I've been reading a lot of manga lately, but more so the ones that have been completed. They are generally of the older generation, and this one is no exception. Video Girl Ai is very old, started in 1990 and completed in 1993, and is drawn by Katsura Masakazu. I have also read some of his other series, "DNA^2 (DNA Squared)", and all of "I's".
I saw one episode of the anime based on this manga many many years ago, and never saw the rest of the series/OVA's and never came across the manga until recently when I started reading through OneManga's website.
The story is about Youta, a kid who is pretty much 'dateless' and has had many bad experiences with being rejected by girls he likes. Being pure of heart, he discovers the girl he likes, likes his best friend, and sacrifices his own happiness for the happiness of the girl so she can date his friend. This act of kindness opens up a mysterious store where only the 'pure of heart' can see, and he is given a video that will comfort his pain. This is when Ai, comes into play, no pun intended. The videos normally produce a 'video girl' who comes out and does whatever the viewer desires, to comfort them from their pain, if their desire is great enough to draw them from the television screen. However, in Youta's case, his VCR is broken and something goes wrong and although Ai is produced from the screen, she is now 'imperfect'. This is because she learns and experiences emotions, when the video girls are 'programmed' not to, being only for comfort purposes where love plays no part in their behaviour. From here on, it starts to get extremely complicated with a multi-person multi-channel love polygon where there are many emotions and tears along the way.
The art is oldschool in the sense that it is not 'pretty' like shoujou-ai/bishoujou style, but more like the Ranma 1/2 age of mangas'. It's easy to read, easy to absorb, and is 116 chapters in length. The story is very deep and involving with many twists along the way, and strong emotions that are heartfelt by the characters. It took me two days to read through it, but that was because I had nothing else to do, and also because it was so engrossing I just kept going LOL.
If you don't mind getting involved with a manga, then try reading this one. A word of warning though, it has been labelled in the 'ecchi' category (ecchi = perverted/dirty) because there is quite a lot of nudity (not highly graphic, mainly upper body and backside but no groin material exactly), fanservice (pantyshots) and a lot of sex-related material (as it is called 'kinky' in the translations from this particular scanlator group). If that is a problem, then don't read it...
The cover for the second volume is below.
I saw one episode of the anime based on this manga many many years ago, and never saw the rest of the series/OVA's and never came across the manga until recently when I started reading through OneManga's website.
The story is about Youta, a kid who is pretty much 'dateless' and has had many bad experiences with being rejected by girls he likes. Being pure of heart, he discovers the girl he likes, likes his best friend, and sacrifices his own happiness for the happiness of the girl so she can date his friend. This act of kindness opens up a mysterious store where only the 'pure of heart' can see, and he is given a video that will comfort his pain. This is when Ai, comes into play, no pun intended. The videos normally produce a 'video girl' who comes out and does whatever the viewer desires, to comfort them from their pain, if their desire is great enough to draw them from the television screen. However, in Youta's case, his VCR is broken and something goes wrong and although Ai is produced from the screen, she is now 'imperfect'. This is because she learns and experiences emotions, when the video girls are 'programmed' not to, being only for comfort purposes where love plays no part in their behaviour. From here on, it starts to get extremely complicated with a multi-person multi-channel love polygon where there are many emotions and tears along the way.
The art is oldschool in the sense that it is not 'pretty' like shoujou-ai/bishoujou style, but more like the Ranma 1/2 age of mangas'. It's easy to read, easy to absorb, and is 116 chapters in length. The story is very deep and involving with many twists along the way, and strong emotions that are heartfelt by the characters. It took me two days to read through it, but that was because I had nothing else to do, and also because it was so engrossing I just kept going LOL.
If you don't mind getting involved with a manga, then try reading this one. A word of warning though, it has been labelled in the 'ecchi' category (ecchi = perverted/dirty) because there is quite a lot of nudity (not highly graphic, mainly upper body and backside but no groin material exactly), fanservice (pantyshots) and a lot of sex-related material (as it is called 'kinky' in the translations from this particular scanlator group). If that is a problem, then don't read it...
The cover for the second volume is below.
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