised in Cheese!.

Female Lead: Naruse Kokoro is a 17 year old high school girl who has a crush on Fuwa. A serious and good-looking boy in her class. However, he seemed aloof and not interested in having a relationship. Things start to change when a new teacher arrived. Takayanagi Jiro, 26 years of age, looked like a misfit as teacher. His suit was oversized and he looked unkempt. In fact, he was also ostracized by the other teachers thinking that he got into teaching because of his dad who is a famous politician.

Kokoro's first impression of him was that he was a delinquent who smoked. Later on, she realised that he was her teacher. He disclosed his past to Kokoro on several occasions and each time, she was moved to tears thinking of how he had suffered. Jiro had an older brother (who died in an accident) who excelled in everything he did. Jiro, on the other hand, lived up to the image of the youngest, useless son with a nonchalant attitude. Their father was proud of his older son but towards his younger son, Jiro, he often expressed his disappointments. However, his older brother loved him and was kind to him even though his father would often compare Jiro to his older brother.

His brother had a girlfriend and Jiro had a crush on his brother's girlfriend. On one occasion, out of jealousy, Jiro wished that his brother was not around and then his brother met with an accident. Jiro, I think, felt responsible. He took up teaching because it was his brother's dream to teach.

Jiro, as a teacher, seemed clumsy and incompetent. At the beginning of the series, Fuwa expressed his dislike for Jiro as he viewed him as not serious and incompetent. However, Jiro through time, showed that he cares for his students. Jiro managed to get a delinquent student who almost attrited to come back to class. Furthermore, towards Kokoro, Jiro was especially kind. He observed that she had a crush on Fuwa and tried to pair them up. He was there to "rescue" her when she was placed in embarrassed situations.

The last few chapters showed that Kokoro began to realise that she had fallen in love with Jiro. At the same time, Fuwa seemed to warm up to Kokoro... (I think a love triangle will develop)...

I like it that the mangaka is developing the key characters and giving them more depth. Each of the key characters have a past and a reason to their current behaviour. Eg, Fuwa's coldness or jaded attitude is due to him feeling redundant and leftout by his family. His mom has passed away and he felt that his presence at home is a burden to his step mom. He studies hard so as to leave home as quickly as possible. As for Jiro, his seemingly nonchalant facade hides his insecurities. Nice! I like all the angst that comes with this.

Look out for the latest chapter.