Mamotte!! Lollipop Vol. #01

By Robert Harris     November 12, 2007
Release Date: February 27, 2007



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Michiyo Kikuta
Translated by:Elina Ishikawa
Adapted by:

What They Say
Junior high schooler Nina is ready to fall in love. She’s looking for a boy who’s cute and sweet–and strong enough to support her when the chips are down. But what happens when Nina’s dream comes true . . . twice? One day, two cute boys literally fall from the sky: they’re both wizards and they’ve come to the Human World to take the Magic Exam. The boys’ success on this test depends on protecting Nina from evil, so now Nina has a pair of cute magical boys chasing her everywhere she goes! One of these wizards just might be the boy of her dreams . . . but which one?

The Review
Packaging:
Then front cover may turn off potential readers, as it’s just the three main characters against a background of candies and the garish title font. The back has a completely white background, with the summary on the top half and most of the supporting cast on the lower half, along with the now standard ratings and company logos. The border has a volume title on a pink block background, between the volume number and a small close-up of Nina’s face. It’s altogether unimpressive and does not particularly stand out when placed in a lineup of similar titles.

The extra content, however, is up to the usual Del Rey standards. From liner notes and additional illustrations to author comments, there is no skimping to be found here.

Artwork:
The artwork is a mixed bag. Character designs look like they were ripped directly from the pages of The Big Book of Shoujo Clichés, and the backgrounds range from sparse to nonexistent. On the other hand, the characters’ movements, expressions, and reactions are very well drawn, and it gives the entire volume a fluidity that is often missing from stiffer shoujo fare.

Text/SFX:
The translation is, for the most part, very good. I know I’m repeating myself, but the translated sound effects with the original Japanese characters is really the best of both worlds, and something I wish more manga production companies in the US would pick up. I did note a few snafus, missing apostrophes and even a repeating speech bubble in the wrong place, which really shouldn’t be happening with a company as experienced as Del Rey.

Contents:
Nina is a typical Junior high school girl, introduced to us while she is bemoaning the lack of strong, nice, attractive, protective guy fighting one another to be her boyfriend. It’s around this point when she notices something that looks like a candy on top of her cake, and while she’s debating whether to swallow it or not, an automobile crashing into the pavement nearby startles her and causes the treat to be swept into her stomach.

Of course, it’s not really a candy; it’s the Crystal Pearl, goal of many would-be wizards, and it’s for precisely that reason that Zero and Ichi, one of the examinee groups, cratered their car next to the café Nina and her friends were eating at. With another wizarding team hot on their trail, they grab Nina and make a run for it, explaining the situation when the coast is clear: they’re wizards, and the goal of their magic exam is to be in possession of the Pearl after six months are up. When they learn that the Pearl now occupies a space somewhere between Nina’s head and feet, they call up the examiner to see how quickly they can get this straightened out.

The time required to make a potion to pop that pearl right out? That’s right, six months. Now Zero and Ichi have to protect Nina from the many examinees with their sights on the Pearl, some of which aren’t too concerned about her surviving the process.

Apart from the main antagonists, Sun and Forte, the newly-formed triad of Nina, Zero and Ichi have to contend with jealous magician Rokka and her caretaker, Gô, along with midterm examiner Will, who also appears in a secondary storyline centered on his assistant, Pure. The first volume carries the groups through numerous attempts by the other teams to capture and isolate Nina from her powerful protectors. Added to the mix are a few slice-of-life segments that help establish the characters and their relationships a little more strongly.

Comments
As you may have gleaned from the above, Mamotte! Lollipop doesn’t set out to break the mold. Many of these characters and situations you have seen repeatedly in shoujo manga through the years; the sassy damsel-in-distress, the unrequited yet jealous lover, the sometimes goofy, sometimes nefarious core antagonists. It has all been done before, seemingly ad nauseum, and while it’s certainly executed skillfully here, no amount of clever dialog or goofy shenanigans can completely disguise that.

Something that does stand out, however, is the marked contrast between the cutesy character designs and their behavior. Particularly the duo of Sun and Forte; they certainly fit the description of bumbling villains, and yet while Sun is eating cake with Nina and then proposes killing Nina to extract the Pearl – and Forte agrees – it makes you think that perhaps there’s more to Mamotte! Lollipop than is apparent on the surface.

And while, by the end of the volume there has still been no Lord of the Flies-esque outbreak of preteen violence, nor signs of a darker and more disturbed metamorphosis on the horizon, occasional moments of dark humor do manage to surface often enough among the more typical shoujo flotsam to keep jaded fans entertained. The writing remains particularly sharp throughout. From Zero’s nonsensical “Viva choro okay” to Will’s proclamation during the exam that there’s “One muscle man per team,” this manga will elicit a smile (or outright laugh) far more than you’d expect.

Even with a typical storyline, a typical art style and fairly typical characters, Mamotte! Lollipop manages to transcend the sum of its rather mundane parts and ends up as something highly enjoyable. The moments of unexpected severity make the story more interesting, and despite all the cliché plot twists and cardboard cutout characters, this is still an entertaining read. Definitely not for everyone, Mamotte! Lollipop should appeal to fans of the genre who don’t demand their manga revolutionize the genre.