kimi ni todoke: From Me to You is a shojo romance manga about a young girl, Sawako Kuronuma who is given the nickname Sadako after the main antagonist in Ring (the Japanese film from which the 2002 film The Ring was adapted) because her appearance and demeanor scare her classmates and have caused rumors to spread about her having supernatural powers. However, Sawako is really a kind, shy girl who just wants to have friends. One day the most popular guy in her class, Shota Kazehaya, befriends her, changing her school completely around.

Highlights

I particularly enjoyed the omake and notes by the mangaka that were translated. They give a lot of background work to the character creation and the manga artist. This really helps with the prologue chapter and explains why it seems to be a complete, self-sustained narrative in and of itself. The inclusion of the original one-shot chapter as the prologue was great because other manga have the original concepts rewritten and it's not until much later, if ever, that one gets to see how the story began. I'm glad the mangaka was able to find a way to directly continue the series.

The other item I found interesting was the inclusion of a thing of stickers. While it is not much, a lot of manga do not add any bonuses at all, especially at the lower end of the pricing scale for translated manga that this book is at.

The use of translation notes for several of the items I enjoyed. While they aren't as good as other series I've read, I did like that they gave name meanings since names in Japan have specific meanings and even two people with the same spoken name can have different meaning if their kanji is different which isn't always apparent to the English readers. It's something truly lost in translation otherwise.

Chapters:

1. Prologue
2. Seating Change
3. After School
4. Smile

Overview:

So far kimi ni todoke: From Me to You seems to be heading in the right direction, although the pacing is a bit slow for me. Volume one is a pretty up-beat volume with Sawako slowly making friends with those around her, although the rumors about her supernatural powers and creepiness still persist. She does begin to accept that part of her character as well, and uses it to make others happy such as by telling ghost stories. She sometimes still has trouble with her demeanor, appearing more angry and creepy when she is actually happy inside.

While the volume is very positive, there is foreshadowing throughout the last two chapters that not everything is fine. While the book's teaser on the back hints that her closeness to Kazehaya brings her enemies as well as friends, the volume doesn't have anyone directly or indirectly do any kind of confrontation or bullying of her. The lack of any kind of conflict is probably the biggest problem with the manga; it just seems the progression is too perfect right now for it to be real.

While I enjoyed Sawako's character, I was hoping for development of some of the side characters. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much development yet, something the mangaka admits to, so that gives me hope for the future as two of the characters I liked the best, Yano and Yoshida, were shown only briefly in this volume. There has also been the introduction of some male characters, but aside from Kazehaya all of them take a back seat.

While this volume was lacking enough conflict for me personally, the story has potential. This volume seems more of a background setup for future volumes as there is foreshadowing of darker times ahead which will hopefully drive the story and character development much further. I look forward to that.

ComicsOnline gives kimi ni todoke: From Me to You 4 out of 5 creepy smiles.