Title: Love and Heart Vol. 4
Author: Chitose Kaidou
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Romance, Thriller
Publication Date: December 28, 2021
The Story
Two-faced is the central theme In volume four of Love and Heart. First, we learn about Wakana and how she only likes to pretend to be cute to reel boys in and then shatter their hearts by breaking up with them. When she learns about Haruma, Yoh, and Touya, she feels the need to interject to try and steal Haruma away from Yoh. Unfortunately, she targeted Haruma… the king of deceit… and all of her not-so-well-laid plans blew up in her face. She then decides to turn her attention to Touya but…
Enter the double-sided face of Sawako! She, too, has played the part of some air-headed bimbo but, in reality, she’s just as conniving as Wakana! Instead of trying to flirt with everyone, she was a more devious approach to getting what she wants. After diffusing any attempts on Touya by Wakana, Sawako turns her attention to Touya instead.
Apparently, Sawako knows or, at the very least, suspects a thing or two about Haruma and she decides to use Touya and get him on her side. While she’s plotting all of this, we are introduced to a new character in Madoka. To backtrack a little, all of the Wakana stuff happened at a trip to the amusement park and when Wakana went off with Haruma in his attempt to swoon him, Yoh was left alone and looked down in the dumps. A mysterious girl sits next to her and lets her pour her feelings out, leading Haruma to come to a decision. That girl later turns up as a sophomore of the college they go to and the captain of the basketball club… which doesn’t have many members.
During a friendly game, Touya (now fueled by Sawako) and Haruma go one-on-one and it gets a little heated. Yoh runs up to try and see what’s going on and ends up spraining her ankle… and right before summer break, too.
Yoh and Haruma are invited out on summer break by everyone but they don’t show up because… and I’ll leave it at that for you guys to read!
Characters
So, Wakana is two-faced, Sawako is two-faced, we already know that Haruma is two-faced as he has been since the beginning, and Touya is becoming two-faced because he’s being influenced by someone who is two-faced.
When is Harvey Dent joining the cast?
I don’t really know what to say about Wakana and Sawako other than they are both bitches in their own ways. Wakana loves to put on a cute face and manipulate men and then dump them while Sawako likes to put on a cute face and pretend to be an airhead. The only difference between the two of them is Sawako can drop her air-headed act and try to manipulate men through devious planning to make them hers. Plus, she doesn’t have any interest in dumping who she pursues. When she gets what she wants, she holds onto it. That’s the big difference between the two of them.
Oddly enough, I can respect Sawako’s methods. I mean, if you want someone badly enough and the feelings are genuine… maybe you do have to resort to some underhanded tactics to reel them in! Then again, if they find out the lengths you are going to, the numbers won’t lie and it will spell disaster for you. Because of this, it makes you wonder what is going to happen if/when Touya discovers what Sawako is doing? How will those feelings for Yoh play out then? It is a high-risk situation where Sawako will either cash in or crash and burn horribly. Because Haruma exists, I’m betting on the latter rather than the former.
Speaking of Haruma… interesting twist at the end there. This series doesn’t exactly make anything subtle and because as such, we’ve been suspicious of Haruma since the very first volume. A lot of his actions here seemed to align with who he was as a character until the very last page of this volume. Perhaps, it will still be that way but there was a single line that he uttered during this volume which foreshadowed the ending perfectly. I wonder if this is where we are going to be introduced to the real Haruma or if this actually has another logical, yet contrived, explanation?
Final Thoughts
This was the best volume in the series so far. Volume one makes you feel a bit on the fence about what you’re going to be reading. Then Volumes two and three to a great job of setting up Haruma to be this misunderstood creep that could be genuine in his motives. Then, this volume may or may not have changed that. The cliffhanger we’re left on makes you want to read the next volume as quickly as possible but it’s more than just Haruma.
Wakana and Sawako ending up as very similar, yet, very different characters was a breath of fresh air. Now, it is becoming pretty clear as to what this series is all about… just a bunch of shady people but only on the surface. If you read between the lines and take a deeper examination of why these characters are behaving like this, then you’ll begin to understand and appreciate this not-so-common spin on the typical love triangle story.
Love and Heart in the title itself shows duality. Love is always outward while Heart is always inward. By having so many two-faced characters, we are seeing their exteriors as “love.” Wakana’s love for toying with men, Sawakno’s love for Touya, Haruma’s love for Yoh. Then the “heart” is the true reflection of who these characters are on the inside. Wakana’s egotistical, playful nature, Sawako’s deviousness, Haruma’s stalker/obsession persona. The whole series is about duality and this volume makes that perfectly clear!
I’m loving this take on the tried-and-true formula and I look forward to seeing more of it in Volume 5 which is our halfway point in the series!
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This item was purchased for review.
