Devil and Her Love Song 02 [Anglais] [Broché]

This series, a character-driven psychological school drama featuring some romance, continues in this second volume.

After the events of A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1, the story continues with not so much as a breath. I get the impression that you'd want to read these back-to-back (reminiscent of From Far Away, Volume 1, which I read in one sitting), so I highly recommend buying the first two volumes together if the reviews sway you. The main idea of this volume would be psychological exposition.

We begin with some detail on Tomoyo/Nippachi. Maria and Yusuke visit Tomoyo, who, despite her constant smiling, is clad in goth-styled garb. While Tomoyo was somewhat of a mystery in Volume 1, in Volume 2, we see her story and true nature unfolding beautifully. Yusuke also gets a lot of attention in this volume - I won't spoil the details. Even Maria's main bully, Ayu Nakamura, gets some a chunk of the action, listening "off-stage" on a couple of conversations and showing her true feelings only to the reader. I am curious where Miyoshi Tomori will take this artful exposition of the current antagonist - I am half-convinced she may yet become a sympathetic character after all.

This volume also involves, similarly to the previous, conflict between Maria and school/teachers. Maria's insights continue to lure me deeper into this series and heighten my interest. This time, she gets the thankless position of leading the school in a choral competition, for which she diligently prepares despite neglect (at good times) and outright hatred. She too is on her own journey of development, and finds her position changing as she notices others coming to her defense sincerely. The choral competition is only in the preparation stage here, and I am curious as to how it will unfold. These two volumes alone have convinced me that regardless of what happens, it will happen both unpredictably and entertainingly - Miyoshi Tomori has made a fan out of me.

If you are looking for recommendations, certain elements of A Devil and Her Love Song remind me of Peach Girl Authentic, Vol. 1, MARS Volume 1 (Mars (Tokyopop)) (v. 1), Arisa 1, and Cynical Orange, Vol. 1. On another note, I also find myself dazzled by the chapter cover pages. Hopefully this series gets the attention it deserves and leads to an artbook release. *fingers crossed*

~3-3.5/5
[Taken from my blog.]

I am enjoying this series, for the most part. I think it's still growing on me, though, as I haven't fully warmed up to it yet.
In this volume, Maria makes a kind of friend in Tomoyo, who she was having problems with in the last volume. She's still having problems with her classmates, in a major way. And both of the boys are making a move on her, trying to worm their way closer to her, on pretty even grounds with each other, as well. More attention was put on Yusuke in this volume than Shin, though.
I hate (or, really dislike, I'm not really sure which) her classmates, and how they're treating her, giving her almost no chance to really explain herself or understand where she's coming from. They do have reason to dislike her, seeing as how blunt and rude she is about everything, but they still give her no wiggle room, and are so shallow. It's a bit annoying. And the volume ended with showing a girl coming out of the hospital and going back to school, which I'm sure means nothing good.
Maria was put on the spot several times in this volume, but took it pretty well. She's put in charge of some choir-thing, and even though all of her classmates call it stupid and don't want to participate, she still tries, and is still going through with it.
I actually kind of like Maria. Again, I'm not having very strong feelings for anything in this series yet, but I do like her. She's not whiny, she's blunt and honest, and I like how different she is from most heroines. And even though she puts out a tougher exterior, she loves frills. Also, she's growing (or, is supposed to be), which is nice. Shin pushes her a bit, and she is kind of seeing her flaws, which is good.
Normally I would like Yusuke more, but I'm actually favoring Shin. I'm not sure why, if it's something to do with Yusuke's personality or not, but I like Shin more. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them both, though, and seeing where things go from here.
The art is not my favorite (still?). I'm not sure what my favorite thing about this is, or what I like much at all. It's just... different from what I'm used to, maybe? I like how it's written, that's one thing. Her inner thoughts are deeper, and more thoughtful, maybe, than most are. The humor isn't amazing, the art isn't, the characters don't really have strong impressions in my mind.
I don't know. It's all still growing on me, I guess. But I think I'm starting to enjoy it more, and I kind of want to know what happens next, but more with the characters than with the dramatic school-room plot, and I have the next one, so I should be reading it soon. We'll see.