Story by Jinno Hiroaki
Art by Wakasa Takeshi
Copyright © 1998 Jinno Hiroaki, Wakasa Takeshi
Published by Big S Comics
Volumes 1-4 complete.

Sometimes you have to take chances. Luckily when buying things like manga, risk investment is usually pretty low. Unfortunately with the number of manga out there your hit ratio may be low as well. LOVE LETTER was one such risk that at first I was not sure would pan out, but in the end things turned out well.
LOVE LETTER is about sudden rivals (over a boy's affections) from two very different backgrounds. Although it starts out being a love triangle set in a somewhat novel environment it ends up being how the two girls come to rely upon each other. There have been many settings for love stories and this one is slightly off the beaten path. It all centers around Shodou, the Japanese art of calligraphy.
Omaezaki Kaoru has been a gifted Shodou artist since she was a young child living a rather cloistered life. She is extremely polite in her speech and very reserved in manner. Some might call her an ice-queen. She is also something of an elitist, exemplified by how she will write in kanji only for she "hates kana." Her rival is Naruse Makoto, who is pretty much the exact opposite of Omaezaki-san. She enjoys life and expresses herself jubilantly in everything she does—from playing basketball, to making okonomiyaki, to Shodou. She shows a natural talent for the art, which relies upon being able to express emotion and meaning through the written word. Makoto-chan will use kana liberally in her calligraphy to give more power and immediacy to her work.
The two girls clash over the affections of the son of Omaezaki-san's Shodou dojo instructor, Takizawa Kenichi, who is also a gifted Shodou artist. He is not reserved like Omaezaki-san and is almost a rebel to his father's stoic and traditionalist view of the art. However Takizawa-senpai recognizes talent when he sees it. His view of the world is so devoted to Shodou that when he receives a simple love-letter from Makoto-chan that says only "suki" he is giddy with excitement at what he sees in the letters. So much so that he is totally oblivious to what the love-letter is about. Takizawa-senpai immediately scouts Makoto-chan for his father's dojo. The results when she shows up are spectacular to say the least. When Takizawa-senpai shows Omaezaki-san the reason why he scouted Makoto-chan, she fully understands what the letter was about. Omaezaki-san had grown up with Takizawa-senpai and although she did not show it well she loved him. In many ways she was not even really sure of how to address the emotion.
At first this story was extremely frustrating. It was hard to feel any sympathy for either Omaezaki-san or Makoto-chan. One was cold and apparently unfeeling. The other was outspoken and too busy expressing herself to notice who she may have stepped on. Takizawa-senpai is even more frustrating in that his interest in the art apparently blinds him to anything else! However the story does grow on the reader. By the beginning of volume two you see the effect Makoto-chan has on Omaezaki-san. A rival that can finally challenge her wakes her up and shakes her world. She comes to depend on this rivalry. Even when matters move to place Omaezaki-san as the winner for Takizawa-senpai's affections she knows that chance was not fair and drags Makoto-chan back in to their life.
The story is only four volumes long and the events in the fourth volume seem somehow rather forced, but it fits. The reader can see how the author was driving at this conclusion. By the end you are happy calling Omaezaki-san "Kaoru-chan" and feel more moved by her position as well as Makoto-chan's. Especially gratifying was the shake-up in Takizawa-senpai's world.
The story was written in a short amount of time, but during that time the art style matured greatly. In the first volume the artist, Wakasa Takeshi, seems to have a bit of a problem with consistency and drawing characters from various perspectives. By the second volume, though, the characters had achieved a level of refinement and you are able to easily discern the expressions and emotions. By the end of the series the lines were fine and the expressions and positions of the characters powerful. The backgrounds were always well integrated in to the art and carried the sense of place in every panel. A welcome change from the many stories that only occasionally give the reader sparse backgrounds.
The dialog contains a fair amount of kanji but none of it is unusually difficult. The early Japanese reader should be challenged but be able to overcome the difficulty early on. The hardest part is probably when Kaoru-chan is speaking with her mother in a very formal manner.
Over all the story is a winner. It frustrates you and frustrates you making you want to strangle the characters. Then, they slowly open up due to the reactions with each other and you become attached to all of them. LOVE LETTER is an uncomplicated love story with some decidedly complicated people in it.