Rather than doing what’s right, why not try doing what you want for a change?
You can check out chapter one of this series for yourself below!
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What’s the series about? (chapter one spoilers!)
Ii Kokoro (lit. “good heart”) is the name of our protagonist, and it’s a name she works hard to live up to. As an honours student, she takes it upon herself to study diligently and always help her classmates. While her classmates tend to take advantage of her, she just can’t help but do the right thing.
One day while trying to save a few of her classmates from the delinquents at the school next door, she lays eyes on Ruka, the head delinquent. Not long after the incident, Kokoro hides herself away to work on her “to kill” list—while she’s indeed an honest, helpful honours student, she’s not all that happy about it. Every time someone inconveniences or takes advantage of her, they make the list. As she’s muttering to herself about who she will add next, Ruka makes his appearance known—turns out he was videotaping her and her list! He explains that he’s grown tired of his delinquent friends, and that he thinks he’ll have more fun hanging around her. She doesn’t have much of a choice though, as there’s no way she can allow anyone to know she went as far as making a “to kill” list.
Ruka is a rather interesting delinquent, as he doesn’t seem one to aim to cause trouble for others. Instead, he just likes to do what seems fun in the moment. While he does force his presence on Kokoro, he never makes her do anything she doesn’t want to do. He’s just looking for some entertainment, and Kokoro seems like the perfect girl for that. Through Ruka’s influence, Kokoro begins to allow herself to also try doing what she wants for a change. But what will this mean for her reputation as an honours student!?
My thoughts on this chapter (spoilers for chapter one)
Is extortion excusable when it’s used to help someone discover themself? I say yes!
We’re introduced to Kokoro when she is at her unhappiest. Through her family’s influence she has become a bit of a pushover, allowing others to take advantage of her so long as it allows her to do the “right” thing. She takes over other people’s after-school duties, takes out the trash, and stands up to the neighbourhood delinquents. It’s not like she exactly wants to do these things, it’s just how she’s been raised. We never see her look remotely happy in these moments, and it almost looks like there’s some invisible force whispering in her ear to always do the righteous thing.
In comes Ruka! I love everything about him—his character design, his playful attitude…just everything. When it comes to delinquent characters in my shoujo manga I’m very easy to please, but still!
He comes in and brings excitement and justice to Kokoro’s life. While their relationship began with Kokoro seeing him as nothing but a nuisance, I like to think that he started to grow on her before the chapter ended. Before Ruka, Kokoro would silently put herself down so long as it meant doing the right thing. She would lose her free time, her money, and some respect for herself. So, when Ruka catches her giving $50 dollars to some students to stop them from stealing, of course he had to do something about it! It was sooo satisfying watching him go out of his way to kidnap and tie up all the boys that did her dirty and give her the chance to take her revenge.
Of course Ruka goes a little too far with his antics, but I feel like Kokoro needed to be brought far over to the dark side first before she could really see how unhappy she has been. Now that she has, she can work on finding a happy medium! Like, rather than giving away all of her money and then later kidnapping and forcibly taking the money back, she can just ignore the situation as it doesn’t directly affect her.
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