Book 45: Captive Hearts Vol. 2

Captive Hearts Volume 2 is a continuation to a manga series I started to read a while ago by Matsuri Hino (author of Vampire Knight and MeruPuri). I’ve been holding on to this and a couple other mangas for special occasions so it was nice to crack into it and just have something fun to read.

Captive Hearts is a manga series that is about a Megumi and Suzuka. Megumi is under a curse where he goes into manservant fits in the presence of Suzuka. She feels guilty that Megumi is under a curse and really doesn’t want him to have manservant fits but at the same time is drawn to him. They start to fall in love but Suzuka especially questions Megumi’s feelings since she wants to make sure he loves her for real and not due to some curse.

This volume had a couple hitches in their already budding relationship. First a wealthy heir HIryu wants to marry Suzuka. He tricks her into thinking that there is a way to break the curse but the only way to get that is by marrying him. But before the engagement can be announced, HIryu realized that tricking Suzuja was wrong and the engagement is called off. He still gives her the way to break the curse- kissing will stop the manservant fits (and it gets weird when they are the same sex). Then just when that’s all sorted out, Megumi’s mom shows up. She’s rather interesting, one minute she’s a tough, butt-kicking Interpol officer and the next moment she’s crying about Megumi falling under the manservant fits. But she shows up due to work since Suzuka could help her case involving some sex traders. So needless to say, there was a lot to cover and things went at a very fast pace.

Now there were some things that I didn’t fully get (mainly the timing and trying a little to hard to be funny), but I enjoy the humor a lot. One of my favorite lines was in a timeline trying to help readers understand the story, “Edo Period: Lots of stuff happened”. Lines like that just make me giggle. Plus the crazy vacillation from motherly to tough as nails Interpol officer was just entertaining.

But one of the things I love about Captive Hearts is the look at love. How you don’t want love to be too blinded by love yet at the same time you want to be drawn to the person. It’s about achieving balance in a relationship and having trust. I think the Chinese shaman was right to say “It’s not an evil curse. Its origin is connected to a deep love.” Plus, I yearn to have a lover tell me “Go Ahead. Cry until you fall apart. Don’t worry. I’ll be here to hold you up,” so I think it’s so perfect that Matsuri Hino included those exact words in scene when Suzuka was trying to keep herself together and Megumi was there for her. I want that so much since I don’t like to cry in front of people. Not only is that sweet thing to do to someone, it also shows how your lover is really there to support you even in times of hardship.