Manga Match 50 Venus Capriccio

I thought I'd just start this off with a little reminder to myself what the title of the series that I'm doing "Manga Match" really means. I mean first of all I really like when a title is comprised of words that all start with the same letter. Really satisfies me, you know. But also I wanted it to be like a catalog that you can look through for your manga after you finish the one you're currently reading. It's kind of like blind dating I guess for manga, or just like having a smaller sieve to sift through rather than just searching shoujo on the Manga Rock app.

{Spoilers}

I think a running theme with a lot of musicians is abusive/traumatizing childhoods. This is no exception. Think "Your Lie in April" but toned down. And not the main premise of the manga either.

So this manga focuses around the dichotomy between two piano players. One is Takami who is more of a tomboyish girl and the other is Akira, a boy who is more doll-like and traditionally pretty. With this as the beginning premise, Akira is definitely the prodigy between the two, with the hard-driving mother as the motivation to the beginning of his career as a piano player. (That's why I brought up the traumatizing upbringing of musicians.) And Takami is just in love with the piano. Honestly I'm not too clear on the main motivation behind the creation of this manga. It was definitely upon the idea of a boyish girl and a girlish boy, but beyond that it's just a fun little rom-com drama manga about a boy trying to prove to the girl that he's a man now and should be taken seriously and all of the drama that ensues because of it. Throw in a splash of the guy's dark family past and you've got yourself a pretty well-rounded manga.

I won't say that this is awe-inspiring and that you have to read it. But if you're looking for that kind of shoujo with a princely kind of guy then there you go? If my younger self were to read this I think I would be a lot more impressed and moved, but because of the saturation in the genre of shoujo as well as the moving feeling I felt with "Your Lie in April" which rocked my boat a little more in terms of illustrating the pressure a parent puts on their child to succeed, it just wasn't up there in comparison with other series I've read. But if you're looking for more of this dichotomy between some polar opposites or you want some musically inspired manga then this is a pretty good one to read through. It's only around 30 ish chapters too so it's a pretty quick read if you're just perusing the selection.