This is a solid compilation of one-shots by Maki Usami. Mostly shoujo ones, with one horror one-shot thrown in. It makes for an interesting (and sweet) read.
"Hetare Venus / My Venus Lady" is a cute one-shot. The synopsis is above, so there's not much more that needs to be said about the subject matter. The characters are likable and the relationship that develops is sweet.
"1 Day, 1 Kiss" is about a girl who gets her dream guy to go out with her... only to find out he's just using her so that other girls will leave him alone. So she agrees to keep up the fake relationship, as long as he kisses her once a day in exchange. The premise is definitely a new one... and I liked seeing things unfold between the two of them. It's a good one-shot.
"Tsuki ni Todokutou / Tower that Reaches the Moon" is probably my favorite of the bunch. The one-shot is about a girl who moves to the big city and ends up putting out her brother's friend when things don't turn out quite as she expected they would. I found the male lead in this story to be appealing... and the story itself was sweet and funny.
"Yami e Hakobu Elevator / Elevator that Takes You into Darkness" is a dud, in my opinion. It takes a lot to make a horror manga work in my opinion... and this one doesn't work for me. It's not scary enough to succeed as a horror manga, but too creepy to work as a shoujo one. It ends up wandering somewhere between the two and landing in mediocrity. However, I did find the artwork in this one-shot surprisingly good. While the story seemed lackluster, the art showed amazing versatility.
I'm a big fan of Maki Usami's work... and this is a solid compilation of her one-shots. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes her work and to fans of shoujo one-shots in general. I don't think I would advise downloading this just for the horror one-shot, though. Although the reviewer below me seems to think it was scary - so I guess it just depends on how jaded you are to horror manga. YMMV and all that 🙂
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