| Mintna Bokura Yoshizumi Wataru |
| Mintna Bokura (We Are Mint) is Yoshizumi Wataru's fifth manga (after Quartet Game, Handsome no Kanojo, Kimishika Iranai, and Marmalade Boy) and in some ways, it's her most delightful.� This gender-bending manga series centers on a pair of thirteen-year-old fraternal twins: Noel and his sister, Maria.� While Noel is on a fishing trip with his father, Maria meets a young man during a basketball tournament and gets her first crush, suddenly switching schools to go to the private boarding school where he coaches the girls' basketball team.� By the time Noel comes home, Maria is long gone and the new term has begun.� Desperate to convince his sister to forget about this guy and come back to him at his old school, Noel tries for a position at the boarding school, only to find that the only space open for boarding is in the female dormitory.� His father pulls some strings and Noel is admitted--under the condition that he pretends to be a girl. |
| And so begins Noel's life as Maria's identical twin.� He's jealous of his sister's love for another boy, but soon gets so wrapped up in his own concerns that his focus gets a little bit lost.� He becomes fast friends with a boy named Sasa, not fully realizing that Sasa has no reason to think he's not like any other girl, and at the same time he finds himself intrigued by and definitely interested in his new roommate, Miyu. |
| Like all of Yoshizumi's manga, Mintna is stunningly drawn and crafted.� Noel's decisions and reactions seem genuinely rooted in the confusion of early adolescence, and the delicate subject of his cross-dressing is addressed with frankness and humor.� Similarly, the side characters, Miyu, Sasa, and others, are well designed and lifelike, providing not only a backdrop of emotion and reaction for Maria and Noel, but also a strong sense of purpose and individual motivation.� The story changes and twists--old loves make way for new and friendships bend and even break under the strain of Noel's dual identity--but through it all there is a powerful theme of loyalty between friends and family.� Both Noel and Maria grow through the course of the story, and both learn about when to hold on to and when to let go of those they care for. |
| Yoshizumi's art, improving steadily from the beginning of her career, has really reached a strong plateau in Mintna.� With clean, modern character designs and her trademark exaggerated SD facial expressions, this manga is the most upbeat and consistent of her work to this point.� The inevitable changes in drawing style and character design that seem so obvious in a longer manga series are nearly impossible to detect in this six-volume set, providing for a seamless flow to the story and art. |
| Mintna Bokura was originally published serially in Ribon, running from July of 1997 to February of 2000, and has subsequently been released in a series of six tankoubons (graphic novels).� It has been translated into several languages, including Spanish and Chinese, but hasn't, as of yet, had an American release. |
| Angela's Rating: Four and a half P-chans |
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| Though far from being a dramatic, emotional manga, Mintna Bokura excels at being exactly what it is: a lighthearted, charming story that makes you laugh just when you ought to and still somehow manages to let you feel Noel's growing pains. |
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