I"s, Volume 1: Iori Book

The premise is that shy student Ichitaka has a crush on a girl in his class named Iori. Iori herself is fairly shy, but she's also in the school's drama club, and she really gets into her parts and shines on stage. Due to a drama connection, she winds up posing in a swimsuit magazine, and the bulk of this book deals with Iori's discomfort at suddenly being treated as a sex object, as well as Ichitaka's efforts to stop making an ass of himself in front of Iori.

As with this type of romantic slapstick, Ichitaka finds himself being embarrassed in front of Iori in fairly extreme ways, but most of them are handled well, and Iori's reactions of frustration and disappointment, as well as forgiveness when the truth is explained, all have sufficient heart and humor to work.

Katsura is very good at capturing the inner turmoil of teenage boys. Is she mad? Bored? Tired? What should I do? Ichitaka is constantly guessing, and sometimes he guesses wrong. Othertimes, he's got exactly the right answer. However, vol. 1 is mostly setup. Ichitaka and Iori wind up working together on a school project, and Katsura places several unobtrusive references to Ichitaka's grade school best friend, a cute little girl named Itsuki, who moved to America several years ago. His current best friend, Teratini, is a great ally and friend to Ichitaka, giving Ichitaka a less girl-obtuse foil. Teratani urges him on, advices him, helps to show different sides of the characters and pushes the plot forward when Ichitaka's reticence would kill the series' momentum.

And then, the final page re-introduces former best amigo Itsuki, who's now a 16-year-old hottie who'll be living with Ichitaka, and it all hits the fan. I's may not re-invent the genre, but it is a fairly pleasing book.

Katsura's art is fantastic. Compared to many manga artists, he's got a fairly American style - clean lines, beautiful characters, full backgrounds, easy to follow panel progressions. And he still uses some of the best manga tricks, exaggerated anatomy to indicate excitement or stress or worry, explosive "action" scenes, and a willingness to draw cute girls in underwear!