is a Japanese
''shōjo'' manga anthology written and illustrated by
Arina Tanemura
is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and character designer. She made her professional manga debut in 1996 with the one-shot ''The Style of the Second Love'' in the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Ribon Original'' and later published her first ...
. Originally serialized in ''
Ribon
is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shueisha on the third of each month. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are ''Nakayoshi'' and ''Ciao''. Its target audience is girls roughly 8–14 years old.
It is one of the best-se ...
'', the five short stories were collected and published in a single ''
tankōbon
is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
'' volume by
Shueisha
(lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...
in May 1998. It was published by
Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
in English in North America on August 5, 2008.
Contents
;
: Kajika Yamano is a female ninja whose job is to protect her family's legendary weapon. But when a boy she has a crush on tells her she should be more ladylike, she vows to give up all ninja deeds. The oneshot was Tanemura's third work, and takes its title from a song by the Japanese pop group Fairchild.
; "Short-Tempered Melancholic -Without You-"
: Yuga challenges Hayato to a fight over Kajika.
;
: Minori falls in love with Takato, a boy who shared his umbrella with her one rainy afternoon. Now she "forgets" her umbrella every time it rains in hopes of becoming closer to him. The oneshot was Tanemura's second work after her professional debut, named after an album by
Shinichi Ishihara
is a Japanese singer, voice actor and actor from Yamanashi Prefecture. He is famous for singing the theme songs of '' Guyver'', '' Kamen Rider Agito'' and ''Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V'', among other theme songs as well as the entire soundtrack to ''J ...
.
;
: Yuri sends her pen pal Ryo a picture of herself - but it's really of her best friend Karin, who is prettier than she is. Now Ryo wants to meet her, so she has no choice but to send Karin instead! Tanemura's fourth work after her debut as a mangaka, this story was the opening manga in an extra issue of ''Ribon'', and the first of her works to be published with a color opening page.
;
: Mana secretly likes her friend's boyfriend, but Nakamura, a younger boy, is determined to win Mana's heart.
Media
Manga
Reception
In its daily reviews, ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' praised the pacing and layouts of the work, but criticized Tanemura's continued reuse of character designs across series and Kajika's relatively small role within the story, noting that "despite the ninja on the cover, the bulk of the book is straightup romance, which is too bad, as Kajika is an appealing protagonist." Leroy Douresseaux of Comic Book Bin felt the story showed Tanemura's "usual ornate art with its layered flower patterns, toning, and ink wash" and found the stories to be "the kind of gentle and sweet, light-hearted romance that appeal
icto Tanemura's fans."
References
External links
Official Viz ''Short-Tempered Melancholic'' pageOfficial ''Shojo Beat'' ''Short-Tempered Melancholic'' page*
{{Ribon
Manga anthologies
1998 manga
Romance anime and manga
Shōjo manga
Shueisha manga
Viz Media manga