L-DK 1 Review

I’m always a sucker for shojo manga, and Ayu Watanabe has a lot of them out there from one-shots to full on series. Now, we get a version of L-DK translated to English; what’s the main focus in this one?

L-DK 1 (Kodansha Comics)

First we find out that Shuusei, the high school “prince,” rejects Aoi’s best friend’s love confession. She thinks he’s the typical asshole playboy type, but once he moved in next door, she starts thinking that might not be the case…only that it is the case sweetie. It really is. I personally thought he was such a bland character. There’s nothing I haven’t seen here before. He teases and messes with her, she gets all hot and bothered by it even though she “hates” him.

She ends up cooking food for him and starting a fire in his house! Instead of him calling her parents, he comes up with this grand idea of staying with her and guilt tripping her into it. Because some girl is going to let a guy she barely knows stay with her and sleep several inches away–for the sake of all that is shojo, let’s be fine with that one. Of course her hate for him is going to melt away, but damn, it melts really fast and now all of a sudden she wants to see all the different sides of him??

The artwork is pretty generic. There’s nothing that really grabs your attention and I didn’t really feel connected to the characters. I can say that there some parts that could have been funny if I felt the chemistry. If you’re just looking for something to read that’s lighthearted and predictable, then go for it. I mean, I read this genre just for the sake of reading it. I can’t help myself sometimes!

I’ll give it to you. The one good thing about this series is that it wasn’t afraid of the kissing scenes. That, and it was so damn perverted. I love that like all hell, but the rest was a crock of bull. Super unrealistic and inconsistent characterization. There’s absolutely nothing new or refreshing and the main character overreacted with every little problem. She was also a complete liar, she did it constantly and that kind of irritated me often.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a romantic, sappy and silly little shojo manga with the common tropes and cliches then this might be what you’re looking for. This type of genre is very character driven, and I happened to dislike them, so I’d say try it out and see if they’re for you.