Missions of Love


Missions of Love is a shōjo manga series by Ema Tōyama. The plot centers around a junior high student named Yukina Himuro. While she is cold and withdrawn, she finds a big secret about Shigure, a guy who is hugely popular with the girls. In order to keep the secret hidden, Yukina orders him to do "missions" with her that involve romance. Yukina feels that the missions will help her novels, but as time passes she begins to question if it is really love developing. Missions of Love appeared as a serial in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi from June 10, 2009 to June 3, 2015. Kodansha published the chapters in nineteen bound volumes, from October 6, 2009 to June 12, 2015. In addition to the manga, a drama CD was also released in Japan in 2012. In 2018, a live action film adaptation was released, following a mini manga sequel in Nakayoshi to help promote it.
Kodansha's American subsidiary Kodansha USA licensed the series for an English-language translation in North America. All nineteen volumes have since been released over a five year span. Reception of the English translated series has been mixed to positive, and Missions of Love was in the New York Times best seller list twice for two different volumes. In Japan, the series won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2012 for best children's manga.

Plot

Yukina Himuro, a third year junior high student, has a reputation as the "Absolute Zero Snow Woman" by her classmates based on her icy gaze and demeanor. Yukina is also the popular cell phone novelist Yupina, known only to Akira Shimotsuki, Yukina's cousin. Yukina writes stories but they have been falling in the ratings. In order to fix this, she chooses to write a love story but does not know where to begin. One day, Yukina overhears student council president Shigure Kitami, who is popular with the girls and good mannered, turn down one of the girls who confesses her love to him, he then writes down something in a book that Yukina sees. Afterwards, Shigure bumps into Yukina who is not impressed by him and then he goes on his way, Yukina then notices that he had dropped his book that she saw him write in. To Yukina's shock the book contains the names of girls with some of them crossed out, something Yukina picks up on that Shigure is not what he seems to be. Yukina then has an idea to blackmail Shigure into loving her in order to feel what it is like as she figures it will be good for her cell phone romance novel. Yukina approaches Shigure with the info and makes him do things to and for her which she calls "Missions" but over time Yukina begins to question if it is real love between them something Shigure continues to try to deny or just ideas she is getting by doing the missions to put in her novels. Things become even more complex when Yukina's cousin confesses his love to her as well, and wants to be "more than just a cousin" to her.

Characters

;Yukina Himuro
;Shigure Kitami
;Akira Shimotsuki
;Mami Mizuno
;Hisame Kitami

Media

Manga

Missions of Love was first serialized in the monthly Shōjo magazine Nakayoshi in June 2009, and ended in 2015 with the June 3rd issue. Parts of the series were also issued in the quarterly magazine counterpart Nakayoshi Lovely from December 17, 2009 to March 17, 2010. In all, nineteen bound volumes were published by Kodansha. Following the end of the main series, an extra edition was published in the August, 2015 issue of Nakayoshi. In addition to the manga, on February 6, 2012, a drama CD was released by Kodansha through the recording studio Rakuonsha. The script was written by Natsuko Takahashi. The CD was bundled with a limited edition version of the eighth manga volume, and is based on events that take place in the first four volumes. In 2018, Toyama wrote a short continuation titled Missions of Love: Couple Arc which serialized in Nakayoshi from March to June, 2018. This was done to promote a live action film that was released during the summer.
On April 23, 2012, it was announced that American subsidiary Kodansha USA had licensed the series for release in North America. All nineteen volumes were released in a span that lasted from November 6, 2012 to December 10, 2019. Outside of North America, the series has been made available in e-book format in the United Kingdom.

Film

On June 23, 2018, a live-action film adaptation was released. To promote the film, a short 4-episode drama aired on TBS and MBS TV in March, and a sequel titled Missions of Love: Couple Arc was serialized in Nakayoshi from March to June, 2018. The cast stars Tina Tamashiro as Yukina, Yuta Koseki as Shigure, Anna Yamada as Mami, Kanta Sato as Akira, and Daichi Kaneko as Hisame. Both adaptations were be directed by Tōru Yamamoto. The film's theme song, "Ichidaiji", is performed by Polkadot Stingray.

Reception

The English-language adaptation of Missions of Love has received mixed to positive ratings: Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network gave the first volume an overall rating of a C+ calling it a quick read, much racier than Toyama's earlier works, and telling readers who do not like an unequal romance to "steer clear". She described the art as "easy on the eyes" and sensual while calling it a "very uncomfortable romance". John Rose from The Fandom Post gave volume one an A rating calling it "Incredibly smart, sexy and possessing" and also praised the artwork. Darkstorm from Anime UK News gave the series a 6/10 saying that although the story is unoriginal and has overused things such as a school setting and love triangle, the layout of the story is great and the heart is in the right place when it comes to it. Thalia Sutton of Suvudu gave the second volume a good review, calling the series thus far appealing for commutes, and light emotional handling overall. She went on to say "Missions of Love, volume 2 closes with many possibilities for its romantic future, and leaves you feeling introspective, too" The second volume of Missions of Love spent two weeks on the New York Times best seller list for manga from January 13–26, 2013. The fourth volume was also on the New York Times best seller list for a week from July 21–27, 2013.
In Japan, the series won the 36th annual Kodansha Manga Award in 2012 for best children's manga. Circulation figures for the series topped 120 million total copies. Three volumes of "Missions of Love" also appeared on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart in 2013, and 2014. The first to make the chart was the 11th volume which ranked thirty-sixth on the chart for the week of February 4, 2013 with 18,224 copies sold. Next to rank was the 13th volume which ranked thirty-eight on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart for the week of June 10–16, 2013 with 17,124 copies sold. Volume fourteen was the last volume to appear on the chart, it ranked thirty-fourth on the chart for the week of February 3–9, 2014 with 14,981 sold.