Comics / Manga

The Heiress and the Chauffeur: Volume 2 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
August 20, 2016 - 23:35

The Heiress and the Chauffeur Volume 2 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

The Heiress and the Chauffeur is a historical-romance manga from Keiko Ishihara.  The series is set in Japan's Taisho Era (1912 to 1926) and focuses on the close personal relationship between a young lady, Sayaka Yoshimura, and her chauffeur, 22-year-old Shinobu Narutaki, a relationship that is the subject of some scandal in local high society.

As The Heiress and the Chauffeur, Vol. 2 (Chapters 5 to 8 to Final Chapter) opens, Sayaka realizes that all her school friends seem to know what they want.  She simply assumes that her future involves marriage, and that may indeed happen.  Akihiko Tachibana, third son of Earl Tachibana, arrives to have the marriage meeting with Sayaka that her father, Masaomi Yoshimura, promised him.

Brusque at first, Tachibana grows to admire Sayaka, but he is also aware of the deeply close and personal relationship between Sayaka and Narutaki.  He warns her that such a relationship between master and servant is destined to end badly, and perhaps, to even involve the police.  Is it possible for Sayaka and Narutaki to be together?

[This volume includes the bonus story, “The Ties that Bind.”]

THE LOWDOWN:  The truth is that The Heiress and the Chauffeur is not revolutionary material.  It is a high school shojo romance destined to have a happy ending.  In the real world, Sayaka and Narutaki's relationship likely would have been doomed.

That may be why series creator, Keiko Ishihara, fills the chapters that make up this concluding volume, The Heiress and the Chauffeur Volume 2, with obstacles to stop love and reasons why her leads cannot be together.  In her afterword, Ishihara admits that she wondered if the ending she gave this manga was probable or not.  Well, we got a happy ending whether it was probable or not, so, yes, The Heiress and the Chauffeur is not revolutionary, but it chose unexpectedly sweet over disappointingly sour.

And heck, it does sweet so well that I wish that it could run a few more volumes.  The Heiress and the Chauffeur starts out as nothing special, but it ends with the delightful bang of the love bomb.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of historical shojo romance will want to accompany The Heiress and the Chauffeur.

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Rating: A /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12