Reading the manga of Video Girl Ai, I kept noticing the realism of the emotions of the characters. Although Masakazu draws female characters to appeal to the male audience, I was surprised to see how much he understood their emotions. I'm sure that anyone who has ever held feelings for others would know the little situations that he provides: the anxieties about whether or not the person of your interest would call; when you say something but are thinking the opposite; the pain you feel when your feelings don't reach; about how much an impact a single phrase has; and the tension you build to say something simple, but once you get interrupted, you can never go ahead with it; the endless misunderstandings except, unlike MI, they often don't get resolved here. That might sound frustrating to the audience, but that's often the case in the real world: things go unsaid, or the chance to say something passes. These were the aspects of the manga that kept drawing me back: whether or not Youta and Ai would finally speak their minds, the unexpected turns for the hopeful, and the little disappointments. We'll see if the anime lives up to the creator's talents! |