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Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi ~Onodera Ritsu no Baai~

‘Takano-san loves Onodera-kun a lot~’

Upload’s done! CLAMP-SENSEI RECOMMENDS SEKAI ICHI HATSUKOI: There was a rumour going on before, that Clamp would be doing an illustration comment on the release of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi tankoubon. So, there you go~ The rumoured illustration comment from Clamp-sensei stated in Romantica Club promo pamphlet. (Ha! I always knew Clamp is a strong supporter of BL, but I wish they’d hurry up with Gohou Drug.) Next time, I should check with Kadokawa Shoten first. This tankoubon… only includes the first two chapters of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - the first chapter that was published in THE RUBY in November 2006 and the second chapter that was pubished in THE RUBY VOL.2 in July 2007. No chapter 3, so NO ISAKA T_T. Thank goodness Shungiku-sensei presented us with chapter 2.5, and a very pretty full-coloured illustration (gah! the Nowaki-Shinobu resemblance is still uncanny!) Seriously, Kadokawa had to be joking when they said ‘only one volume’. SIH can’t have only one volume!! With the publication of the 4th chapter, this call for another tankoubon! Grr…

I’ll put that issue aside first. By the way, we already have Suzuki-san, piyo (cute little chicks~), ahiru (rubber ducky) and pandas as the mascots for Junjou series. I think we have mascots too for SIH. This cute bunny (and a cat that only appeared in the Drama CD cover so far)~

I guess we all should have seen this coming, since SIH is still in Junjou universe. So now, before download links are posted, I’ll write some info on what SIH is all about for those who haven’t read it.

Characters: Saga/Takano Masamune, Onodera Ritsu, Yokozawa Takafumi, Hatori Yoshiyuki (reminds me of JR’s Asahina), Kisa Shouta, Mino Kanade

Background Info + Summary: Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi (SIH) is a love comedy between Onodera Ritsu and Takano Masamune, set in Nakamura Shungiku’s famous Junjou Romantica universe. The characters are employees working for Marukawa Shoten (yes, that also translates as Isaka’s employees). While Junjou gives us the novel-publishing part of the company, SIH allows us to see the manga-publishing part of Marukawa, where Takano is the editor-in-chief for a shoujo manga publication. His subordinates are constantly pressured into working extra hours, and Ritsu, who transferred to Marukawa from Onodera Shuppan (his father’s company), got himself into more than one trouble with his own decision.

That is… Takano Masamune happened to be Saga Masamune, his senpai whom he went out with 10 years ago when they were still at school. Takano and Ritsu didn’t part on good terms; Ritsu believed that he was toyed by Takano when his declaration of love was answered with a laugh. Takano, however, had no idea Ritsu thought that way, and couldn’t forget Ritsu even after 10 years. He couldn’t be with anybody else because of his memory of Ritsu, and Ritsu couldn’t be with anybody else because of Takano too. Now, as they meet each other again in a new environment, Takano firmly tells Ritsu “I’ll make you say you love me again. Prepare yourself!”. Ritsu is torn between the affection he still holds for Takano and his feelings of being hurt.

As if Ritsu is not troubled enough by having to see Takano every day at work, he later finds out that Takano is actually his next-door neighbour:

Takano: That’s fast.
Takano: Have you come to confess already?
Ritsu: Huh? What are you talking about? Speaking of which, this is…
Ritsu: … my house, but… (since about a year ago)

Takano’s is #1201 while his is #1202. This explains why he keeps feeling his heartbeat getting faster in Takano’s presence, not only because Takano is Saga-senpai, his first love and first heartbreak.

To make things worse while Takano and Ritsu play a game of hide-and-seek and hard-to-get (on Ritsu’s part, at least), Ritsu is cornered occasionally by the manager, Yokozawa Takafumi (dubbed as Marukawa Shoten’s famous violent bear), who is a close acquaintance of Takano. Can he just fall in love peacefully this time around?? Yokozawa obviously knows who Ritsu is, and of Ritsu and Takano’s past, based on this conversation:

Yokozawa: Did you come because you know Masamune is in Marukawa?
Ritsu: Huh? Excuse me, what are you talking about?
Yokozawa: Do you know that it’s your fault Masamune became all strange?
Ritsu: ‘Huh? My fault? What is? What is this person saying?’
Ritsu: Er… Excuse me. You meant to say that…
Yokozawa: … I don’t want to worry about it.

The resemblance between Yokozawa and Takano is uncanny. But well, Yokozawa also looks a LOT like Isaka. I thought they were brothers at first. I was like “Ah, too bad his name isn’t Isaka.” Or maybe he’s related to Takano, because he calls Takano by his first name (Ritsu is troubled by this). Download to read it yourselves~ All of my scans for SIH are either 300dpi or 150dpi in quality, hence the size. Also, note that in SIH, chapters are called ‘No.’ (as in number, #) as opposed to ‘Act’ in JR.

DOWNLOAD LINKS
* me asking you to ‘comment if you download’ is clear here, see? So, yes, GOLDEN RULE, COMMENT IF YOU DOWNLOAD!!!!!!!!

1. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - Whole Volume (663) - 179.54 MB (188+ pages)
2. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - Cover and Inserts (97) - 5.64 MB - (8 scans)
3. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - No.1 (234) - 68.27 MB (74 Pages)
4. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - No.2 (267) - (84 Pages)
5. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - No. 2.5 (125) - (30 pages)
6. Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi No.3 - CHN Scanlation by Friday (205) - 25.37 MB (*70 pages)

Except for No.3, all the others are scanned by me from the tankoubon. No.3 is from The Ruby Vol.3 scans, courtesy of Friday.

Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi #2.5 Summary: After confessing to Takano, Ritsu went to his house. Takano told him from the beginning that he was the only one at home. Ritsu asked if his parents were on a trip, but Takano’s halfhearted answer made him think he’d asked the wrong question. They were greeted by a cat, the cat Ritsu immediately recognised as the abandoned kitten he saw on one rainy day. Takano told Ritsu to wait upstairs while he prepared something to drink. Ritsu was at loss for words. He didn’t know what to do as he waited. And then Takano returned with two glasses of Oolong tea, and they watched some videos together.

Takano asked why Ritsu liked him, because he sure didn’t know why. Ritsu himself didn’t know how to explain, or why he liked Takano, but he knew something at least - he saw Takano picked the abandoned kitten up when no one else paid attention to the poor, drenched kitten. Takano was embarrassed, saying that it sounded like something out of a shoujo manga. Ritsu didn’t read manga, so he had no idea what Takano was talking about.

Takano: Anyway, are you my stalker or something?
Ritsu: I’m sorry, I know! But, I may seem like an idiot, but…
Ritsu: I like you…

Takano kissed him, and Ritsu tried to get away. Um… Smex follows. Ritsu couldn’t refuse when Takano said “I want to hold you.” He was so happy he didn’t know what to think when Takano first called him ‘Ritsu’.

It was all a dream of the past. He was rudely woken up by the present Takano, who dumped a mountain of work on his desk because he fell asleep.

Takano: You seem happy, from your sleeping face.
Takano: Must have been a really fun dream.
Ritsu: ‘It was a dream about you!!’
Ritsu: Nope, absolutely not!!
Ritsu: It was a super horrible nightmare!!

Ritsu practically scolded himself for dreaming about Takano. He proceeded to vent his frustration by doing his work at unbelievable speed, stunning Mino and Kisa in the process.

• Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi Update~ on July 6, 2008
• Junjou Romantica Manga Series on January 6, 2008
• More Junjou Romantica & Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi on February 13, 2008
• JR Anime DVDs, Suzuki-san & ‘Nakamura Shungiku Panic!’ on July 12, 2008
• Junjou Romantica 11 (RAW) on June 22, 2008