Beautiful to look at but not much story

Good memoir! Akim breaks the fourth wall often to give added information, and, while distracting, it doesn’t break the flow of the story. 

As I get older, I start feeling wearier of the (true) stories of black and mixed raced people having to continually put up with, endure, and survive virulent racism. No one should be having to put up with this type of garbage!  

I do have to side-eye the portrayal of one of the two visibly black women in this book. I don’t doubt that event happened, but the optics of media in general always portraying black women as bitter and jealous gets old. 

Super cute and a great message for kids! Somedays we'll feel down and/or grumpy, but we can cheer ourselves up with the things we like or acknowledge our negative feelings. Also, some magical girl fun too!

 This series is clever, especially with how it deals with grief. 

Excellent narrative voice, but Meticais is so utterly annoying. 

Admirable. Typical shounen beats, but I enjoyed the characters, especially Cast + the STEM influence. Coding and engineering are all around.

Cheesy as you’d expect but earnest too. Kouta comes off bland and kindhearted, but his motivations make sense. Celebrities and entertainment can bring a sense of comfort to some people. Sahoko is dramatic, but her humiliating first love makes her avoidance of relationships and pretty boys understandable.

This is a rare ‘girl in love with super-hot popstar’ story where the dynamic works. The creepy stalker fangirl trope gets tiring, so I was glad to see a more grounded girl. Not to mention the whole cast of characters is self-aware.

Despite being very cute, I don’t know if I see myself reading another volume. I think a younger me would’ve enjoyed this series more. But I will always love these fluffy shoujo stories.