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The picture is the color insert from the last book of the Shurin Koukou Dainiryou Returns series by Tsukimura Kei and illustrated by Ninomiya Etsumi. It's a very nice ending to a series that started off so damn irritating (see my earlier post on the first book of the Returns series for some slightly incoherent ranting as well as some background on the books). I tried rereading the first series after finishing this last book, but had the same issue as before and failed. Instead, I've been rereading the Returns series. It focuses on the main couple and makes the situation a bit more equal (and thus less annoying--I dislike overly unbalanced relationships, it tends to get old). Lots of romance cliches thrown about everywhere, but it was all done tolerably. Instead of the irritating dorm mates we see more of the nice friends. The biggest problem with this series is that you have to read the first series to read the second series. If only you could start reading from, say, book 3 of the first series, it'd be a lot better. (It'd be even better if the annoying dorm mates conveniently DIED at the some point.)One amusing bit I did manage to pick up from series 1 before I abandoned it was the depths of the uke's cluelessness. First, the seme gives him a Rolex watch for his birthday. The uke's reaction to seeing the brand? Dropping it, then demanding to know where he'd stolen it from. (The seme is a best-selling author and has lots of money.) Another time, the seme buys expensive chocolates for Valentine's Day. When he hands it over to the uke the uke thinks it's a leftover from the many chocolates the seme received from his admirers. When the seme says it's for the uke, the uke asks where the seme had found it (as if he'd seen it on the street and picked it up). The seme is terrible at expressing himself, but things are made worse by the uke being so foolishly clueless. XD;
