[万歳! Saturday- Manga Preview!]

Title: Mahoraba (まほらば)
Official Site: Square Enix
Story&Art: Kojima Akira
Volumes: 12
First vol on: 2001

I will start this section with one of my favorite mangas – Mahoraba. As you can see from the scan, the no. of girls is simply overwhelming. The manga’s done by Kojima Akira and was serialized in Square Enix’s Gangan Wing some time ago.

A total of 12 volumes, the story was later adapted into an anime by J.C Staff in 2005 known as Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~.

The story is about Ryuushi who inspires to be a picture book artist and enrolls in a art school in the town, he moved in to his cousin, Aoba Kozue’s apartment – The Narutaki-so. She is also the manager and in the aparment, there are other residents, each with an unique background and funny personality. Of course, there is something special about Kouze-chan which she does not know as well. Her personality changes into another person when she gets shocked or encounters extreme change of mood.

Ryuushi’s children’s story that is seen many times throughout the anime which involves the story of a prince. The prince is a indirect representation of Ryuushi who discovers a castle with a princess living in it. The princess has a fondness for umeboshi and for various reasons concerning umeboshi, she multiplies into other princesses.

These new princesses are the representations of many other personalities of Kozue which was discovered in later parts of the story.

The love of this manga mainly’s coz of the light hearted stories and the interaction between Ryuushi and his mates. There are plenty of mild humor and indirect impression of a slice of life manga. It is a manga for all ages, definitely heart warming.

Anime representation of the multiple personalities of Aoba Kozue