Manga Match 90 Classi9

You know, when I picked this manga up I didn't expect to love it so much. I hadn't even realized that I liked it until I got to the end and the scanlator said something along the lines of "even though the ending was rushed because the manga got discontinued, it was still good" which is a sentiment I share. There were a ton of screenshot-worthy and picturesque moments to capture that are both aesthetically pleasing and emotion evoking. Is emotion evoking even a proper phrase?

{Spoilers, but it's pretty light-hearted slice of life}

This story takes place in Vienna with a bunch of famous musicians you've probably heard of all enrolled in the same school. It fallows Taki Ren's experience through the school with familiar arcs such as the music festival and internal competition which could be likened to a school festival and sports competition of sorts. The only thing is, this school is an all-boys academy, so for Ren to enroll, she has to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.

She encounters many famous musicians who are with her in the trouble-making class S- which include Wagner, Back, Hadyn, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. Those names should be pretty familiar to you. Each of these famous musicians (and a few bonus characters) are portrayed in the manga in a way vaguely similar to their real life historical counterparts, but with a few artistic liberties taken to make them more personable and engaging in the story. Overall, all of these musicians will wiggle their way into your heart and make you feel like you know each of them by the end. Personally, when the cast of characters is this large, I tend to lose track of who is who and end up frustrated because it seems like a fruitless exercise to get to know everyone. Perhaps because all of their names are familiar or perhaps because each of their personalities and dynamics were so unique, I didn't have quite the same trouble trying to remember everyone's names!

Because this is a slice of life kind of manga, there's no definitive plot per say. It's more about the camaraderie that develops between Class S- and some of the funny antics they get up to because of their eccentric personalities. The class as a whole starts to get closer with the introduction of Ren who catalyzes their relationships into a more intimate one of familial ties which is pretty cute to watch unfold.

Overall, I definitely didn't do a good time persuading anyone to read this. But you should read it regardless of my execution because the story is so good. Usually with manga that have a similar premise, they lose themselves when the plot starts to revolve only around romance. In this case, the romance takes the back seat as each of the musicians works to build the others up and enjoy their time at the school. 10/10 would recommend. I'm not sure why the manga was cut short, but it was wrapped up nicely with a bow of an ending with all of the feels that I'm certain you will enjoy.

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. This is Chopin, the poet of piano, playing for Liszt and Ren and it looks like they've been transported to an underwater wonderland. Just looking at this image gives me goosebumps.

The internal competition is something that I think, if the manga were to go on, would definitely be a "redemption round" kind of arc if they were to continue on for another year. I mean just look at all these cinnamon rolls helping out their friend.

This whole section of trading partners was amazing. I haven't seen anything quite like this in terms of utilizing both sides of a page in order to create this kind of intimate moment. It weirdly enough reminded me of a father-daughter dance at weddings? 

Putting together these screenshots of the manga, I realized that it's been a long time since I've done screenshots. But I hadn't really felt compelled to, even for this manga, until I saw that scene with Chopin playing the piano. I even read past that part and meant to continue my streak of not including pictures, but I just had to go back and capture this. Please please read this! It's so good and so worth it. 

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.