The Cherry Project

[heavenly_pearl]

With the Olympics starting in little over a week (yay!), I figured it was a good time to review some figure skating manga. First up is The Cherry Project, and I hope to finish a review for Sugar Princess: Skating to Win sometime next week.

TITLE: The Cherry Project
AUTHOR/MANGAKA: Naoko Takeuchi
PUBLISHER: Kodansha (currently unlicensed in English)
RATING: I would say it's suitable for all ages, but YMMV.
CATEGORY: Shoujo
NUMBER OF VOLUMES: 3
SCORE: 9 (Great)
RECOMMENDED FOR FANS OF: Naoko Takeuchi (mangaka of Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V), Sugar Princess: Skating to Win, Ginban Kaleidoscope, Kaleido Star, Princess Nine, sports manga/anime, romance

In addition to my overwhelming love for manga/anime, I am a figure skating addict. Never been out on the ice myself -- I am klutzy enough when not walking on slippery surfaces, thank you very much -- but I never miss a televised competition or exhibition if I can help it. The Nationals are my World Series, the World Championships are my Super Bowl, and the Winter Olympics are practically my reason for living. (Okay, maybe that last part is overstating things just a tad, but the hyperbole isn't too far off the mark...) I am, without a doubt, a huge fan of the sport.  

So taking two of my favorite things -- manga and figure skating -- and putting them together? Instant love.

The Cherry Project is about a supersitious eighth grade girl named Chieri (a.k.a Cherry) Asuka, who is a big believer in horoscopes. Though her father was an All-Japan mens' champion and competed at the Olympics, Chieri doesn't start skating herself until she sees an exhibition performance by the current junior mens' World Champion, Masanori Tsuzuki, whose poster she hangs up on her bedroom wall and kisses every time she goes to the rink as a good luck charm. She just skates for fun, though, not willing to put in the time and effort to become a champion figure skater.

That changes when she has a fateful encounter (predicted in her horoscope) at the rink with her idol, Masanori Tsuzuki himself. Tsuzuki, along with his good friends Kouichi and Hiroshi, are on a search to find Tsuzuki a skating partner, as it is his dream to become a pairs champion. Because Tsuzuki and Chieri share the same birthday, Kouichi thinks they will have good luck if they become a pair. After seeing her skate, Tsuzuki agrees she has some potential, and the three of them transfer to Chieri's school the next day, much to Chieri's surprise.

As it so happens, the day they transfer, Chieri's class is discussing what event to hold for their school's upcoming cultural festival. Tsuzuki and his friends suggest they hold a skating exhibition with Chieri (who is class president) as the star. Thinking it to be a chance to skate with Tsuzuki, Chieri agrees, but later finds out that the guys intend for her to skate on her own. Calling it "The Cherry Project", the three guys, plus Chieri's fashionable best friend Yuni who makes her skating costumes, put her through a rigorous training regimen intended to improve her skating and prepare her to eventually become Tsuzuki's pairs partner.

Things don't go exactly as planned, though, when the guys set up a "chance" meeting between Chieri and the current junior ladies' World Champion, a skater known to fans as Princess Canty. Canty is very serious about skating, and doesn't think much of Chieri, who is just a recreational skater. (It doesn't help matters that Canty has a crush on Tsuzuki and also wants to become his pairs partner.) Canty's rudeness toward her provokes Chieri into wanting to beat Canty in a match and prove to the arrogant skater that she is worthy of becoming Tsuzuki's pairs partner. To do that, Chieri makes the decision to dedicate herself to singles skating, intending to qualify for the block championships, the first step on the road to All-Japan. Unknown to her, however, Tsuzuki's father has ordered him to quit skating once he reaches high school to concentrate on taking over the Tsuzuki Group, meaning that by the time she does beat the Princess, it will be too late for them to become a pairs team.  

Oh, how I wish this title would be licensed in English! It's at the top of my "want licensed" list, but it is very unlikely, considering that it's a sports title (which don't seem to do very well in the U.S.) and it is quite old, dating from the early nineties, just before Takeuchi started on Codename: Sailor V and the megahit Sailor Moon. Still, if you're a fan of Sailor V/Sailor Moon, I think it would be worth it to seek out a scanlation of this title. Sailor Moon fans may be surprised to discover that Haruna Sakurada, Usagi's homeroom teacher, actually debuted in this series as Chieri's homeroom teacher, although Chieri and Usagi attend different schools.

Speaking of Usagi and Chieri, I must say the two of them are practically clones in looks, minus Usagi's trademark odango hairstyle. Chieri tends to favor a variety of different hairstyles, something I really appreciated since a majority of manga characters tend to keep the same hairstyle day in and day out. She even tries out the odango-look at one time, albeit styled more like human!Luna than Usagi. Chieri and Usagi also have somewhat similar personalities, although Chieri seems to have it more together than Usagi does. She may have an addiction to chocolate bananas, rely a little too much on what her horoscope says, and like to sleep in, but when she decides to take skating seriously, she's truly dedicated and willing to put in the hard work. (Some might say she pushes herself a little too hard at times.) I admired that about her character, and found her very likeable.

Actually, quite a few of the characters have physical clones in Sailor Moon: Yuni looks like a slightly older Hotaru, Kouichi could pass for Zoisite's twin brother with straighter hair, Hiroshi favors Mamoru, Tsuzuki resembles Motoki, and even a nameless skater who attempts to sabotage Chieri's badge test looks almost exactly like Rei. I didn't mind, though, because they all have different personalities from their SM counterparts, keeping the characters fresh. (FYI, the icon to this post features Chieri and the three guys in "The Cherry Project" if you want to compare.)

From a skating perspective, I have to admit that this story is totally unrealistic. I can kinda buy the fact that Princess Canty has a quadruple toe loop in her arsenal, even if it is very, very, very, very, very rare for a woman to be able perform a quad, much less a junior skater, but at least she's been skating for practically all her life. Chieri, on the other hand, has been skating for less than a year. There's just no way possible that she'd be able to land both a quad toe and a triple axel (another jump that few women skaters attempt) in such a short time, no matter how much hard she works at it. Plus, some of the moves she does in her final free skate just wouldn't work without a partner. Seriously, you cannot do death spirals and lifts by yourself -- you just can't. (It is very a very effective scene thematically, however, showing how much Chieri really wants to skate with Tsuzuki.) You really have to suspend your disbelief if you know anything about figure skating at all, but I did appreciate the research the mangaka did about the sport, explaining about the recently (at the time of publication) abolished compulsories, badge tests (even if again it is unrealistic for Chieri to earn all six badges needed to compete in the block championships in one day) and the various competitions (even if the ending result is not possible based on what the reader sees -- we'd have to know the scores of another skater beside Chieri and Canty for such a result to occur under the old 6.0 scoring system). Takeuchi also does a great job of illustrating the actual skating elements, accurately drawing jumps, spins, and spirals as far as I could tell. At times, I almost felt like I was actually watching a real-life skating program. (Oh, what I wouldn't give to see this title animated as well! But at least there's Ginban Kaleidoscope, which is an awesome and hilarious skating anime that I also recommend watching.)

For those not interested in the skating aspect, there's also a really wonderful romance between Chieri and Tsuzuki. (It's shoujo -- of course they were destined to fall in love!) Granted, Tsuzuki could have stood to be a little more up-front about his feelings instead of making Chieri think he chose Canty over her when he becomes Canty's new coach in a roundabout way of helping Chieri improve her skating, and it was kind of disappointing to see Chieri lose the will to skate when she finds out, but the ending has one of the most romantic scenes I have ever seen in a manga, hands down. It just...melts me whenever I read it. Usagi and Mamoru, eat your heart out.

If you're not opposed to the idea of reading scanlations and are looking for something to put you in the mood of the upcoming Olympics, I highly recommend The Cherry Project. The skating may not be completely realistic, but the story of a girl trying her best to succeed against amazing odds is something I think most people can enjoy, and the romantic ending will make you smile and melt into a puddle of goo.