Krystallina: In the latest line of stepsibling romances comes Mint Chocolate, author Orikasa’s debut release stemming from a one-shot. High school girl Nanami is stunned to meet her new stepbrother, Kyouhei. Why is she so shocked? Because Kyouhei is in her grade and attracts a lot of admirers…including Nanami.
No one at school knows they are now family, and while Kyouhei tends to be cold to girls, he doesn’t seem to mind Nanami. This both frustrates her and makes her heart race. As he teases her, there are signs it’s not brotherly annoyance but romantic flirting…
Which we readers know it is. While by the end of volume 1 Kyouhei may not be ready to fully admit he likes his stepsister, he’s at the gates of admitting it. He finds her actions and reactions interesting, since although she tends to yell at him and otherwise push him away, she’s not very good at hiding her crush on him.
And if he didn’t have a clue before, peeking at Nanami’s browser history and seeing she Googled if stepsiblings can marry probably tipped him off.
By the way, unless you’re a parent of a child or work in HR or something, don’t do that. But hey, what do I know. Because personally, if someone told me in our first conversation my dearly departed relative is turning in their grave because of a bad grade I got, I probably would want to punch their lights out. Nanami? She laughs because it wasn’t the usual pity she receives when people hear her father’s deceased. I’ve read some flimsy reasons for falling in love (or at least crushing) on someone in manga, and I got to say, this is probably one of the worst.
That may be the author’s inexperience at work, and it’s not the only instance of Mint Chocolate stumbling to find its footing. This first volume runs through stepsibling romance manga’s greatest hits like walking in on someone changing, getting into the other’s bed by accident, and friend who already senses love in bloom. Kyouhei also is somehow a blend of every main love interest at once (the “do what I want” type, cold and standoffish, teasing, popular), and so he does whatever Orikasa thinks will lead to the next instance of making Nanami (and readers’) heart race, even if it doesn’t always make sense in terms of the narrative. Like, getting emotional over a thank you candy bar? Really?
From at the art, I would have guessed Mint Chocolate was older than its 2016 debut. It obviously looks a bit rough in the opening chapter, but the manga includes a lot of simple visual comedy bits, from a round-headed Kyouhei to a dreaming Nanami. When I first saw the cover, I was reminded of manga from the early 2000s licensed by TOKYOPOP, and after reading it, my opinion hasn’t changed. The story has that same atmosphere too, so if you want some modern retro, Mint Chocolate volume 1 is here to dish up some of that old familiar flavor.
Of course, the problem is that this isn’t an older series, and even if it was, Mint Chocolate is going to face a tough challenge with all the more modern and stylish romance titles out there.
Krystallina’s rating: 2 out of 5
Justin: And here’s another manga adding something spicy to its romance story. Of course the reasons why are quite simple (story and characters need that extra kick and creators certainly want the additional drama), but that generally means you’ll know immediately if the premise is worth your time or not. Nanami is your typical high school girl who has a crush on the most popular boy in the class, Kyouhei. Said popular boy, however, is known as quite icy and has rejected girls who happen to be more popular than Nanami, so she believes she would never get to know him intimately anytime soon.
Well, that is until her mom ends up remarrying…and her new dad happens to have a child. That child is the most popular boy in her class, Kyouhei. Appears they will be getting to know each other, but not like she wanted!
Mami Orikasa’s Mint Chocolate from the start implies how difficult it is for Nanami to accept Kyouhei as no longer someone to be crushing on but rather to accept as a stepsibling, and after reading this whole first volume, it will take a twist of unforeseen proportions for those two to not be together. So if that’s not your speed, you won’t get much out of reading this. If you’re in for the entertainment factor, then this might just do, as it’s not just Nanami who has a crush — Kyouhei actually has feelings for Nanami too!
But as you can figure, it’s not that simple. While generally supportive of what his dad wants to do, the divorce affected Kyouhei in a way that’s made him not want to get into a relationship with anyone. This changes now that he’s family with Nanami, and these two interact with each other a lot — from interacting more at school to various house escapades, you’ll get the mix of anger and frustration from Nanami but somewhat cold and detached emotions from Kyouhei. You’ll then get that moment where they both happen to be all alone together and their emotions spill all over the place.
But of course, saying any of this publicly would be awkward. In fact, they don’t even mention their family relationship to any of their classmates. Their parents only believe they’re acting like siblings. At this point they’re maintaining a careful distance, but Nanami’s having a tough time shaking her real feelings for him. The will they or won’t they scenario is very present throughout this whole volume.
We don’t get too many additional characters, but there is one — Kyouhei’s (actual!?) friend Mizuki — who ends up appearing to shake these two up. He specifically shakes up Nanami due to her heart and mind going full throttle, but once that gets resolved, it soon turns into whether or not he can actually grab her attention. There is a girl Nanami knows who shows up a few times, but not too often. The parents do take up a bit of the space, but it makes sense. Will be curious to see how much more they’re involved in the story.
The big standout to me is the art, which introduces the general shoujo flair but also many funny faces. So we’ll have Nanami blushing hard thanks to some irresponsible searching on the computer and Kyouhei indirectly informing her of it, but then we’ll see a poor chocolate cake all flipped messily on the table and Nanami curled up like a ball on the couch, in disarray emotionally. How the eyes are drawn and the way the characters can be drawn wasn’t gut-bustingly funny but it is effective, and it does provide some levity considering what the actual plot this manga is dealing with.
Mint Chocolate for its first volume does have elements that are intriguing to a degree, but overall, this is definitely going to be aching for someone. I mean not just these two characters, but anyone else that gets involved. It’ll also certainly be entertaining as it teases how the two leads interact with each other, but we’ll have to see how long it can do that the more this manga continues.
Justin’s rating: 3 out of 5