High School Debut Volume 8 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Haruna Nagashima was a tremendously talented and prolific athlete in junior high school.  When she entered high school, Haruna changed her focus from athletics to boys.  She consulted fashion magazines and shojo manga for advice on everything from what to wear to how to attract a boyfriend.  None of that worked because not one boy hit on her.

Haruna realized that when she wanted to get better in sports, she got a coach.  Deciding she needs a love coach, Haruna is surprisingly able to recruit an upperclassman, the very popular Yoh Komiyama, to coach her in the ways of attracting boys.  He agrees to help her as long as she doesn’t fall in love with him, which happened anyway.

High School Debut, Vol. 8 finds Haruna transitioned into her sophomore year, but her work at the entrance ceremony for freshmen has started some trouble.  Three freshmen boys are very attracted to Haruna, and Yoh has noticed.  One of them, Shinji Ota, seems to also have a man-crush on Yoh, and when Ota gets too close to Haruna, it leads to high school comic drama/tragedy.

Next, Haruna’s birthday is coming up, and Yoh is wracking his brain trying to figure out what to give Haruna.  But shouldn’t he be studying for entrance exams, which are on the same day?  And are Haruna’s gift suggestions just making things worse?

THE LOWDOWN:  Comparing High School Debut to the award-winning shojo manga, Love*Com, is accurate.  Both series have as their leads a mismatched couple.  In the case of High School Debut, the busy-body blabbermouth girl dates the too-cool-for-words boy.  [In Love*Com, it is the tallest girl in class dating the shortest boy in class.]  Somehow this couple works, but that’s the magic of shojo high school romance.  What keeps the readers coming back is the drama of a couple that will undoubtedly have many intriguing ups and downs.  High School Debut is not a great shojo manga, but creator Kazune Kawahara makes it quite good at what it offers.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers who crave all shojo manga high school romances will want High School Debut.

B+