Love so life: so sweet you’ll need a dentist

Good day dear readers!

Two weeks ago I was randomly introduced to the manga Love so Life, a manga which even lacks an English Wikipedia page (I have no idea why either, it came out in 2008…) I stumbled upon it after clicking a random button on a website, and said to myself ‘why the heck not?’ And that is how I lost my free time for 2 days.  It opens up with Shiharu Nakamura, a 16 year old girl who works part time at a day care. Shiharu is an orphan who dreams of one day owning her own day care as she loves to work with children. At the day care, Shiharu often watches 2 year old twins, Aoi and Akane, who have taken a liking to her. When there uncle, Matsunaga Seiji, a 25 year old news reporter and guardian of the twins, comes to pick them up, he asks Shiharu if she will babysit for him, offering to pay her triple what she makes at the day care. She accepts, and their journey begins.

 The plot itself is rather cliché and extremely slow moving, as one could predict, Shiharu and Matsunaga begin to fall in love, but Matsunaga feels the age difference is too much, and Shiharu has no experience with guys. So instead, most chapters focus on the adorable twins or the adventures of Shiharu and Matsunaga’s friends, meaning the plot rarely ever moves forward. This means that over time, it becomes a bit of a pain to wait for these things to happen. However, these small antics are quite heartwarming and funny, therefore it is not a boring wait. This does make it hard to really judge the plot, however, but each chapter is cute and offers a nice story. Overall it’s very heartwarming and calm to read.

The art and characters are truly what speaks for this manga. Each character is well crafted with fitting personalities and designs, each has their flaws, and each their own motives. The author has a way of keeping secrets and revealing their answers with perfect timing, so each builds a better picture of the characters.  This allows for a variety of interaction and a good many flashbacks (not repeated all the time…) creating vivid pasts and interesting relationships.

Best.Death.Threat.EVER!

The art style is very fitting and has its own uniqueness. Though it is not the most professional I have ever seen, it is in fact, beautiful, adorable, and comical. The artist has a special way with a more simple style crossing with the ever so cute Chibi to create a heartwarmingly funny cute fest. She really is amazing at drawing cute things, and coming up with brilliant character designs that truly bring life to her characters.

Pandas!!!1!

Overall, Love so Life is probably the cutest manga I’ve ever read and I find it nice to enjoy something so relaxing. What it lacks in good translation and plot it makes up for in characters and short stories.  Anyone who really just wants a cute little bunch of sweetness will love this manga, and those who don’t will probably still find it enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys light hearted Shōjo manga or even just someone who wants something a little sweet.

Speaking of sweet, I could go for some Milka chocolate…

PandaEatingATaco