Open Sesame (manga)

Open Sesame
Cover of the first volume of the Open Sesame manga series, as published by Kodansha.
オープンセサミ
Genre	Romance
Manga
Written by	Kawakata Kaoru
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Magazine Special
Original run	16 March 2001 – 16 June 2008
Volumes	20

Open Sesame is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kawakata Kaoru and published by Kodansha. Open Sesame tells the story about amateur boxing champion Danjou Yamato, who moves to Tokyo with his family, and Maki Mogami, the daughter of a highly respected doctor, and their relationship as they transform from bitter rivals to close friends to lovers.

Plot

Danjou Yamato is a high school student who lives in the countryside and is the boxing champion of the region. However, when his family has to move out to live in Tokyo, he is transferred to a school in Tokyo that was previously an all-girls school. Girls have a lot of power and give the guys a hard time. But Yamato will not bow down to the power of the girls, and on his way to claim power for the guys in the school, he finds out something about his past...something that he had forgotten long ago.

Characters

Main characters

Yamato Danjou (壇上 大和 Danjou Yamato)

The manga's main protagonist. Yamato is the Tokai district's regional boxing champion. At one point, his family moves from Nami Island to Tokyo. When Yamato arrives at his new school, he is shocked to discover that his class exist mostly out of girls. He soon finds out that there are some boys who transferred in, but those are only a mere nine. He also learns that the girls have a lot of power in the school, and so becomes enraged when he is ordered by some girls to clean up the girls' washroom. He bluntly denies and snaps back at them, telling them to clean it up themselves. Soon after, Yamato engages in a type of war against the girls, wherein he begins to secure a place of power for the boys and even creates a boxing club. Yamato is shown to be extremely strong and quick on his feet, as is shown when he is able to put a sizeable dent in the class' blackboard with just his bare hands and knock out an opponent in only 10 seconds. Over time, however, an assortment of girls throughout the school begin to show affection to him. Later in the manga, he is shown to have become quite popular at school, but not yet having formed any love relationships with anyone. Though, the bond between him and Mogami seems to be growing closer and closer. After an incident where Mogami's kindness reminds Yamato of his mother, he realizes he may be in love with Mogami. When Yamato afterwards tells Mogami that he loves her, she is listening to her iPod, so she did not hear (or so he thinks...). It is then later revealed that the batteries of her iPod were dead and she did in fact hear every word he said.

Maki Mogami (最上 槙 Mogami Maki)

Yamato's classmate. She is first seen helping Yamato when he was dealing with some city thugs. She even gives him her handkerchief. Later, when she discovers that his name is Yamato and he is attending the same school as her, she flips him with a throw. It is unclear why she dislikes him, but apparently, it has to do with their past, which Yamato has completely forgotten about. Mogami is at first shown to be a bossy and rude person, who wants things done the way she wants it and in quite a few instances strikes Yamato for things that are not even his fault. Later in the manga, she still retains her bossy attitude, but has mostly faded to just insulting him at every possible chance she gets. Despite this, she and Yamato seem to have a love/hate relationship and generally get along pretty well. She does seem to get jealous easily when other girls pay attention to him. Yet, Mogami is still troubled by Yamato's seeming loss of memory over an incident that happened back on his home island; an event Mogami witnessed, but won't speak of. When Danjou tells her he loves her, her iPod's batteries are dead and so hears his confession, but pretends they aren't and she didn't hear him. Later, she admits to him that she did actually hear him and asks him to confess to her once more. Though, after he tells her again that he loves her, she turns him down. She explains to him that she does like him, but that, as long as he cannot remember what happened in the past, their relationship can't go any further.

Supporting characters

Yura Tachibana (橘 由良 Tachibana Yura)

She has dyed hair and works as a magazine model and advertisement girl having the support of fans and photographers. Her first kiss was with Yamato and was used for a photo in a magazine article.

Haruna Tone (刀根 榛名 Tone Haruna)

She has short hair and is very athletic with a good body. Plays all sports and has many female fans. Also an important member of the school basketball team,

Koume Suzuya (鈴谷 小梅 Suzuya Koume)

Even though she looks like a child she is a famous lead singer of a music group as well as the head of the music club. Koume initially disliked Yamato but started to soften up when Yamato dove into the swimming pool during a competition to save her. She developed a temporary crush on Yamato which partially faded when a university student protected her from a pervert. She eventually starts dating Tamanami Youji who is part of Yamato's boxing club. She also has the habit of saying Myo like a cat.

Shino Akizuki (秋月 志乃 Akizuki Shino)

She wears glasses as is a prodigy an avid bookworm and takes the role of librarian. She is also very active in archery. After an incident with a boy she liked she started to warm up to Yamato and eventually started to like him but knew nothing would come from it because she knew she would be leaving to study abroad which she did in Chapter 36. She came back in Chapter 77 and confessed to Yamato.

Yayoi Danjou (壇上 弥生 Danjou Yayoi)

Yamato's Sister. Goes to a different school and is friends with Maki's Sister. She is dating a boy from another school.

Sumire Danjou (壇上 スミレ Danjou Sumire)

Yamato's pet chicken that he carries around with him. Yamato raised him since he was an egg. Has a tendency to snuggle up to the girls in the series and peck at his owner a lot. Often referred by Yamato as his "emergency food supply".

Kaya Mogami (最上 香耶 Mogami Kaya)

Maki's younger sister. Kaya is a middle-schooler in the same class as Yamato's sister, Yayoi. Kaya develops a crush on Danjou when he risks his life to push her out of the way of a speeding car. Kaya's childhood friend and classmate, Junpei, later challenges Danjou to a fight when he hears that Kaya likes strong men.

Minor characters

Aoi Minakami (水上 葵 Minakami Aoi)

Yamato's childhood friend. She has always had deep feelings for him and was taught many things by Yamato.

Aoba Yoshida (吉田 青葉 Yoshida Aoba)

She is a transfer student that used to live in Hokkaido. She joins the boxing club and becomes its first female member. Shortly after, she takes a liking to Yamato.

Chihaya Matsumoto (松本 千早 Matsumoto Chihaya)

Chihaya first met Yamato at a mixer and became centered on him when he didn't pay attention to her like the other guys, since she craves attention. Determined, she asked him out in a sneaky way to try and win his heart and almost went as far as to kiss him, but was interrupted by a guy she had done the same to previously. She learned that Yamato doesn't take the notion so likely, which only made her like him for real.

References

External links

• Open Sesame (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia