Allegro Agitato

Ok, since there are no reviews for this manga, then I'm going to write one. Oh, by the way, this review may contain spoilers, so don't read it unless you haven't read the story. Don't say I didn't warn you. I'll start by saying that this manga, at least to me, seemed REAL. It's not complicated or confusing, but rather simple to understand. It starts with Shouko, the daughter of a famous actress, that has been out-staged by her mother all her life. At first, she is proud of her mother, but as the story goes on, she becomes jealous of her mother, as everybody that seesher only looks at her as her mother's daughter. It's just that she only realizes this after she meets Ujou, her mother's new boyfriend. Then, she started to realize just how jealous she actually is on her mother, and thus she wants to hurt her. She sleeps with Ujou, but when she sees that even this doesn't work, she plans to go into the entartaiment world as well. Simple and clear. I've read other reviews that were dissatisfied with the ending. But hey, maybe they expected some typical shoujo happy ending, where the two protagonists get together. To be honest, I was expecting this, too. So I found the actual ending good, a bit unexpected if you want, and realistic, something that happens quite often in the real world. (I'm not talking about the girl stealing her mother's boyfriend, I'm talking about the two of them NOT getting together). And here we are, the characters. The main ones, the girl, her mom and her boyfriend. They are all conceited and self-centered and mainly think only about their own problems. They aren't depicted as bad in the manga, and they are similar to the people from real life. For example, Shouko, the daughter. As I said, she has been out-staged all her life by her famous mother, and nobody except for her 2 friends actually saw her for who she is, but for her mother's daughter, which isn't exactly something pleasant. She only realizes that she is jealous of her mother after she meets her boyfriend, Ujou. And what does she do after that? She rebels against her mother and in order to hurt her and to win against her, she sleeps with Ujou. Then, she goes into the entartaimant industry to win against her mother on her own. I believe she does fall in love with Ujou, but she doesn't realize it. And I think that all she had done was in order to step back from her mother's shadow and shine on her own. Again, pretty simple to understand. Now let's take Ujou. He is a cold person and a talented pianist. He doesn't particularly like playing it though, he rather does it out of obligation. He has to get his left arm stabbed in order to realize how much he actually loves playing the piano. And I don't think he loves neither Shouko or her mother. More like, he accepted to be Hisako's boy-toy out of commodity, as she was willing to pay his tutisions. As the story goes on, he starts to get annoyed by this and thus plans to hurt Hisako, using Shouko. In the end, I don't think he loves either of them, he was just causing them to quarrel, as they both loved him. He leaves in order to have his arm re-operated, but he doesn't come back afterwards. And why would he? He is just as self-centered as Shouko, actually more than her in my opinion, only caring about his arm and his piano. Yeah, I agree, in the end I think he did notice and acknowledge Shouko, but this doesn't mean he fell in love with her. So there was no reason for him to return in Japan after the operation. And finally, Hisako, the famous actress. She was a rather good mother to Shouko, until she and Shouko met Ujou and started to quarrel, becoming aware of their most hidden feelings for each other. She doesn't want to lose to Shouko, not realizing that Skouko feels the same way, being another self-centered character. She portrays the seemingly perfect woman, beautiful, elegant and successful, but in reality she is only another ordinary woman, with worries and fears like any other's. After Ujou was out of their life, I believe that she and her daughter went back to how things used to be. And the last character I'm gong to talk about, a supporting one this time, Miu/Umi. In my opinion, she was the only character that actually cared for other people's problems and feelings, beside her own. She was a good friend, better than how Shouko was to her. She was sexually abused by her step-father and she was maybe a lesbian. If you ask me, enough problems for somebody to get conceited and think only of herself. But no, she actually think of other people, even if her problems are maybe more serious than Shouko's, for example. She doesn't do anything to her father even if he rapes her every night or so, because she knows how happy her mother is because oh him. She prefers to endure it than to take away her mother's happiness. Also, she wants to protect Shouko from Ujou, a thing I believe it's right, since Ujou was using her (Shouko) anyway. In the end, she is able to tear them apart, which may be a good thing. I think her character is the saddest one of the manga, because she doesn't solve her problems or find happiness, like the other characters. She is unable to tell somebody of her step father, and she doesn't find happiness, even though she is the one that deserves it the most. The art is fine, nothing special, but somehow different from the standard shoujo art. It's not the worst I've seen out there, but not the best either. The profiles of the characters could have been drown better, but aside from this, I don't have much I can complain about. The expressions and the faces were ok, you can see when the characters are surprised or sad. In the end, this manga was a good read, for me it seemed like a touch of realism, where the characters are different from the ones usually seen in shoujo manga. They seem real, and they choices they make don't feel weird or unreal, but real, something we could also do if faced with similar situations. If you want a rather realistic manga, that has it's drama and that has a rather sad ending, not the usual happy one but one that could also in real life, then you could read this, it might open your eyes a bit that not always things go the way we want them to.

I actually didn’t like this one, it was just weird. It’s a story about a mother and daughter who live under a constant spot light. Shouko’s mother is a famous actress and Shouko is her proud daughter. Their relationship takes a turn when the feeling of jealously is brought to the surface. The character development was probably the only redeeming quality. Shouko, oh boy… thank god she seemed to mature at the end. Though she’s probably still the most shallow and vain character I’ve ever come across, she does find her own means of self-worth. Shouko’s mother ends up seeing her daughter as a woman whenthe stability of her own relationship with her boyfriend becomes rocky. Her higher status as a unique mature woman crumbles into the normal fears and reality of all humans. The mother and daughter fight like high school girls over this man who feels nothing for either of them. Shouko is bitter towards her mother for always being the center of attention and wants to feel superior by stealing her boyfriend. Her mother just seems like she needs to be in control. Ujou’s character [the man they fight over] was the only one that seemed relatable to me .He’s an attractive guy who’s just become lost. He doesn’t give off any true feelings for anyone or anything. It isn’t until he loses something important to him that he begins to show any passion. Shouko’s friend Miu has her own side story. I’m not sure what this characters point was other than to show Shouko’s lack of concern/awareness for her friends. From the beginning you can pretty much guess what’s going on with Miu and she’ll probably be the only character you’ll feel anything for. Maybe it went over my head but I didn’t really get anything out of this manga. It left me dissatisfied and irritated by the majority of it. Story: 6 [havent read anything like this before] Art: 6 [weird at times] Character: 7 [good] Enjoyment: 4 [decent] Overall: 6 [fair]