I must admit I’ve been a tad ambivalent toward Red String of late. Interestingly enough, it happened right about the time that Miharu dyed her hair black so to fit in at her new school. Looking back at the recent comics, I get a sense that RS is changing, much as the characters are, and this may be a source of my ambivalence. It’s a common problem with comics in general. If the comic doesn’t change, it gets stale and stagnate. But if it does change, then there’s the risk of alienating the audience. Add in that RS is about teenaged girls in high school and you’ve a comic that is about change… the changes that we go through as we shift from being children to adults. The fact it takes place in Japan doesn’t alter this paradigm at all.

Indeed, Miharu’s dyed hair is but the latest change that has happened to this world, as childhood friends end up going to separate schools, or in some cases moving far away. The trio that first greeted us in the first comic is no more. Fuuko is in Tokyo with her parents now, while Reika and Miharu attend separate schools. Indeed, Miharu is even making friends (or at least a friend) in this new school, and is no longer a constant part of Reika’s life. They’re forced to face life’s slings and arrows alone and make choices of their own accord rather than rely on each other. And it seems very likely with this last chapter that things are starting to fall apart. Unfortunately, the latest story threatened to lose me as characters started to blur together until I was unsure who I was reading, and what was going on.

The Pain of a Kiss is not specific to any one character’s story. Instead, it follows Reika, Miharu, and her cousin Karen each with their own dates and their own kisses… and their own regrets. Reika kisses a boy she’s crushed on for so long… and finds there’s no meaning behind it. Karen kisses the man her parents wish her to marry… and realizes she doesn’t love him. And Miharu is forced into a kiss by a drunken teen… and ends up turning to the man she loves for comfort from the trauma. The story could have focused on any one character… and perhaps that would lessen the confusion. Likewise, reading the story in one sitting would diffuse any confusion on which character is doing what. Fortunately, Red String is one of those stories that is easily worth rereading if you’ve been a long-time fan, but not too complex to tangle new readers hopelessly in the skein of plots.