High School Girls Volume 2
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August 15, 2007
by: James Jursudakul
Just as raunchy and hilarious as the first volume!
Manga Description: In the second volume of High School Girls, the trio and new “insider” friend Kouda deliver more all girls school growing pains. When dieting becomes a major preoccupation, the girls discover that sex burns calories best, and so engage in “pretend” positions with one another to peel away the fat! This volume’s climax escalates when Yuma’s lovely little sister arrives at school. But this little girl, who seems so innocent, has devious plans to wreck Yuma’s friendships. . . And no one wants to believe it!
Manga Review
Content: (This section may contain spoilers.)
The second volume of Towa Ohshima’s High School Girls brings about the same amount of, if not more, laughter than the first volume. The comedy remains just as raunchy as in Volume 1 and the characters just as clueless and likeable. In fact, this volume provides for quite a bit of details and fleshes out the characters of Ayano Sato and Yuma Suzuki, the two other main characters whose characteristics weren’t really depicted much in the first volume, and makes them quite memorable by this volume’s end. Ayano really takes her role as the girl who gets bullied in the group, thanks to the fact that she is the first among her friends to obtain a boyfriend; therefore, she must face the consequences of happiness – constant harassment by your girlfriends whom do not have boyfriends. Eriko and Yuma constantly make Ayano feel the wrath of their jealousy with various cruel acts, such as thrashing her Valentine’s Day card and chocolate, or interrupting her and Shimotakatani on their dates – all done in wildly hilarious fashions and without any sense of seriousness, of course. As for Yuma, her one-year-younger sister Momoka starts to attend the same all-girls high school as the new school year begins, and Yuma doesn’t seem to like it at all. Momoka is strikingly beautiful and graceful. . .or so it seems. Beneath Momoka’s sweet coating lies a devious siren with a goal to ruin her elder sister. The short-arc that introduces Momoka really establishes Yuma’s character for the rest of the series, and though there is not as much silliness as in the other chapters, it is one of the most enjoyable chapters in the volumes because of how well it defines the Suzuki sisters.
As with the first volume, I had a blast with High School Girls Volume 2. The second volume kept me laughing until the last third of the volume, when things got a touch more serious in order to introduce Momoka and flesh out Yuma’s character, but because of that I have come to appreciate and like Yuma quite a bit. There is just as much, if not more, fan-service panels present in this volume and the jokes are all just as funny. Those who enjoyed the first volume will enjoy this one just as much.
Art: The art looks much the same as in the first volume, and, once again, the characters’ various facial expressions are what really stand out in this manga series. Towa Ohshima always illustrates the emotions and expressions for her characters well, and they always suitably complement the jokes at hand. Readers may also notice, starting with this volume, that the designs for the characters of Himeji and Ogawa, who later become known as “second-string members of the ’moron group,’” have evolved quite a bit since the first volume, and have started to come to look as they do in later volumes of the series (Ogawa gains a bow later on, and her and Himeji’s visage will become more defined and distinguished). Both of their designs are much more refined and distinguished than in the first volume, which featured them as mere generic, nameless characters, and when comparing the illustrations from Volume 1 side-side-by with this volume, it can easily be seen how much they’ve evolved.
Translation: (High School Girls Volume 2 is presented in a right-to-left format and contains/retains the use of: Japanese honorifics w/o the inclusion of an honorific explanation page. The original Japanese sound effects have either been completely deleted and replaced with English sound effects or on some occasions the English sound effects are placed right on top of the original.)
High School Girls Volume 2 is the last in the series that was released by publisher Comics One (from Volume 3 on, the publications were picked up by DrMaster Publications Inc.). There are much less errors in the translation work than in the previous volume, thereby providing for a more satisfactory translation work; however, some extras, such as translation notes, would’ve been a welcome.
It should be mentioned that publisher DrMaster/DGN Production plans to put out a second-edition of High School Girls Volumes 1-6 with a slight retouch of the translation to correct errors and a new cover (possibly with a glossy finish) later on, so some may be interested in picking up the revised edition. However, the price point will likely be $9.95 per volume instead of getting the first-edition Volumes 1-6 Bundle for a little over $30, which the publisher has made available. Therefore, you’ll have to choose between a lower price point or waiting for a better quality second-edition release later on.
The following errors were made in the translation work: The final panel on page 15 has Kouda’s dialogue in Eriko’s text-balloon and vice versa; on page 32 “in to” should be “into”; the first panel on page 50 has Odagiri’s dialogue in Kouda’s text-balloon and vice versa; on page 59 there shouldn’t be an apostrophe in “year’s”; on page 125 “have” should be “has”;on page 138 “an“ should replace “a“ in “a upperclassmen”; on page 150 there is an empty speech bubble in the second panel; one page 152 “year’s” should not have an apostrophe; and on page 167 a “pu” sound effect is left untranslated.
There are also some parts that could use a translation note: On page 12 it should be reminded or mentioned that Shimotakatani’s second-year status in high school is the same as being a Junior in high school; on page 32 there should be a note on who Ayumi Hamasaki is; on page 109 there should be a note explaining the report cards from Eriko’s group; on page 110 there should be a note on “mixers”(gokon); on page 113 there should be a note on “Amuro”; and on pages 119 - 120 there should be a note on who Aiko is.
The Bottom Line: Those who liked the first volume of High School Girls will love this volume just as much. Pick up the bundle or wait for the second-edition, but pick it up either way!
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Content |
The comedy is great and Yuma and Ayano get their moments in the spotlight this time around. |
8.5 |
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Art |
It serves its purpose. The second-string members start to get more defined in details in this volume. |
7.7 |
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Translation |
A solid effort with less mistakes than the previous volume. |
7.9 |
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Verdict
Fans of the first volume will love this just as much! Pick it up if you're looking for a solid, silly, comedy with lots of fan-service.
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8.4
[not an average]
+ Yuma's and Ayano's characters are fleshed-out.
+ The hilarity!
+ Less typos than the previous volumes.
- Still have some typos here and there.
- Ought to wait for the second-edition or. . .
- it's better to get it in a bundle.
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