Teenreads.com -- HIGH SCHOOL DEBUT, Volumes 1 and 2 by Kazune Kawahara

Haruna spent all of middle school concentrating on one thing: softball. She never really thought about boys or makeup or flirting except when she broke down and indulged in her semi-secret guilty pleasure: romance manga. While she appeared to be a jock on the outside, she learned everything about love, dating and the ideal boyfriend from the comics. When she hits high school, however, she's taking the focus and determination she's learned from years as a star pitcher to do one thing: fall in love!

And she fails. Miserably. She tackles everything from fashion to chatting up guys with zeal, but she can't seem to put two and two together and make four when it comes to the rules of dating. All she does is fade away unnoticed in the corner or frighten potential dates away with her over-excited small talk.

There may still be hope, however --- her best friend suggests that perhaps what she needs is a coach: someone to give her advice and point out her missteps, just like her old coach did in softball. Haruna grabs on to this idea and bluntly asks the hottest guy she's met, the aloof but kind Yoh, to agree to tutor her. Yoh, taken aback by her proposal, initially refuses, having himself been hurt a few too many times by cruel girls and skeptical about the whole business. Haruna is so earnest, however, and Yoh caves if only to stop witnessing her terrible faux pas and clashing ensembles.His one rule is simple: she cannot fall in love with him. Anyone else is fair game, but he's not about to become an object of unrequited affection from a lonely girl.

This series is a welcome change from the usual Pygmalion rip-off, where a naive and "ugly" (by way of chunky glasses or unflattering clothing) young woman is transformed by a knowledgeable man who molds her into his ideal. The coaching presented in High School Debut is sound advice that has a lot more to do with how Haruna sees herself rather than turning her into something she's not. She needs to find clothes that suit her personality, not just put on a mish mash of styles that magazines say are cute or that look good on other girls. She needs to calm down and get to know a person before deciding she’s fallen in love. And she desperately needs to forget what romance comics teach.Yoh is never cruel or patronizing --- he's trying to get Haruna to realize her own potential rather than echo someone else's, and along the way he starts to realize he just may have found a new friend in this trusting, enthusiastic freshman.

As the volumes progress, Haruna gets beyond the superficial aspects of dating, from realizing attraction to the panic of trying to dress casually but prettily before a first date. She begins to see the more painful side: loving someone who doesn't love you back, or having the timing of a confession muck up potential relationships. She's learning that people get hurt and that you shouldn't treat your date's or your own feelings lightly.

Of course, the manga quickly moves into the plot we all know is coming: Haruna realizes that despite his prohibition, she's starting to fall for Yoh. What's a girl to do? And how will he react if she tells him? Would she lose the one person she's come to trust forever? I'm waiting for volume three to find out!