Title: So Cute It Hurts Vol. 14
Author: Go Ikeyamada
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: August 1, 2017
The Story
Volume 14 of So Cute It Hurts was another powerful addition that takes you, once again, on an emotional roller coaster. After the great tsunami, Aoi is thought to have died. Coupled with the fear that Meguru and Mitsuru’s grandmother may also have been affected, they travel to Sendai in order to look for them. Aoi’s uncle as well as Uetsugi join in on the search as well. Once their grandmother is found safe, the search for Aoi goes full force. Mego is looking around when an aftershock hit and Aoi appears out of the blue to catch her!
At this point, the manga rewinds time to the moment the tsunami hit to show how Aoi survived. He rescued and woman and her child, but the woman turned around and went back to rescue Aoi because she was his mother. Aoi wakes up in the hospital and learns that his mother died in order to save him. From here, Aoi tells Mego everything that happened and he wants to search for the child he rescued. Turns out that the man Aoi’s mother married was a psychiatrist who was trying to help her. He doesn’t blame Aoi for what happened and would like it if he can spend time with his little half-brother, to which Aoi agrees.
Aoi decides that he no longer wants to wait until he graduates from college to marry Mego. He proposes to her on the spot and she accepts. The manga then skips ahead four years and ends on the day of Mego’s wedding.
This was a beautiful volume of So Cute It Hurts. I’m actually glad that Aoi is alive and well! I’m still not buying the Azusa/Mitsuru relationship even though Azusa has changed a lot since the beginning of this series. Shino will always be the best girl until the very end for me! Speaking of Shino… whatever happened to the guy she was seeing many volumes ago? Go Ikeyamada kind of left that little story point out there floating in limbo. Maybe we’ll see him in the final volume?
Characters
At this point, the only character development is with Azusa. While she still has her tsundere tendencies, they turned down significantly now. The fact that she considers Mitsuru her hero is a testament to how much she grew. She did have some redeeming moments in the last volume, but now we get to see her in her true self. Also, how she remained calm and took charge at her family company when her father was in a panic really showed how much she matured. I think she’s going to do just fine as the head of the company. Perhaps with the time skip, we will see some of that in Volume 15!
Final Thoughts
Another great volume of So Cute It Hurts! Again, I’m happy that Go Ikeyamada didn’t pull the trigger to kill off Aoi. It was also nice to see her incorporate the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant incident into her story. I know that must be a touchy subject for the Japanese people and the fact that she went ahead and incorporated a real life event into her story was a very bold move and I commend her for doing so. It makes me wonder if any of the characters’ actions were pulled from real life experiences?
All in all, it looks like we are going to get our happy ending to the story. Everything should be tied up nicely next volume and nothing here really felt rushed! I’m really looking forward to seeing how the story ends, but at the same time, I’m going to miss reading So Cute It Hurts. This was one of the better romance series I’ve read in a long time!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
