Some people say you can't marry a rollercoaster.
Some people say you can't actually make love to an octopus.
Well I'm here to tell you at the age of twenty that I, for realzies, have fallen madly in love with this shoujo series.
I was tired of rifling through shoujo after shoujo... After almost ten years of reading the stuff and harnessing some sort of addiction for the high, for the heart-wrenching glee, the giddiness, THE FEELZ, after so many years, nothing seemed to do it for me anymore. I knew all too well what i wanted to be reading in my manga and nothing from the shoujo genre delivered anymore and it was finally feeling like i should move on. Shoujo became like a Twilight to me instead of a Walk to Remember, like all i did was laugh at it nowadays, not with it, you know?
But this.
This fucking series.
Has me squealing like a baby piglet about to explode, every chapter (I'm on 24). Even after experiencing High school for what it is (HELL), even with all these feminist values actively shadowing every work of literature i touch, this series is so charming and funny and cute and ASDFGJK. People complaining about cliche's are in the wrong genre. People who are looking for unrealistic borderline fantasy romances should look elsewhere, because the development will seem boring and slow to some. Go to Desire Complex or something if steamy heart throbbing romance is your only interest. This is a story with depth and like MatrixM said, a story that deals with family issues (angst). An actual story that no one good enough should miss out on.
I like that the characters in Taiyou no Ie---no, these PEOPLE---know each other so well, they can tell if someone is being a crybaby on the other line even though she just texted something like "You're so stupid, Stupid." But at the same time THEY ARE SO DENSE toward each other (it's fucking delicious).
I like how they point out the little things to each other like if someone sounded a little catty by saying that one comment someone would call them out on it and they actually aren't offended. Like actual clear-minded friends who know how to talk to each other.
Or how some characters aren't doofuses when in front of the one they truly like, while some do get a little stiff in a completely adorable but believable way. "Yeah I'm jealous and worried that you're even remotely rumored to be dating this other guy even though you're not but I was saying earlier how I needed that school tour." Etc.
I look for shoujo series that make sense to me. I look for characters who are self-aware, but something with cuteness in the feel of the story... A series that can make a jaded person like me actually giggle or smile in a big way.
If you're anything like me (in age, in understanding of others, in that specific kind of maturity or spot in your life where you're not looking to escape RL, just to live it better), this series will be all of the things. A new chapter of taiyou no ie is a ray of sunshine to my otherwise crappy and depressing life. There are small cliff hangers after every chapter i suppose, but they don't get me so bad because I know the next time i read a new chapter, it will be a good day, and I like spreading out the good days.
Anyway, if I sound like an annoying person to you, don't read this series (they probably cant read this since they probably stopped reading earlier on). For everyone else, especially the people who didnt roll their eyes while reading through my entire review, you really need to read this series and have your day made. Constantly. Those other people can't in their personality appreciate this series like you can, and it sucks to be them.
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EDIT (10/23/2015): I've finished the series. Props to Maigo for translating the series so beautifully. They kept the same translation for Mao's fic word for word, and that brings a tear to my eye. Here is my series review:
I agree with mystichead in the sense that the protag Mao does indeed flail her arms when she gets nervous and sputters and turns red and all that good stuff. She makes mistakes, she gets nervous, and I respect how she expresses herself because I sputter too. I don't think the problem is really her nervous mannerism, but the fact that it correlates so much with the moe caricature, which brings up the subject of pedophilia and misogyny. I know this series is above catering to those perversions, but it has crossed the deepest deeeeeepest part of my mind, the thought that what if Taamo was subscribing to the 'moe' craze, and the celebration of pedophilia/misogyny along with it?
Those thoughts aside, the humor and the fluff and the maturity of the characters all within Taiyou no Ie prove to be the driving force behind the excellence of this manga. The art and the taboo don't carry this series, the content--the humor, the style/personality, the characters--do. Taamo's soft, resonant, deadpan but also kind and a bit witty--style.
I find it hard to hate a character but I hated Mao's father for a good chunk of the series, I hated Mao's mother when we met her later.
I found it hard to screencap a moment/scene I loved and wanted to blog about, because the context and foreshadowing were so essential to that emotional hit that was that single panel that it's a fraction without them.
There were beautiful moments explored through side stories between side characters that satisfy plotholes in the best way, and I like seeing coming-around-full-circle situations done well in manga (ie. Kids on the Slope). Taiyou no Ie is what I want to reread if I ever get my hands on a printed English version.
I would definitely still recommend this to people as a pick-me-up and a light hearted read. But, like I mentioned earlier, I do not recommend this to those who are triggered by plausible-pseudo-incest, a 17+24 high schooler/blue collar worker in-a-7-year-age-gap relationship, because the series doesn't quite portray the negativity within those taboos.
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