QQ Sweeper Vol 1.

For a long time now, I've been dying to read 'Dengeki Daisy' by Kyousuke Motomi. It's one of those things that whenever i intend to buy the series i inevitably end up buying something else. So when i heard the author had a new manga series, i decided to check it out. There were several five star reviews on amazon so i bought issue one.

The story revolves around a girl called Fumi Nishioka whose path crosses with a boy named Kyutaro Horikita. Kyutaro turns out to be a sweeper whose jobs is to clean the negative energy from people's hearts and soon Fumi becomes his apprentice.

I always judge a manga on five things;

1. It's plot
2. It's artwork
3. It's script
4. It's potential
5. How i feel when i put it down.

So I'll start with the plot and the script since they go hand in hand.

The setting of a high school may not be new in the shojo world but the way in which it's handled in QQ Sweeper is different, the school building is part of the intrigue and doesn't limit the story. I like that the plot focusing on the torment in peoples hearts brings a darkness to the manga to bring something a little different than the normal romance.The heroine felt to me a little two dimensional, i didn't see a great amount of personality from Fumi, though we should sympathize with her i never grew to care about her in any way. The fact that she is a gold digger perhaps didn't help. It felt like even though there was a sense of mystery to both the characters future and past it was quite superficial meaning it lacked the ability to hold my attention. In fact it took me three goes to finish the volume as i kept getting bored.

As for the volumes artwork there was no coloured insert but there were plenty of full page art pieces, Five in fact. Some where really nicely done, others were a Little flat (see below). However where the artist really impresses is in the tiny details such as the pattern on the shirt or futon. These little details really make an image more complete.

 

However when i put the book down i felt underwhelmed, i can see where the book is going but i never got excited by it, i never felt like i couldn't put it down and i think it will be a slow burner.

Overall i know lots of people love it and i respect that but for me it just wasn't a good fit and i don't think I'll buy anymore of the series.(incidentally i may give this volume away in a future prizedraw if that is something you are all interested in.