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Written by maehara
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 16:00 |
 Haine's efforts to impress Shizumasa continue, but there's more going on with her moody master than she realises. Add in some underhand manipulation by best friend Ushio and a few other surprise revelations, and it's not the easiest of times for our heroine. At least she puts a brave face on it all...
5 - Tomodachi 06
In school terms, the girlfriend of the Emperor is known at the Platinum - and Haine's finding that the role comes with disadvantages. Not only has her public profile rocketed, but everyone's now treating her like some sort of goddess - it comes with being someone that people can use to get the Emperor's ear, so to speak, but Haine's not impressed. The Multimedia Club are also taking a renewed interest in her - a former yanki as the Emperor's girlfriend? There's got to be some gossip value in that...
6 - That's What I Like About You
Finding out that Maora was really a guy was a shock to Haine - enough of a shock that the school paper are running photos of her shocked expression. That expression also let to Maora running off, thinking that Haine was in some way disgusted by what she'd learnt - not true, and Haine would like a chance to explain that to him, if only she could find him. Meanwhile, Ushio is upset that Shizumasa has "stolen" Haine from her, and she's determined to get her back - by fair means or foul...
7 - Emperor Study☆: He Has Such a Large Heart
For all that's she's managed to get herself close to Shizumasa, Haine still feels that she doesn't know enough about him - the other student council members all see to know his secrets, understand the code-words he uses when he wants to skip class or something, or know about some other aspect of his personality that Haine doesn't. Now that she's his platinum, though, she's determined to know him better than anyone else - until he appears to arrange for her to 'catch' him misbehaving with Ushio...
8 - The Two Emperors
Having seen Shizumasa and Ushio together leaves Haine feeling awkward - was he telling the truth when he said he hated her? Just what was Ushio doing? Will she be able to face her friend again? Talking to Maguri - a previously-scorned fake lover, of course - gives Haine a little more of an insight into the man Shizumasa has become since he entered high school, and it seems he may just be in need of some TLC (if he'll allow anyone that close to him) - but there's more to it than that. Meanwhile, Haine's birth father has taken a renewed interest in her after learning of her 'relationship' with Shizumasa...
9 - The Princess, the Picture Book, and the Prince
Unaware of the deception that's going on, Haine tries to figure out how the Shizumasa that she fell in love with became the Shizumasa that claims to hate her so much. She also finds herself going over the events around her adoption in her head, trying to figure out what her father was thinking at the time - she's come to believe that her father hated her, and got rid of her once he had a male heir to take her place. Shortly after she'd been sent away from her home, she'd received a letter from her mother, telling her how much she was loved and asking her to wait, that her mother would eventually persuade her father to let them see each other again - but that was years ago, and as the months and years passed Haine began to become ever more restless...
Lots of fun in this volume - my enjoyment of The Gentlemen's Alliance certainly hasn't diminished any, although some of the underlying setup of the series has been tinkered with a little here. It's still mostly about Haine and Shizumasa, but there a number of surprises and revelations thrown into the mix to keep things fresh. Possibly the most surprising was the "outing" of Maora as a boy - he looks feminine enough that I wonder if that was just a late change of mind by the author, or if she genuinely intended to pull a Bridget on us. Either way, the revelation plays out well.
Ushio, meanwhile, has gone from being probably my favourite character from volume one to someone who confuses me greatly. Everything she does in this volume portrays her as a girl with shaky morals at best, and as someone whose overriding need to be near Haine doesn't seem to stop her from doing things that would hurt her friend down to the core (it's implied here that she's slept with Shizumasa, for example, for the sole reason of trying to put Haine off him). She really does have the mindset of an unstable stalker, and while that certainly makes her interesting, she's not in the "aww, cute" category anymore. More like "oooh, creepy".
Shizumasa is also a ball on contradictions, with his repeated claim to hate Haine countered by him doing things behind the scene to make her life a little easier. I still don't remotely like the character - he is, sadly, a complete bastard - but the final chapter in this book (which looks at both Shizumasa's and Haine's pasts) provides an answer to why that might be, and should add a little more drama down the line. Let's just say that Shizumasa may not be feeling himself.
This book is still the good mix of comedy and drama that made the first volume so appealing - maybe a little heavier on the scheming this time, but not so much that we get to "Oh! The draaaama!!" territory. I'm surprised I hadn't heard a bit more about The Gentlemen's Alliance before now - it really is a very enjoyable read, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to the next installment.
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