Title: こどものおもちゃ (Child's Toy) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: 小花美穂 (Miho Obana)
Book Size/Pages: A-5, 276pp., w/furigana
Volume: 1/7
Original Serialization: Monthly Ribon 8/94-2/95
First Printing: 7/20/03
Rating: 4/4

I didn't plan on reading this series, but as I was browsing Book-off, I saw the first three volumes sitting there. Upon inspection, they looked basically new and even had the questionnaire cards inside. However, rather than selling them at $13-$14 for the new price (that's how much they were at Kinokuniya), they were going for $5 a piece. I eventually got the rest of the series from Amazon and given the weight and Amazon's fixed shipping price, it was still probably a good deal.

I knew a little bit about the series as I encountered it after I got interested in Jubei-chan since the director for Jubei is the same as the one for the anime version of this story. The adjectives used were things like hyper, crazy, frenzy. So that's how I approached it, not expecting too much. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the more serious matters that I encountered, especially near the end of the book.

So it looks like this is a re-release, and given it's thickness and pages and pages of full-color pictures/cover art, it probably has more information than the original release.

The book doesn't have chapter titles, so as always, I'll do a whirlwind summary. The story centers around a child TV star 倉田紗南 (Sana Kurata). Her mom is an eccentric lady who has a squirrel living in her hairdo and she also has a manager, a former homeless bum who she labels as her pimp. While she has a professional life, she also attends school where there's a boy, 羽山秋人 (Akito Hayama), that she particularly despise because he always causes trouble for her and her class.

At first, Sana tries everything to take control away from Hayama, including challenging him to a test of nerves, and later trying to blackmail him with photos. However, she learns that while he may be a tough guy at school, he has some serious family issues and because his sister blames him for the death of their mom while giving birth to him. From their, their relationship slowly develops into something more amiable and this volume ends with him giving her an unexpected kiss.

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