Book Review: Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Vol. 1
I have received a digital ARC copy of “Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Vol. 1” by Hazuki Takeoka via Netgalley.
"Chasing After Aoi Koshiba" is a story about a popular girl in high school, Sahoko, that intentionally and successfully turned herself into a popular girl. She has Instagram that gets a lot of likes. She gets a lot of attention for how she dresses and looks. She became friends with two other popular girls.
Sahoko wants to be the main protagonist in her story, and she often calls other people side characters or losers. She was one of them but not anymore.
She has it all figured out - or it seems - until she meets Koshiba, a sporty girl who appears not to care much about image. Koshiba hangs out with boys, is not bothered by getting her uniform wet, and is quite forward. She is not like Sahoko, and Sahoko is very intrigued. She wants to become friends with Koshiba for reasons that she can't even explain to herself.
The manga opens up with scenes ahead in the future, when Sahoko is a third-year university student at the graduation reunion party. And then, the story switches to the past and her years in high school.
Although the artwork is cute and nicely done, the narration is quite choppy. It's hard to understand the logic behind Sahoko's behaviour. She wants to become friends with Koshiba, but then she misunderstands her, is embarrassed, and when trying to apologize, makes things even more confusing by kissing Koshiba.
Completely out of blue.
There is no buildup to how Sahoko feels about Koshiba, no insight into how they first met (it's mentioned only in passing that they sat next to each other in one class once). Why she gets so fixated on finding Sahoko to invite her to hang out, and then to apologize, that she starts stalking her and even joins the culture club, meanwhile claiming that she is not "like that".
Sahoko behaviour confused me. I didn't like the way she viewed others as side characters. Or the fact that she intentionally created her personality to be an It Girl. Even though she did reflect and address it, she treats this as her achievement, a "fake it till you make it" approach. Nothing in the story addresses the fact that Sahoko must be suffering from such low esteem that she needs this fake personality or what could have led to her doing that. She seems like a nice person, but her motives are questionable.
I feel like there was a lot of left out from the story, and obviously, there will be a sequel, but it was just too choppy for me to get really into the plot.