Missions of Love

Missions of Love (Japanese: わたしに××しなさい!, Hepburn: Watashi ni Shinasai!) is a shōjo manga series by Ema Tōyama. It appeared as a serial in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi from June 10, 2009 to June 3, 2015. Kodansha published the chapters in nineteen bound volumes, from October 6, 2009 to June 12, 2015. In addition to the manga, a drama CD was also released in Japan in 2012. Missions of Love is about a junior high student and cell phone novelist named Yukina Himuro who finds out a secret about Shigure a guy who is hugely popular with the girls. In order to keep the secret hidden, Yukina orders him to do "missions" with her that involve romance. Yukina feels that the missions will help her novels, but as time passes she begins to question if it is really love developing.

Kodansha's American subsidiary Kodansha Comics USA licensed the series for an English-language translation in North America. The first volume was published on November 6, 2012, eleven volumes have been released so far with more scheduled. Reception of the English translated series has been mixed to positive, and Missions of Love was in the New York Times best seller list twice for two different volumes. In Japan, the series won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2012 for best children's manga.

Plot

Yukina Himuro, a third year junior high student, has a reputation as the "Absolute Zero Snow Woman" (絶対零度の雪女, Zettaireido no Yuki Onna) by her classmates based on her icy gaze and demeanor. Yukina is also the popular cell phone novelist Yupina (ユピナ), known only to Akira Shimotsuki, Yukina's cousin. Yukina writes stories but they have been falling in the ratings. In order to fix this she chooses to write a love story but does not know where to begin. One day Yukina overhears student council president Shigure Kitami who is popular with the girls and good mannered turn down one of the girls who confesses her love to him, he then writes down something in a book that Yukina sees. Afterwards, Shigure bumps into Yukina who is not impressed by him and then he goes on his way, Yukina then notices that he had dropped his book that she saw him write in. To Yukina's shock the book contains the names of girls with some of them crossed out, something Yukina picks up on that Shigure is not what he seems to be. Yukina then has an idea to blackmail Shigure into loving her in order to feel what it is like as she figures it will be good for her cell phone romance novel. Yukina approaches Shigure with the info and makes him do things to and for her which she calls "Missions" but over time Yukina begins to question if it is real love between them something Shigure continues to try to deny or just ideas she is getting by doing the missions to put in her novels. Things become even more complex when Yukina's cousin confesses his love to her as well, and wants to be "more than just a cousin" to her.

Characters

Yukina Himuro (氷室 雪菜, Himuro Yukina)

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa (drama CD)^[1]

Yukina is a third year junior high student who is known in her school by the icy cold gaze she gives off. Titled as the "Absolute Zero Snow Woman" by her classmates, Yukina, unknown to many but a selected few, is also the popular cell phone novelist Yupina. Yukina comes across as a cold person who is quite witted and also demanding, asking at times unreasonable requests to Shigure called "Missions"... but in reality is a rather shy, caring person, who has not experienced true love yet, and hopes to do it soon. Yukina has long brown hair, brown eyes, and wears glasses(She is terrified when she is seen without them, based on a traumatic event that happened when she was little). At some point, she was unsure of her feelings towards Shigure and Akira, so she decided to go out with both of them to finally pick the one who makes her heart race the most. Although she had stronger feelings towards Shigure than to her cousin, Yukina chose Akira. When she realized her true feelings, she broke up with Akira and later on, confessed them to Shigure when he came back from his studies.

Shigure Kitami (北見 時雨, Kitami Shigure)

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (drama CD)^[1]

Shigure is the student council president and hugely popular with the ladies. He comes across as a sweet guy so he can get the girls to confess their love to him and then reject them for fun. After Yukina blackmails him, Shigure does things to try and get out of it, one of them being finding out her glasses secret to no avail. Shigure denies that he has feelings for Yukina but for some reason can't understand why he feels he needs to keep Yukina to himself. He is also jealous of Akira and Hisame but denies it, he later on confesses his love to Yukina but because of her unsure feelings in the past, she did not respond to his feelings until after Shigure came back from his studies and told him her feelings. They started going out.

Akira Shimotsuki (霜月 晶, Shimotsuki Akira)

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (drama CD)^[1]

Akira is Yukina's cousin. He is one of the few people who know Yukina's pen name Yupina; he comes across as quiet boy and holds a love for Yukina since back to when the two of them were kids and his parents died, so she protected him in many occasions and promised to stay together with him forever. Akira confesses his love to Yukina and wants to be more than just cousins, and can't stand the sight of Shigure around her. Frequently, Yukina comes to Akira for advice. Akira, through a trial date, was chosen by Yukina to be her boyfriend but because Yukina was still confused with her feelings he felt that her love is not that love of a lover but a love like of family so he broke up with her. He is now going out with Mami.

Mami Mizuno (水野 マミ, Mizuno Mami)

Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (drama CD)^[1]

Mami is a frail girl who is childhood friends with Shigure. The two have gotten really close over the years but after seeing Shigure with Yukina, offers to help Yukina get closer to Shigure for some reason unknown to her. While Mami appears sweet and well mannered on the outside, in reality she is very cunning and gets jealous when she sees Shigure with Yukina. She is prone to social stress, and as informed by Shigure, she calms down when someone pats her on the head. Mami soon falls in love with Akira, and even knowing that he likes Yukina, she still confesses to him and they started going out.

Hisame Kitami

Hisame is Shigure's step brother. He often gets jealous when seeing Shigure and Mami together. On the outside Hisame is bad mannered, but on the inside he is actually quite a good boy. He teases Mami but likes her secretly. He felt jealousy when Akira agreed to go out with Mami and tried to destroy their relationship but failed. Hisame becomes attached to Yukina whenever Mami rejects him. Later on, it is shown that they have warmed up to each other and Yukina also encourages Hisame's crush on Mami. Hisame recently confessed his love to Mami. After being rejected he turns to Yukina and makes her his toy to play with. He also threatens to tell Shigure about the identity of Yupina (handle name of Yukina). He is secretly Dolche, Yukina's rival in her novel. He shows to have a crush on Yukina although he thinks that he is just replacing Yukina for Mami.

Release

Missions of Love was first serialized in the monthly Shōjo magazine Nakayoshi in June 2009, and ended in 2015 with the June 3rd issue.^[2][3] Parts of the series were also issued in the quarterly magazine counterpart Nakayoshi Lovely from December 17, 2009 to March 17, 2010. In all, nineteen bound volumes were published by Kodansha.^[4] Following the end of the main series, an extra edition was published in the August, 2015 issue of Nakayoshi.^[5] In addition to the manga, on February 6, 2012, a drama CD was released by Kodansha through the recording studio Rakuonsha. The script was written by Natsuko Takahashi.^[1] The CD was bundled with a limited edition version of the eighth manga volume, and is based on events that take place in the first four volumes.^[6] On April 23, 2012, it was announced that American subsidiary Kodansha Comics USA had licensed the series for release in North America.^[7] The first volume was released on November 6, 2012, eleven volumes have been released so far.^[8][9] Outside of North America, the series has been made available in e-book format in the United Kingdom.^[10]

Reception

The English-language adaptation of Missions of Love has received mixed to positive ratings: Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network gave the first volume an overall rating of a C+ calling it a quick read, much racier than Toyama's earlier works, and telling readers who do not like an unequal romance to "steer clear". She described the art as "easy on the eyes" and sensual while calling it a "very uncomfortable romance".^[11] John Rose from The Fandom Post gave volume one an A rating calling it "Incredibly smart, sexy and possessing" and also praised the artwork.^[12] Darkstorm from Anime UK News gave the series a 6/10 saying that although the story is unoriginal and has overused things such as a school setting and love triangle, the layout of the story is great and the heart is in the right place when it comes to it.^[13] Thalia Sutton of Suvudu gave the second volume a good review, calling the series thus far appealing for commutes, and light emotional handling overall. She went on to say "Missions of Love, volume 2 closes with many possibilities for its romantic future, and leaves you feeling introspective, too"^[14] The second volume of Missions of Love spent two weeks on the New York Times best seller list for manga from January 13–26, 2013.^[15] The fourth volume was also on the New York Times best seller list for a week from July 21–27, 2013.^[16]

In Japan, the series won the 36th annual Kodansha Manga Award in 2012 for best children's manga.^[17] Circulation figures for the series topped 120 million total copies.^[18] Three volumes of "Missions of Love" also appeared on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart in 2013, and 2014. The first to make the chart was the 11th volume which ranked thirty-sixth on the chart for the week of February 4, 2013 with 18,224 copies sold.^[19] Next to rank was the 13th volume which ranked thirty-eight on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart for the week of June 10–16, 2013 with 17,124 copies sold. Volume fourteen was the last volume to appear on the chart, it ranked thirty-fourth on the chart for the week of February 3–9, 2014 with 14,981 sold.^[20][21]

References

External links

• Official website at Kodansha (Japanese)
• Official website at Nakayosi (Kodansha) (Japanese)
• Official website at Kodansha Comics USA
• Missions of Love (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia