Hana Yori TSU

FINALLY! Yoko Kamio, of "Hana Yori Dango" fame, is finished with it and has moved onto something new. And fresh. And definitely not Hana Yori.

I fell in love with Tsukushi-chan when I started - here was a main character with some guts! Not one of those whimpy, whiny crybabies (thank god!) I followed her antics (often unbelievable – like the one where she wins a beauty contest) but by about the 25th volume was getting tired of it. First off, how many unbelievable antics can one deal with? How many trips to Paris and New York - with, of course, the inevitable chance meetings and making friends with hot foreign guys?

So I was glad to see her move onto something new, and this is a real change of pace. The main character (damn, forgot her name and there's no one on the web yet writing about it) is the opposite of Tsukushi in many ways - for one, she's a whiner. But this whiner I can deal with. Because I'm such a sucker for sob stories.

The girl, now a teenager, used to be a child star and was scarred by the treatment of cruel, jealous classmates who ostracized her and a so-called friend who was just using her to get into the business. Now she spends her days wandering around town just trying to avoid human contact as much as she can - because humans are cruel! Just the kind of sad that I love.

Of course she doesn't stay that way. A man, the principal (I think, or maybe the owner) of a "free school" - somewhere kids can just be who they are, unlike most schools in Japan. Or elsewhere - finds her and encourges her to come to his school. There she meets your usual cast of wacky characters, my favorite of which is the goth-lolita sewing wiz.

It's only up to volume two and I have to say I'm hooked. I can't wait for the next volume!