Otomen volume 5 continues its unusual shōjo romantic comedy about the secretive gender reversal roles. First, Ryo Miyakozuka, the secretively masculine main love interest must compete in the Ideal Woman Contest as the 2nd year's representative. After this Juta Tachibana must give a speech as his alter ego for the comic “Love Chick”, the female Jewel Sachihana. Finally Hajime Tonomine and Asuka Masamune join forces as “The Beauty Samurai,” two males dressed in costumes completely covering them who give sewing and makeup tips.
Ryo's story, which not only is unusual for the Otomen manga thus far, has some interesting twists I did not see coming; while the outcome is clear, the path to it is not; also, often even when you know the ending, the journey can be just as, if not more, exciting. The next two stories take up the other half of the manga. First, Juta Tachibana's story is a nice short piece, but unlike the one with Ryo, lacks any real surprises. It is already clear from the beginning that Juta must go onstage and once he meets the mangaka who inspired him, Mira Jonouchi, it becomes all too clear how he'll pull it off. Still, it is a nice story. The final story, which remains at a cliffhanger, appears to actually be one of the better ones so far. While its premise is pretty simple: two guys disguising themselves so they can pursue their love in public without being ridiculed, it has enough twists and tension to make it rather interesting.
Overview:
Since much of Otomen revolves around Asuka and his male friends (and rivals), it is interesting to see a story where Ryo is the main character. The battle between Ryo and her main rival, the (now) third-year representative, Miyabi Charida, can be seen on multiple levels. There is the obvious battle for the contest. However the contest itself, the Ideal Woman Contest, is given more meaning when you consider how each one of them acts. Ryo is more masculine in thought, but embodies the ideals of honesty and compassion while Miyabi, who is more feminine in thought, is deceitful and arrogant; one could also see this in a more cynical light in saying that Aya Kanno is saying that, at least in part and/or for at least females, masculinity embodies honesty and compassion and femininity embodies deceit and arrogance. Ryo's ultimate triumph over Miyabi's, including Miyabi's attempts to steal Asuka, could be seen as a sign of showing that the ideal woman is not someone who is feminine, but who is honest and compassionate (and possibly more masculine in their thoughts). My only problem with this story is sadly, the first year representative, the cute Sakura Kawahara, is relegated to the sidelines. A three-way race where all three are “real” contenders makes a much more interesting story; I felt kind of sad for Sakura as she continued to be further sidelined as the story went on.
Kanno's ability to tell stories seems to be getting better, but I would like to see a few stories where I actually don't know how all the pieces will come into place. For the first story, it is pretty obvious Sakura is going to be sidelined and Ryo would eventually win; for the second story it is clear Hajime must show up onstage and while it isn't clear whether he'd do so as a man or cross-dress, the possibility of the latter was already in my mind at the beginning. The third story looks to be promising though as I am not really sure how things will play out (although I expect the "Beauty Samurai" duo to end eventually somehow).
Kanno's artwork continues to improve. We get to see her use some unusual styles as she has a young Hajime read the shōjo manga that changed his life. Since there are some panels where Kanno shows what Hajime's memories of some of manga pages are, it is evident that the style used in that manga is not the same as she uses in Otomen (although since she drew both there is a hint of it). As someone who has studied drawing, I think it's a good sign of her talent and her willingness to try drawing stuff she isn't used to.
Otomen volume 5 continues to bedazzle with its comical romantic stories. While it may not be for everyone, I think the unusual comedy would allow for a wider audience appeal.
ComicsOnline gives Otomen volume 5 2.5 out of 5 ideal women.
