I'm currently reading Ao Haru Ride, which I consider a typical shoujo manga, quite formulaic and cliched, but with a sufficiently good execution to keep me going. Then in the last few pages of chapter five there is a scene that I found amazing:

Nothing much happens, just the guy and the girl talking to each other. What they say is not that important, nor is the cliffhanger at the end of the scene. What hits you are their positions and the flow of their movements, which seemed to me really different, original, and full of emotion. It just seemed a kind of single, authentic moment, and not a mechanic rehearsal of oft repeated gimmicks.

So here are my questions:

- is it just me, or do other people feel the same? Perhaps the scene "clicked" in a unique way with my personality, or perhaps the scene is really impactful by itself, and then the question become "why?"

- Can you evoke other scenes in manga that suddenly seemed to you really unique and authentic. Something that happened there and then, because certain individuals were present, instead of a general event, or way of doing things that happens because the genre demands it?

I haven't read Ao Haru Ride, but I do think that the way the scenes are presented can effect whether or not they impact you emotionally.

To begin with, even if the manga is chock full of cliches, it has to have some charm of its own or anything emotional (forced or authentic) will not come off. (An example of this, for me anyways, would be AAA. Nothing that happened in that manga ever hit me in any emotional way, no matter how dramatic the mangaka tried to make the problems.)

Also, I find all of the super-emotional scenes to be the ones that are the most real. There are no random bubbles and sparkles in the background, no flowers sprouting out of the corners of the panels. Sometimes scenes make me tear up just because they are so realistic. Something about them, be it posture/layout or expressions or whatnot, makes the characters seem more like real people. Maybe it's because all of the sudden you can empathize with them.

Now to think of one where this actually happened... okay. The manga Real made me feel moved within the first volume, just because of the way it deals with true-life events. As for shoujo, to stick a little closer with the example you gave, I would have to say Aoi Kiseki and Flower Shop Boys.

I agree with your assessment of that scene in Ao Haru Ride (...we're talking about the heads down on the table one, right?)

one of the things that made it powerful was that it wasn't amped up or over-dramatized and in fact came at rather a quiet moment. And the characters' dialogue was very natural, not stilted.

As a result, it felt moving rather than melodramatic.

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....are there others i can think of? well, damn. hm. can't remember.

I saw that scene, and it also left a big mark on me!
It's so original, real and - i don't like to say it - but it's truly cute. Her drawings are so amazing and, even though it is a typical school shoujo, you can definitely feel that the characters have their own personnalities, characters, complexes...

Anyways, I agree with you! :]

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I agree with the above comments. That scene has also made an impact on me; the talk was so heartfelt and showed a lot of care. I can really relate to that personally, and there are other series that have evoked similar feelings.

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