Doubt is a newish series I just picked up from my local public library. The series stars a young girl called Ai Maekawa as she starts out at a new high school. She has decided to re-vamp her whole life after learning that she is the type of girl that guys don’t notice. After spending the time between middle school and high school dolling herself up she becomes friends with the two hottest guys in school and learns that being pretty doesn’t make life easy.
The message may not seem like the best thing for young girls (Being pretty and perfect is all that matters) but reading deeper we find out that isn’t all there is to this series. We see that Ai’s transformation isn’t really what changes her life; instead her personality is what seems to grow and is the catalyst in her life. She has to fight for every inch she gains at her new school and for the affections of popular but aloof boy Sō. This manga made me chuckle to myself so much that I got weird looks on the bus. There is a lot of slapstick, some of which is cultural, and usually more serious chapters are balanced with funny ones. While it is a romance the main love interest is a real break from the usual “prince” stereotype. He’s defiantly not a perfectly attentive doormat Mary-sue like many guys in teen romances are. In fact he’s kind of a jerk sometimes because being attractive and popular gave him a bad personality. He’s a nice guy; he’s just kind of bent.
The premise is a young girl who doesn’t want to still be a virgin at thirty. There is a lot of talk about sex. The actual depiction of sexual acts stops at kissing but everyone seems to be sleeping around except for Ai and Sō. One young man wakes up in someone’s bed and has to deal with morning after fall out. Everyone teases Ai about her sexual innocence at the drop of a hat; it becomes a running joke throughout the series.
I think this series is appropriate for a high school library despite the massive amount of sexy talk. High school teens have to hear that kind of talk all the time and probably expect some level of sexual knowledge in someone their own age. The development of Ai is great and watching her go from meek to badass is loads of fun. The two hero’s make a cute couple without being that kind of overly cute couple that make you deal out the punches.
