Confessions of a Shortcake Cake Lover
Hiya everybody! Its been awhile huh? Sorry about that, I had a ton of commissions this month- For those that don’t know I work freelance as an artist on top of my regular 9-5 job so things can get craaaaazy!
BUT WE’RE BACK! Back to talk about Shortcake Cake! Which is, in fact, at this very moment at least, my favorite shojo of all time! Shortcake cake has the best protagonist. Shortcake cake has the perfect will they won't they love triangle. Shortcake cake has well developed male leads. Shortcake cake reminds me I'm not straight
And viz media published a review and it sucked and you can tell the person isn't a shojo enthusiast and BY THE NINE DIVINES IM HERE TO SHOUT THE PRAISE SHORTCAKE CAKE DESERVES!
BECAUSE THAT’S RIGHT IT GOT AN OFFICIAL ENGLISH TANKOBON SO ITS TIME TO CELEBRATE BEING ABLE TO HOLD THIS MANGA IN MY HANDS!
For Talos’s sake all the art on this blog is just pictures of Ten, the protagonist from this series!
Now lets talk about me being gay for Ten
MOVEING ALONG, I’m not ashamed to admit I picked up this series solely because I like Tens design. She's cute, cat-like and kind of looks like Hatsune Miku in my favorite Pinocchio-P song Nobody Makes Sense.
As far as personality goes, Ten does not disappoint. She's thoughtful, practical, inexperienced in love but by no means does that obliviousness come off as stupid.
AND MARA’S SAKE TOO MANY TIMES WE HAVE THE DIZY PROTAGONIST AS A DEVICE TO ARBITRARILY DRAW OUT THE PLOT WHEN EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED IF SHE THOUGHT HUH THIS GUY KISSED ME AND WE ALWAYS HANG OUT MABY I SHOULD ASK “CHUNTS UP WITH THAT?”
Ten says what she means all the time. She's the smart best friend character that you always wish was the main. I can pinpoint the exact moment Ten became my shojo protagonist hero.
Its right here at the end of volume one
(This outfit ten is wearing does +100 damage and leaves your Pokémon infatuated)
Your average clueless inexperienced heroine would pretend to be asleep. She would ponder the meaning of one dudes' words for days and come up with no answer at all! But not our ten. Our Ten gets right to the point. Now that doesn’t mean Ten is infallible. She gets confused and worries about love later in the series but only when it makes sense to do so because the actual situations call for it. Shortcake cake masterfully depicts the feelings many shojos fail to capture realistically. At what moment does one fall in love? Why do we like the people we do? How should we act around that person? It’s the realism of the characters that really draws you in to Shortcake Cakes lack of plot.
Oh ya the plot! There's not a whole lot to it. Cliffnotes version is - A girl lives into a boarding house with two cute guys and some other people whom you can immediately tell the author does not care about.
The long version is that Ten has a long commute to school so she moves into a boarding house that is closer to school with two cute guys and some other people whom you can immediately tell the author does not care about.
You might think I'm being harsh on the other housemates BUT LOOK AT HER BEST FRIENDS/HOUSEMATES EYES
HELLO EXPOSITION SALLY. COULD YOU REALLY NOT GIVE HER PROPER EYES THAT CAN EXPRESS PROPER EMOTIONS. I IMMEDIATELY KNOW YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE PLOT RELEVANT. THIS IS MY ONE CRITICISM OF SHORTCAKE CAKE. It really doesn't value anyone other than the main three.
Now let's get to the meat of what makes Shortcake cake not just good but fantastic.
It’s a little something that shojos almost never do for some reason
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FOR MALE CHARACTERS
A LOVE TRIANGLE THAT DEVELOPS ORGANICALLY AND BELIEVABLY.
For black haired boy A there's the “too friendly with girls” Riku. Riku is the type of male lead that I normally hate. He’s too flirty, and all that happiness is just gonna be a façade for some major hangups. But this is where shortcake cake works its magic. We get to hear a lot of Rikus thoughts outside of what he says to Ten. We get to see when he feels awkward, when he second guesses what he says to cute girl. (like us all hahah) He’s believable! We know what he worries about! And thus, we know he's a good guy even as Ten is trying to figure him out. Shortcake cake gives Riku a chance to shine so we can care about him just as much as we care about Ten.
And for not black haired boy b there is the gorgeous book loving Chiaki!
Chiaki is the secret ditzy heroine of Shortcake Cake. He’s confused about his feelings a lot of the time I feel. Sometimes says quotes from books when he's not sure what to say because he's a cute dork like that. And he has a Shonen-esque pre-occupation with friendship.
Chiaki knows he's falling for Ten but he also knows Riku is his friend. Dare I say it? Riku is his nakama. There's an alternate universe script of shortcake cake that’s a yaoi I stg. Riku is so devoted to supporting Rikus love that’s its hilarious. He is the Kaoru to Rikus Hikaru (we still remember ouran high-school host club right?). But this boy is also a natural smooth talker. He has some genuinely great moments with ten that really leave you guessing who she might go for. He’s gorgeous and he cares so much about the people around him that you can’t help but really like him. 10/10 shojo boy. Might be bisexual. In a perfect world this series would be about an OT3 instead of an OTP This is why I love this series. It gives you a love triangle where they guys have a strong relationship that gets developed outside the girl- and all three stand as such strong characters the love triangle tension actually works.
The other thing about shortcake cake is that I like Ten so much that I would be perfectly happy with whatever ending because she's the one I'm rooting for- but the author had to go and make both boys so damn likeable that I can't pick a side! The characters carry the story and I don’t want to spoil it because there are some truly wonderful romantic moments and love triangle hilarity. It makes me want to be at that damn boarding house.
Also this doesn't need to be said because ya’ll have eyes but the art is GEORGEIOUS. The use of pretty designs, contrast and geometric shapes is stunning.
Anyways in conclusion Shortcake cake is everything a shojo should be. It makes you want to be in love. It's funny and gives you that heart squeezing feeling. It treats its characters as real people and lets us see how people could fall for one another. Despite some trope bending It is a shojo through and though. If That’s not your thing, shortcake cake isn't going to change your mind. But, if a good shojo is what you live for, JOIN ME ON THIS JOURNEY THAT STILL DOSNT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH CAKE!
