The plotline is cute, but nothing new:
Due to her fathers job Asou Hina had to move and change schools pretty much on a regular basis so far, therefore she never had a chance to develop close friendships. She wants to change that at her new school, but finds herself the only girl in a class full of boys. 5 (hence the title) of these boys are quite outstanding and they "adopt" Hina into their circle. But one of them, Shimizu Toshi, known for walking ankle-deep in girlfriends, seems to take a special interest in Hina.
So, you see really that the plot is a quite common mixture of popular shoujo manga themes. There is for one the "new girl at school"-plot on top of a good foundation of the "reverse harem"-plot. Both widely popular. On top of this comes a small dosis of the "fighting heroine"-plot, a small "gender-bender"- side plot and of course the "alpha man protector" hero (almost a given constant in shoujo mangas). There is some comedy, but I have read a good deal of funnier stuff. And some of the plot is really out there, but I still want to call this an absolute masterpiece because of the unique and very appealing "cool" style of the mangaka.
So now a word about the master:
I have looked up other published work by Furukawa Shiori and apart from "Five" there have been released three other series (Hajimari no Kotoba, Number Boy, Tsuki o Dakishimeru). The only translations that I could find are scanlations at mangafox for some of the short story collection "Tsuki o Dakishimeru" and the still unfinished series "Five". I will definitely keep an eye on this artist. Furukawas style is adorable. Not only are the drawings unusual, they are also extremely sensual. Furukawa is very good at drawing eyes, draws very nice hands and even better are the mouths. The lips seem adorable in the mangas, made so by an absolute minimalistic input, it's not what is drawn, but what isn't that seems so attractive. In the front views upper lips are rarely drawn, the bottom lip is defined usually by a single narrow line, what makes the thing work is what is in between. The lips are slightly open, wide open, drawn into lopsided smiles or cheeky grins. But what really pushes my button is the fact, that Furukawa has a tongue thing. The characters are constantly sticking their tongues out, catching drops of ice cream, licking their lips and doing various acrobatics with their tongues and it is absolutely ... wow. This rather small and simple seeming thing gives the manga a very earthy sensuality, a feeling of cheekiness, of teasing sexuality. Okay, its a given that the main hero is a real boycandy, the heroine supercute and even most of the sidecast looks really hip, but there's quite a lot of that out there. "Five" manages to create sexual tension while still staying within the proper boundaries of a free-for-under-16-shoujo manga. No halfclad heroine, no cheasy love scene, but a trendy style of drawing, a dose of retro-art and pop-art and a touch of tongue. So what if you do not have the characters undress themselves - who bothers about the clothing level when Toshi opens his mouth and licks his lips?
This just managed to remind me again that even what seems commonplace at first sight can be really hot - in the right light. The tongue thing absolutely does it for me. The tongue is an underrated and neglected body part anyway and really deserving of this artistic hommage.
