S.A.: Special A: Volume 17

by Maki Minami, 190 pages

Hikari has been trying to beat Kei at something ever since they were little, but he's always ahead of her by the tiniest of margins. Her persistence used to annoy him, but somewhere along the way he found himself eagerly anticipating her constant challenges and enjoying watching her chase after him. Now that they're the top two students in the most elite group at their private high school, she's more determined than ever to overtake him, whether in academics or sports or whatever. Will he beat her to the punch in love, too?

I really like the premise of this series. Hikari's competitive nature inspires her to improve herself and excel at every opportunity, but Kei's always a step ahead of her, egging her on. Unfortunately, the art and storytelling often fail to do the fun set-up justice. I had a horrible time telling characters apart, here, including the principals. All the short-haired characters of similar hair-color look the same (regardless of gender!) and you have to re-read pages to figure out who they are. Inconsistent faces, busy panels, and excessive screentone are hard on the eyes and make the goings-on difficult to interpret. And while the central group of friends are fun and quirky (and almost occasionally more engaging than the main couple), the writing often relies on tired clichés and doesn't give them enough time or opportunity to develop. Also, although Hikari is clearly a strong, proactive heroine, she's also a bit of a ditz, which I find frustrating. I really wanted to care about these characters, but in the end I never really did.

This last volume of the series finds Hikari agonizing over the thought of leaving behind everyone she cares about due to her dad's career and then carefully sets everyone on their paths towards bright, happy futures. If you can read these back-to-back and can put up with the repetitive exposition and character introductions of the first handful of volumes, this is a light, fun, optimism-filled romantic comedy series, but--depending on your tolerance levels (and mine are clearly low in this instance)--that fun may come tempered with a heavy dose of tedium and disappointment.