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Koi Cupid – Volume 1

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Koi Cupid - Volume 1 1

After the sexyness of Bayonetta and the fanservice of Cross Edge, I think it is time to focus on something for the younger readers. To be perfectly honest, the only reason I bought Koi Cupid was to collect rare books, since Broccoli Books went out of business January of last year, their books have been increasingly hard to find, and during my trip, I managed to locate not only this book, but Disgaea 2 Volume 2 and Coyote. Either way, if you are interested in a book that is aimed more at kids and was done by the person who provided to other kids manga like Tokyo Mew Mew, then please read on! Artwork

The character designs of Koi Cupid were, as expected, as cutesy as they come, which I would feel to all but the younger kids would be sickenly cute. Okay, to be honest they were of a quality standard however I do think that the quality of character designs were much better on characters that were older than the main characters. Background designs on the other hand unfortunately succumbed to the white background, quite often with nothing in the background at all however there were a few backgrounds decorated with flowers or at least a sort of shading used. Infact, in one section, they claimed that a punishment for a demon was that they would “Capture her and lock her up in the white room for eternity”. Kind of funny considering that the white room seems like the world they are in right now. To be more serious on the matter, the backgrounds were lacking, simple as that.

Characters

The main story revolves around three cupids, Ai, Koi and Ren who are cupids in training and have to use their “tools of the trade”(Letters for Ai, bow and arrow for Koi and scissors for Ren) to help people fall in love, as you would expect in any book that has the mention of cupid in it. I wouldn’t say much development happened in any of them, however it is revealed that Koi (Despite loaning her name to the title I dont think she is the lead character) is a slow learning and timid cupid who is falling behind everyone and requires the assistance of the only trainer revealed in the book. Besides that, nothing else is much revealed in this volume.

Storyline

When you’re a cupid in training, you gotta play by the rules: No socializing with your targets. Don’t consort with the enemy. Practice archery every day. Maybe if someone had told Koi, Ai and Ren, they could stray out of trouble. The girls try to finish their missions by the book, but something always gets in the way. Sometimes it’s a super-shy girl, sometimes it is a hyperactive devil, but it’s always trouble. If these girls want to get their stamps and become full-fledged cupids, they’ll have to play to win.

That basically sums the storyline of this volume up, focusing on these three cupids and how they either cause trouble or get involved in it and end up learning some sort of lesson from it. That’s basically it.

Extras

Personally, I think the best thing about Broccoli Books is that they cram so much extra content into their books. This volume did have a lot of extra content:

  • Preview Chapter (Not sure if it was spread as promotional material or preview actually means prologue)
  • Lizette’s Present Scheme – Extra Chapter
  • Ikumi’s Comment
  • Translation Notes
  • About Cupids
  • Next volume which you will most probably never see on shelves…. ever
  • Advertising on books you will have to hunt around to get.
  • Questionare for a sticker you will never recieve.

Personal Opinion

This manga would definately be a hit for most probably child – young teen age groups however unless you are like me and want a challenge in finding a rare book, look elsewhere. My personal opinion grade will be reviewed in both how I personally thought of it and how I think someone of the target age group would think about it.

Overall Score

Artwork: 6/10
Some decent character designs and a cute colour page in the book, however the white backgrounds reaaaaly let it down.

Characters: 6/10
Character development was average at best. Koi was the only character who got remotely any development since the other two chapters were about Ai messing around in her missions.

Storyline: 8/15
I won’t lie, it is a decent storyline, however knowing that this would be the only volume most probably ever released in English and that there wasn’t much development within it, this was the best score I could give it.

Extras: 5/5
Typical Broccoli Books standard, quite a lot of extras.

Personal Opinion:
For Myself: 2/10
For someone of the target age group: Approximately 7/10

Total: 27/50
This game got a 54% in total, giving it a C Grade overall.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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