Max Lovely!

Max Lovely!

Cover of volume 3
MAXラブリー!
Genre Comedy, Romance, School Life
Manga
Written by Erika Kurahashi
Published by Shueisha
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Ribon
Original run November 2, 2001 – November 29, 2003
Volumes 5

Max Lovely! (MAXラブリー!) is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Erika Kurahashi.

Plot

Best friends Tokieda Airi and Sahara Taki have had a happy junior high school life, but the mysterious group "F" begins to target them because they attract too much attention! "F" has already hurt many attention-grabbing students, and they begin their attacks on Airi and Taki by trying to split the best friends apart. When this method doesn't work, they sink even lower: they target Airi's sister Nako! Airi and Taki's beautiful school life has been ruined, and now they must race to reveal the culprits of "F"...

Characters

The protagonist; She loves "Sahara Taki", her best friend. She is a very popular girl and along with Taki is usually referred to as the "king and queen of the school". She lost her father to an accident prior to the start of the manga and is living with her stepmother and stepsister whom she is very protective of. She usually seems cheerful but is actually filled with a lot of insecurities. The major person she relies on is Taki and she has said once that he is the only person who can see her cry. In the end, she and Taki start dating and she gets engaged to Taki.

The first ranked student in their whole grade, Taki is Airi's best friend. He's very much relied on by Airi and Airi trusts him completely (once even saying that her heart would stop if he really wanted to ignore her). Airi complains to him a lot, and he always comforts her. Apparently they can talk to each other using telepathy (only shown once in Ch 12). He is very good at styling hair, especially Airi's because his mother is a hairstylist. He has been in love with Airi prior to the beginning of the series. In the last chapter, Taki boldly announces over the school's P.A. system that he and Airi are engaged. He gives her an engagement ring after a Christmas party at her house.

Airi's step sister (not related by blood). After getting bullied by students in her old school to the point of not wanting to go to school anymore, she transfers to Airi's school in grade 8. She was tricked by Hatori Kumika. Hatori steals her shoes while actually targeting Airi. They make up after but Hatori still avoids Airi. She loves Airi who protects her a lot and would always believe her. She had a crush on Taki at the beginning of the manga but later fell in love and started dating Hikaru. At the end of the manga, she proposes and gets engaged to Hikaru

Hikaru is the president of Airi's fan club. In the beginning he has a crush on Airi. It later becomes obvious that Nako is in love with him. Hikaru was responsible for taking pictures for the school news club of Airi. When Hikaru accepts Nako, Airi tells him to quit her fan club as she believes that Nako's boyfriend must only love Nako. Hikaru accepts Airi's order, and Nako and Hikaru start dating.

Is always ranked second in the grade after Taki. Has a bit of a crush on Airi and tried to kiss her in the beginning of the series. Sides with 'F'. It is hinted in the end that Gorou gets together with Michiru.

Gorou's childhood friend. When she finds out that he likes Airi, she decides to go after Taki. After the little misunderstanding is cleared up, Kansaki and Airi become good friends. She tends to be very fickle when it comes to boyfriends and acts extremely bipolar, as Airi once dully noted. However, it is later revealed that she behaves that way because she is in love with Gorou. In Grade 6 elementary, Michiru confessed to Gorou, but was rejected. Since then, she ignored him completely and began dating many different boys in order to forget him.

ANTAGONISTS

Became Nako's friend in the beginning, but it was only to get information on Airi. She later starts to bully Nako, but Airi immediately puts a stop to it. She also pays a group of boys to beat up Taki when he's sick. She later betrays 'F' alongside Iseya and Airi. In the end, Hatori is determined to battle Michiru for Gorou's affections.

Michiru's former boyfriend who is in 'F' and who likes to use his power as a member of 'F' to punish Michiru for dumping him by cutting up her skirt and blackmailing Takuma-sensei to give him the lewd pictures he was taking.

An extremely sadistic gym teacher who is in control of 'F'. He calls himself "The God of 'F'" He doesn't allow anyone in 'F' to act without his permission, even going as far as to hit those who disobey. His first priority is to save himself, laying the blame on others. He is only liked by the members of 'F'. When Taki, Airi, Iseya, Kumika, Michiru, Hikaru and Nako have evidence that 'F' is doing bad things, he orders the members to knock them unconscious and throw them into the swimming pool to drown. However, it turns out that he had a miserable middle school life, forced to committ crimes for his classmates. They decide not to turn him into the police, and he becomes a better teacher.

MINOR CHARACTERS

Taki's mother who is a hair stylist and who owns a salon. In chapter 9, some photographers for a magazine come to her salon and take photos of Airi for which she is paid 20,000 yen which leads to Airi's suspension from school. She and Airi are shown to be close in the manga. She has a husband who doesn't appear in the manga.

Nako's mother and Airi's stepmother who loves her daughters very much and will always support their decisions. However, she doesn't like Airi's cooking because of the simple fact that Airi doesn't know how to cook. She sees Airi as her daughter and will not hesitate to support her when any problems come up(like in chapter 10, when Airi was suspended for a day).

Airi's friend who doesn't appear much in the manga except as a supporting character. In chapter 4, when Kumika was trying to get Airi, she tried to steal Chiho's shoes to implicate Airi.

Airi and Nako's 24 years old homeroom teacher who supports them throughout the manga. She is beautiful but has a totally different character which scares the students. Even so, she is a very smart teacher who cares for her students especially Airi and Taki(she was the one who first informed Airi and Taki about "F"). She stated that she sees Taki as a host. She plays an almost major role in the manga.

The substite gym teacher who liked to take pictures of all the young girls in the school. His plans were ruined when Airi and Taki caught him and made him confess to everybody his crime.

Volumes

No.Japanese release dateJapanese ISBN
01 June 14, 2002ISBN 4-08-856381-6
02 December 11, 2002ISBN 4-08-856424-3
03 May 15, 2003ISBN 4-08-856459-6
04 October 15, 2003ISBN 4-08-856496-0
05 March 15, 2004ISBN 4-08-856525-8

External links