By Dustin Cabeal

If you send it, I will read it and review it. That’s basically why I’m back for more So Cute It Hurts!! The last volume was my first experience with the series, and while it wasn’t terrible, I knew it wasn’t for me. It still isn’t in case you were wondering.

This volume suffers from a problem a lot of manga and comics routinely suffer from; in that, it’s starting over after a big conclusion. The last volume saw a huge pay off in the story and so this volume you can see Go Ikeyamada feeling around trying to build towards something new and dramatic. The answer is “let’s get married!”

No seriously, our main two characters take steps towards marriage. Mitsuru proposes to Azusa in the middle of her parents telling her to pick one of them in the pending separation, and that has to be the weirdest proposal ever. I didn’t quite understand the part about Mitsuru and Azusa being half-siblings… if that’s true… well, I won’t judge. No wait, I will, fucking gross! What’s with the world right now? Everyone wants to bang their half or step sister/brother? Gross fuckers, there’s 7 billion God damn people, find someone you’re not sharing a bunch of blood with or grew up in the same house with! This isn’t goddamn Clueless!

Anyway, the other proposal is more half-assed than the first, which doesn’t pan out. Though the I will give it to Ikeyamada the line that Mitsuru uses is pretty awesome and should be stolen by ever man going forward:

“I’ll come take you away whenever you’re feeling sad.. and I’ll ask you to marry me every time I do.”

Yeah if you need another reason to read Shojo manga, it’s for the corny lines that would absolutely work… as long as you’re sincere of course. College is the next big storyline, and I’m assuming long distance relationships and such. Frankly, I’m just not that invested in this story. I don’t even get why they still mention the cross-dressing that took place since the twins don’t seem to do that anymore.

The art is a strange beast. On the one hand, there’s a lot of brilliant scenes. These tend to be the smaller panels, while the larger panels instantly lack proportion control and are just covered in bubbles and shit. I get the bubbles, it’s the genre, and they’re doing what the fans expect though I find that excuse to be terrible, I do get it. I don’t get why all of the sudden the characters are three feet taller and filling out tuxedos. The art goes back and forth from good to poor, and eventually, the bubbles got distracting and felt like they were covering up a lack of skill. Frankly put, this is the eleventh volume, the art should at least be consistent.

I will not be back for more of So Cute It Hurts!! I barely made it through this volume which is why my recap mostly focuses on the beginning since that’s where my attention was held the most. This is a series you’re either in love with or you read once for shit and giggles. I’ve read it twice now… the giggles are gone. If you’re digging the series, dig in, you’re going to have a few volumes before it gets back on track with a new big story arc because this is the reset from ten volumes of buildup.

Score: 3/5

So Cute It Hurts!! vol. 11
Creator: Go Ikeyamada
Publisher: Viz/Shojo Beat