I recently did a poll over on the shoujo Reddit to determine my next review and Kiss Me At The Stroke Of Midnight and A Sign Of Affection tied. I decided to do my review of Kiss Me At The Stroke Of Midnight first since this is a review for volume 1. My next review will be for A Sign Of Affection Vol. 4. Now, on to the review!
Chapter 1
Hinana “Nana” Hanazawa is a super serious honor student, the type to wake up and do her chores before leaving for school. Her friends and others don’t realize that she idolizes hot boys. Fairy tales where the prince sweeps a girl off her feet are just her cup of tea.
Things start to get interesting for Nana when she and other student council members are chosen to appear as extras in a movie being filmed at her school. Starring young, handsome superstar Kaede.
Nana and Kaede have a small meet cute when she stumbles into him on the day of filming.
Things go from cute to weird when Nana overhears Kaede, who seems to have a butt fetish. A true shame for such a pretty boy. When colleagues come looking for him, he plays it off, saying he was practicing lines. Unfortunately for Nana, her relief and princely illusion are short-lived when she runs into Kaede at a small local movie theatre. (She was there to watch a romantic film.) Kaede is excited to win a panty flash figure. (Is that really a thing?)
Nana must recover quickly when she has to help Kaede escape being spotted by fangirls. For some reason, he immediately trusts Nana to keep his secret. Kaede decides to join her in watching the movie. The way Nana refers to Kaede and his fetish reminds me of how Misaki would refer to Takumi as a perverted space alien when she first encountered him in Maid Sama.
The two happily watch the movie together. At first, Nana puts up a facade saying she has no particular interest in romantic things. After seeing Kaede’s genuine interest and knowing his secret, she decides to be honest with him about her dreams of a fairy-tale level romance. He tells her that this dream is unrealistic. She acknowledges this but feels it is important, to be honest with him about it.
Kaede is a pretty observant and kind guy. He realizes that Nana’s heel broke while escaping the fangirls and lends her his shoes. Nana, wanting to do the right thing, brings the shoes with her to school the next day. She intends to return them to Kaede after filming. Unfortunately, when Nana fills her bestie in on what has happened, they are overheard by Kaede’s super fans, who steal the shoes. Kaede’s manager blames Nana and says she will no longer appear on set.
Nana hopes to clear up the misunderstanding. It should be pretty apparent to Kaede that she is not the culprit. A few moments later, Nana overhears the culprits complaining that their tweet about the shoes hasn’t gotten any traction. They complain that if Kaede isn’t as popular as they thought, they no longer want to be his fans. Overhearing this conversation causes Nana to self-reflect, wondering if she is anything like these shallow girls. Does she only like him because of his pretty-boy face? Although she admits that his face is what initially caught her eye, she concludes that she likes him as a person.
Several days have passed, and Nana resolves to act as if her whole experience with Kaede were a dream. Until he comes to deliver her repaired shoes and gives her a Cinderella moment. He realizes he doesn’t know her name, pulls a ’90s move, and writes his phone number on her hand. Telling her he hopes that he gets her name next time they speak.
Chapter 2
The next day, Nana still hasn’t gotten up the courage to call or text Kaede despite having his number. It’s still on her hand, covered by a band-aid. (Girl, write it down before it washes away.) She finally works up the nerve to no avail because his phone goes straight to voicemail. Nana identifies herself but yet again forgets to give her name.
A month goes by, and no answer from Kaede. Nana’s friend Run-chan convinces her to be a part of the audience of a variety show where Kaede is scheduled to appear.
After their eyes meet during the variety show, Nana is convinced she’s being ignored, but Kaede soon comes to spirit her away to his dressing room. She is surprised by this and voices her concern about being ignored. It turns out that it was a classic shoujo miscommunication. Kaede accidentally gave her his work phone, which he tends to forget when not working.
In a moment of honesty, Nana talks about how disappointed she was by this mix-up and wants nothing more to do with Kaede because it was a serious matter to her, and it seems like it was a game to him. Nana says she doesn’t want to expect things from him, but Kaede tells her that she can rely on him.
Kaede finds her seriousness and honesty refreshing and wants to see her again. He surprises Nana by kissing her despite him wearing a mask to disguise his identity.
I’m so happy for Kaede when she finally gives him her name.
Chapter 3
Kaede and Nana agreed to meet up that weekend to learn more about each other, and Nana is excited about it. Kaede picks up Nana in a nice car, and she is excited to realize that they really will be spending time together,
When Nana and Kaede arrive at a restaurant owned by Kaede’s friend, Nana hears him mention a girl named Scarlet, but no one elaborates on it. She tells Kaede about herself but is modest about her intelligence and involvement in the student council. Nana says there’s nothing out of the ordinary about her, but Kaede thinks otherwise.
They have a nice time at lunch, although Nana overhears a couple talking smack about Kaede and his former band “Funny Bone.” Kaede then takes Nana to his place because he’s excited to show her something. While taking a look around, Nana reencounters the name Scarlet. She also sees an old picture of Kaede and his old band.
Nana worries that bringing up the band is taboo, but Kaede agrees it’s a great picture and smiles. He seems a bit jealous when Nana mentions that her childhood friend Ah chan is a boy.
They have an almost-kiss moment, but Kaede plays it off as taking care of an eyelash on her face. Nana excuses herself to the bathroom, where she overreacts, thinking Scarlet is a woman. Scarlet is actually an adorable dog.
All the things in the house that seemed to indicate a woman living with him belonged to Kaede’s manager. Nana seems happy to stay a little longer after that’s cleared up until Kaede’s manager appears none too happy to see her.
Overall impressions? 8.5/10 I’m currently reading volume 4 in the series, so this is my first time re-reading volume one. I forgot how random his fetish is. I think you have to go the suspension of disbelief route regarding Kaede’s fetish. It’s meant to be more humorous than perverse. In real life, though, he’s probably the type a girl might want to stay five miles away from, you know what I mean? I’ve always enjoyed the art, and I like the larger size of the physical volumes. The series is cute without taking itself too seriously, and sometimes, you just need humorous fluff. I will admit what initially caught my eye was the series title. I love anything that gives cute fairy-tale vibes. I’m looking forward to continuing my review of the series.
