Kimi Kiss Volume 2 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Romance/Comedy; Rated “OT” for “Older Teen-Age 16+”

When Kouichi Aihara started the second semester of his first year in high school, his mind wasn’t on his studies.  His mind was on the fact that he’d never kissed a girl.  Then, along came Mao Mizusawa, his best friend since childhood, and his first kiss.

In Kimi Kiss, Vol. 2, Kouichi has a chance encounter with a spunky female soccer player named Asuka Sakina, and before long, the two are practicing soccer moves after school.  Kouichi even helps Asuka with her studies when bad grades threaten her place on the school’s soccer team.  When she asks him to be her “love coach,” Kouichi may have to finally confront his amorous feelings for Asuka.

THE LOWDOWN:   Created by Enterbrain Inc., KimiKiss is a dating simulation game for Playstation 2.  It has also spawned a small media franchise in Japan including several manga series.  TOKYOPOP’s Kimi Kiss is based on one of those series, KimiKiss~various heroines~ (apparently published in the seinen manga magazine, Young Animal).  This fluffy romantic comedy, which is a mixture of puppy love and fanservice, has lead character Kouichi Aihara falling in love with a new girl each volume.

The story depicts teen love in a sweet and sentimental fashion, and artist Taro Shinonome’s characters, with their big eyes and huge faces, convey the emotions of young teens smitten by first love.  On the other hand, each girl that catches Kouichi’s attention has a curvaceous figure, replete with chesty chest and pert posterior.  Kimi Kiss is light reading, but it has a surprising heart-warming hook that often captures the romance reader’s imagination.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for tales of young love and yearning will like Kimi Kiss.

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