The issue with Finn for instance, in which Hikari discovers that the “Prince” is actually a girl and is more or less imprisoned for discovering the secret borderlines on silly and needless. In later volumes however, there are a lot of plot twists featuring conflicts that feel quite forced. I myself got a few chuckles from the slapstick comedic elements featured during many of the competitions. There are many absurd situations for which one would have to put aside their sense of disbelief to enjoy.
Special A, aside from being a tad on the melodramatic side also relies heavily on comedy. Expect lots of competitions between the two and the repeated use of the running gag of Hikari being ranked number 2 to Kei’s 1. Misunderstandings and shenanigans commence as the two try to work out their feelings for one another. Pure hearted girl attends wealthy school, oblivious to her long time rival’s affection for her. When all’s said and done the characters don’t feel fleshed out enough despite the manga’s length.Īgain, this is the definition of an average shoujo. Even the conniving Yahiro who acted as antagonist in earlier volumes is reduced to a rather underdeveloped love interest for Megumi. Maki uses her other characters as means to extend the series, adding multiple couples to the point where almost no one goes single in the end. Kei is appealing in that smirking bishounen sort of sense but his character falls ultimately flat. Other than Hikari, the rest of the cast is fairly stock. What was once endearing in Hikari becomes stale after one has read through several volumes of Special A. Of course they all get high marks on exams but when it comes to basic comprehension skills in real life situations our characters often come up shorthanded. We are not so muchĪs shown, but rather told that these characters are of high intelligence. An important plot device is that the students in the SA class are the crème de la crème of an already prominent school for the wealthy. On the other hand she’s incredibly dense, a trait which becomes all the more prevalent as the manga progresses much to my chagrin. Hikari’s got fighting spirit, something that is so often lacking in shoujo heroines of late. We have Hikari, an initially refreshing female lead with a certain wide-eyed innocence and a strong desire to defeat her eternal rival Takishima Kei. Special A is for me, the definition of an average shoujo series.