Right now I'm reading Appare Jipangu! by Yuu Watase. It's pretty good, possibly because she's going for comedy. I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen: we're going to bounce around helping people, looking for her parents, and getting into amusing situations; he is already in love with her and knows it, while she likes him but has no clue and is going to exhibit astounding density up until at least chapter five. Yes, I know what'll happen, but I like the characters, Watase, whatever her faults, can be funny, and I want to watch. And Yuu Watase does have faults. Her heroines are frequently unpopular, and this is harped upon so much that I can't even think of anything else she gets wrong. Yusuru, however, has characteristics beyond being nice, willing to help people at her own risk, and able to get into scary and embarrassing situations for the hero to rescue her from. Yusuru, in fact, is loud, often mistaken for a boy*, and much better at getting out of trouble than her samurai boyfriend, who keeps losing his glasses. She can fight, too. Well, Samon can too, but not without his glasses. She isn't even very pitiable. I mean, yeah, she was abandoned as a child, but she loves her foster family** and is searching for her parents merely to ask why. She's not mad,*** she's not sad, she has no self-esteem problems. Okay, I want to read some more before bedtime. And Robin's right: footnotes can be addictive. Very.


*Her foster brother was shocked when the ninja^ got it right first time.

^From the Koka village and Kola clan. Yuu really was goofing around here. It's supposed to be set in the Edo period, which I think is the 1600's or so.

**Her father is a mad inventor and her brother tends to play with two ventriloquist's dummies with skull faces. This is a comedy. Not subtle.

***A possible reaction, with this girl.