Faster than a Kiss

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Faster than a Kiss


caption =
ja_name = キスよりも早く
ja_name_trans = Kiss yori mo Hayaku
genre = Romantic comedy, Drama, Slice of life storyInfobox animanga/Manga
title = faster than a kiss
author = Meca Tanaka
publisher = flagicon|Japan Hakusensha
publisher_other =
demographic = Shōjo
magazine = flagicon|Japan LaLa (magazine)
first = 2007
last = ongoing
volumes = 3

nihongo|"Faster than a Kiss"|キスよりも早く|Kiss yori mo Hayaku is an ongoing shōjo romantic comedy manga by Meca Tanaka. It is published in Japan by Hakusensha in "LaLa (magazine)" and is collected in 3 tankobon volumes as of May 2008. It is not yet licensed in North America. This series is about orphaned siblings Fumino Kaji and Teppei, who had to move from relative to relative until Fumino's 24-year-old teacher Kazuma Ojiro takes them in to his place. Kazuma agrees to take full responsibility of them, and marries 16-year-old Fumino.

Plot

Fumino and her 4-year-old brother Teppei have lived with relatives since their parents died in a car accident. Tired of moving, she decides to run away and work to support her brother on her own. As they sit on a park bench, her English teacher appears in front of her and tries to convince her to go back to school. She jokingly asks him to marry her and support her and Teppei, and he agrees.

Characters

Fumino Kaji (kazuma): A 16-year-old girl who's described as a delinquent at her high school, although she is not one. She simply interrupts bullies and other bad students in violent ways. Fumino has a strong personality and sometimes loses her temper. She cares deeply about her brother Teppei. Her parents died in a car accident and so she had to become responsible for her little brother. As a result, she has become more mature and practical than others her age. However, she is horrible at cooking, so she relies on Ojiro to cook for her and her brother. She may be falling in love with Ojiro, who she is married to.

Kazuma Ojiro:A 24-year-old English teacher, Ojiro is described as the "plain, glasses-wearing English teacher." Ojiro is the only one who looks for Fumino when she runs away and ends up marrying her, supposedly only to help her and Teppei. He is sometimes goofy and says he appreciates seeing Fumino's rare smile. He asks Fumino to help him with problem students, although he is a teacher. He has a calm and caring demeanor and cares for young Teppei more than Fumino does according to her. He often gives Teppei candy for his hard work or for being cute. Ojiro cooks for the family and usually sleeps much later than the rest of his "family" because of his dedication to teaching. Even though they are married, they sleep separately. He occasionally sleeps in Fumino's room, but only next to Teppei. Ojiro isn't open about his past, but later in the story, it is revealed that Ojiro was once in a gang. According to his old "gang" buddies, he was called "Hell's Maa-kun" because he beat up 100 motorcycle gang members without getting a single scratch. He still has formidable fighting abilities, shown when he beat up two guys with one hand, while with his other hand he was holding Fumino. He sadly mentions once that his family is still alive, only that they reject him because of his "delinquent childhood." Ojiro also mentions that he would like to tease Fumino first before "touching" her, and very much does so every chapter. He feels that their marriage is only for Teppei's sake and that he shouldn't be "touching" her in case she leaves him for another man... which he would respect if she did leave him. Still he starts developing feelings for Fumino slowly. He joked that if they were to have sex, she would at least grow her breasts to a size C (Fumino has really small breasts).

Teppei:Teppei is the 4-year-old little brother of Fumino. Teppei's personality is bright; he often makes people around him happy. He is loved by both Fumiko and Ojiro, who Teppei views as a brother/father, dearly. Ojiro often gives him hard candy. When Fumino and Teppei leave Ojiro, Teppei leaves a trail of his collected hard candy for Ojiro to follow. He was also the one who tried to convince Fumiko to stay with Ojiro when she tried to leave which causes enough distraction for Ojiro to catch up with them. He loves living with Ojiro. Teppei goes to school with his kindergarten teacher Ryuu, who is Ojiro's best friend and neighbor. Teppei nicknames Fumino "Buncha" and Ojiro "Maa-kun."

Ryuu:A happy-go-lucky guy who is best friends with Ojiro (as well as a neighbor), he is Teppei's kindergarten teacher and is one of the few people who know about Ojiro and Fumiko's marriage. He helps take care of Teppei. He also tells Fumino about Ojiro's past. In one chapter, Ryuu shows Fumino a picture of Ojiro and himself back in high school. Ojiro's face looks dark (demonic) in the picture and also had long hair with insane (demonic) eyes. He also mentioned that the camera man got beat up after taking the picture. Ryuu also helps Fumiko how to dress sexy for Ojiro. How Ryuu managed to have women's lingerie is a mystery. (The same for Ojiro having a numerous amount of costumes for both Teppei and Fumino to wear)

Kurosawa:One of Fumino's classmates. Although he doesn't know that Ojiro and Kaji are married, he originally sees them close together hugging, when Ojiro was telling Kaji that her life was more important than their marriage ring. He later walks in on them right when they were about to kiss after Ojiro had whisked Kaji away into a classroom to watch the festival's fireworks together.

Retsu:The 3rd generation of Higuma-Gumi, Retsu is Ojiro's old friend. He gave Ojiro pudding as an apology for his "gang men" almost raping Fumino without realizing she is Ojiro's wife. When he invites Fumino to his home so that he can apologise again, he tells her that she is stupid for believing that he is a good person. Ojiro then busts into the scene, kicking Retsu in the face and causing his nose to bleed. It is revealed he was just joking around with Fumino and is actually a nice person. He is recognized as "the pudding brother/man/person."

Shouma:Shouma is Ojiro's brother who originally doesn't believe that Kaji is a girl. He finally believes it after seeing her underwear. Despite being brothers, Shouma and Ojiro talk to each other in polite terms. Ojiro had left the family, leaving Shouma to take over his responsibilities. Shouma also insults Ojiro for becoming a teacher.

References

External links

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