Othello

Review Date: 2007 July 09 09:09

Reviewed by: Azure

Released by: Tanoshimi

Publishing Country: UK

Author: Satomi Ikezawa

Age Rating: 16+

Page Count: 208

ISBN-13: 978009950645

ISBN-10: 99506459

Summary

Yaya’s friends aren’t exactly supportive, they call her "Yaya the cry-ya". She still sticks with them, but is she really happy? Yaya then receives a letter from her seven year old self, posted via a time capsule service that holds on to letters then posts them ten years later. Enclosed within the letter is Yaya’s old toy transformation locket from " Magical Girl Run-run".

Review

Yaya puts up with a lot from Seri and Moe , her supposed friends. Having endured a lot of bullying as young girl Yaya is too nervous to stand up for herself and is scared of being alone. On top of that a boy named Moriyama just won’t leave her alone, and constantly teases her about the way she acts when she is with Seri and Moe. Her only outlet is meeting up with her online friends on a Sunday, where she dresses up and discusses her favourite band Juliet. Keeping up this double life puts immense pressure on Yaya. Things change when she received a letter from her ten year old self containing a transformation locket from a favourite childhood series. Whoever she looks into the locket she changes in Nana, a super confident and possibly super powered girl determined to punish Seri and Moe

It’s interesting to see that despite being generally downtrodden Yaya has already found an outlet for feelings by meeting with her cosplay friends. When she is cosplaying she seems to generally to be more confident .When she becomes Nana this confidence increases ten fold to the point where she is almost as obnoxious as Seri and Moe. Nana acts as an avenger for Yaya, righting any perceived wrongs, in her own unique style. In a way this reminded me of the early chapters of Yu-gi-oh where Yugi’s alternate personality emerged and punished wrong doers without all that silly card business getting in the way. Yaya herself is completely unaware of the transformation, and whilst she gets increasingly anxious about the gaps in her memory in her usual style she backs away and tries to pretend it didn’t happen. Whilst Nana is capable of some pretty amazing acrobatics it’s left ambiguous as to whether Yaya undergoes a real transformation or suffering some kind of breakdown.

Othello is actually pretty enjoyable, if a little unfocused. Seri and Moe are confused by the appearance of Nana, either thinking that she is a separate person but a friend of Yaya’s or in cases where she changes in front of them a hidden part of Yaya’s personality. Depite this they still hang around with Yaya, even though they quite obviously only enjoy tormenting her. Surely after the first few times they’d have given up? This is balanced out my Yaya’s potential relationship with Moriyama the only character in the manga who actually seems to like Yaya for herself.

The art is pretty solid and is a step up from Ikezawa’s previous work Guru Guru Pon chan. The action scenes with Nana really show off her skills with some really interesting poses.

Rating: 7/10