Title: こどものおもちゃ (Child's Toy) Vol. 4
Artist/Author: 小花美穂 (Miho Obana)
Book Size/Pages: A-5, 263pp., w/furigana
Volume: 4/7
Original Serialization: Monthly Ribon 7/96-1/97
First Printing: 9/17/03
Rating: 4/4

I'm always pretty wary of shojo manga that are 250+ pages long and sometimes dread it as I know it's going to be a long time commitment compared to the more visual boys comics. This volume started out that way where I was crawling along each page. However, it picked up really quickly half way through with Sana's relationship with Naozumi and then with Hayama and led to a pretty interesting story/conflict.

There's a ton of color images as shown in the bonus pages of this volume (as well as previous volumes).

This volume focuses on the story arc where Sana is out filming a movie with Naozumi. Naozumi has some obsessive fans who at first just dislike Sana, but when the tabloids print that Sana and Naozumi are a couple, they go mafia and beat Sana with sticks causing her to fracture her leg. Meanwhile, Fuuka asks Hayama to pretend to be his boyfriend (in exchange for some sushi) for a day while her old friends from Osaka come and visit. When they read the tabloids, Hayama feels a little dejected and Fuuka formally asks him out, to which he accepts. Sana gets wind of this and becomes very unmotivated at work until she gets a visit from her mother. When filming ends, she tries to be normal at school, but there's always some discomfort knowing that her friend is dating Hayama.

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