The fifth volume of Suzuka continues to confound.  This high school soap opera continues to come this close to being a good show, only to have the characters sink into nonsensical behavior once again.  In this volume Yamato and his girlfriend Honoka have a falling out, and the ever present Suzuka is part of the reason.

Series Background:

Yamato Akitsuki has traveled to Tokyo from his home town of Hiroshima in order to attend a prestigious high school.  The day before classes begin he's checking out the campus when he sees Suzuka Asahina practicing the high jump.  She's graceful and elegant, and the shy Yamato instantly becomes enamored of the athlete, even though he knows he'll probably never see her again.

While staying in Tokyo, Yamato is living in an all girls dorm that is owned and operated by his aunt.  Also living in the dorm are Yuka Saotome, a gorgeous college student who loves to drink until she passes out, and Megumi Matsumoto, a grad student who tries to contain Yuka but usually ends up drunk herself.  Yuka becomes amorous (usually towards Yamato) while inebriated, and Megumi becomes surly and rants about how men are pigs and that all they want to do is look at her ample breasts.  One of the other girls living in the dorm turns out to be (you'll never believe this) Suzaka.  She's in the room right next to Yamato's in fact.

Also going to Aoba High are Yamato's friend and experienced lady's man Yasunobu Hattori, and a quiet, lovely young lady, Honoka Sakurai.  Yamato and Honoka met years ago when they were kids and the meeting left quite an impression on the young girl.  When she sees Yamato again, she instantly falls for him.  The only problem is that Yamato's too blinded by Suzuka to notice that Honoka's always hitting on him.

Eventually Honoka screws up her courage, corners Yamato and kisses him.  This comes as a shock, but a welcome one, and realizes how wonderful Honoka really is.  The only problem is that he still thinks about Suzuka way too much.

This volume:

Things between Yamato and Honoka were a bit shaky at the end of the last volume.  After the young man spent an entire day looking for a birthday present for Honoka, he was excited to give it to her.  He blew it, naturally, by going on and on about how much time he and Suzuka spent looking for it.  Honoka refused to open the present and gave it back.

As this disc opens, Yamato is upset and not sure what to do.  He tries to talk to Honoka, but she ignores him.  When he finally manages to corner her, they have a nice heart-to-heart, break up, but decide to remain friends.   The main problem is that Yamato still thinks about Suzuka too much, even though she's rebuffed him many times and treats him like crap.

Footloose and fancy free once again, Yamato is depressed and miserable.  When Suzuka asks him why he broke up, instead of telling her the truth, he acts all macho and says that he dropped Honoka because she was annoying and he wanted to move on.  Naturally the track star thinks that Yamato's an ass, and uses that as an excuse (as if she needs one) to treat him like crap once again.

This causes poor Yamato to be even more miserable.  With a big track meet coming up, he can't concentrate and is messing up on the relay race.  What can he do to get back in Suzuka's good graces?  More importantly, why would he want to?

Like the earlier volumes, Suzuka continues to be a bitch, and Yamato is still an idiot.  I can understand being attracted to someone who doesn't like you, but Suzuka's reaction goes past indifference.  She's out and out cruel to the poor guy, but he still pines for her.  In heaven's name why?  What could he possibly be attracted to.  On to of that, he had a wonderful girlfriend.  I didn't really buy Honoka and Yamato's split.  After all, a bird in the hand...

Instead of a romantic drama this show is turning into a soap opera, with all of the illogical acts and contrived plots which that genre is famous for.  People don't react seem to make decisions based on logic or emotion, just what will make the best plot twist and keep the story going.  While I have often enjoyed shoujo anime, this one lacks the appealing characters and engrossing situations that are often associated with the genre.

The next four episodes are contained on this disc which comes in a clear keepcase with a reversible cover.  There is no insert.

Audio:

Ya know what the hardest part of writing a review is?  Coming up with a new and different way of saying that the audio (or video) was okay but nothing to write home about.  That's the case with this disc.  There are stereo soundtracks in English and Japanese, and while I enjoyed the Japanese a bit more they are both fine.  (Some of the English female voices were a bit whiney for my tastes.)  There were no dropouts or distortion.  Sutitles are available in English.

Video:

This show comes with a 4:3 image that is solid and looks fine.  There is some aliasing, mainly in the background, but the lines are tight and the colors are bright and even.  Like the audio, this is an average looking disc that doesn't really wow the viewer but doesn't do anything wrong either.

Extras:

Also included on this disc is another edition of the Aoda High School Year Book, a reel of stills from the show, and one of the better cast commentaries that I've heard.  The ADR is joined by two of the English voice actors and while they joke around a lot, they also discuss the characters and their motivation in a more in-depth fashion than any other anime commentary track that I've heard.  While I'm still not a big fan of these for anime, this one was pretty good.

Final Thoughts:

If only they had taken the time to show why Yamato is so infatuated with Suzuka, this would have been a better series.  As it is viewers are left scratching their heads.  The main characters continue to act like idiots, even taking into account that they're teenagers trying to negotiate the pathways of their first romance.  If you liked the previous volumes, this might be a good rental, but nothing more.