Boys Over Flowers 13 by Yoko Kamio: B+

From the back cover:
It’s Tsukushi’s first time abroad, and she and her friend Yuki plan to tear up the slopes on a Canadian snowboarding adventure. But how much fun can Tsukushi really have with Tsukasa and those nasty Eitoku Academy girls always hanging around? Not much, it seems, because Tsukushi is sent out on a wild-goose chase to rescue Yuki in below freezing temperatures. But who will rescue Tsukushi?!

Review:
One guess who rescues Tsukushi. I was kind of annoyed that she blunders off into the snow so stupidly, but it does lead to one of the golden tickets of this series: a wet-haired Doumyouji scene! It’s been a while since the last one; Kamio must know how popular these are, and so spreads them out judiciously.

Anyway, Tsukasa warms Tsukushi up and she tells him he’s a good person. The rest of the F4 are proving themselves to be good guys, as well. Rui gets very peeved at the bitchy girls who tricked Tsukushi, and Akira and Soujirou—always kind of relegated to the background—show some unexpected sweetness. Not only do they intervene to keep Tsukasa and Tsukushi from bickering, they’re also the only ones to notice how upset Yuki is about the whole thing and offer her reassurance. They’re starting to emerge as better-defined characters now, and I like that a lot.

I wasn’t so keen on the last few chapters, though. After the group returns to Japan, Tsukushi and Yuki meet up with some old friends from middle school at a restaurant Doumyouji happens to be patronizing as well. He overhears them discussing a guy that once had a crush on Tsukushi, and promptly dislocates said guy’s neck. Um. Y’know, I like most of the silly twists and turns this series takes, but when it goes so far into the realm of wtf to manufacture a conflict between its leads, it’s hard to enjoy.

To conclude the review on a positive note, there was a bit of dialogue here that actually made me laugh out loud (a rarity, I assure you). It’s the morning after Tsukasa and Tsukushi have spent the night at a ranger’s cabin. They were discovered in a shirtless snuggle (sharing body heat) by some dudes, so Tsukushi’s kind of freaking out about that as they return to the Doumyouji villa. As I type this out, I guess it doesn’t look so funny, but I really did crack up when he said, “Oh, don’t get all grumpy just because somebody saw your little booboos.”

Juvenile, perhaps, but amusing all the same.