Title: Confidential Confessions Vol. 2 Volume(s): 6 Creator(s): Reiko Momochi Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Tokyopop MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Drama Rated: Older Teen (16+)

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, you have a hard choice to make here: You could either let your kids read this, or you couldn't. A book like this is very hard to determine the oppropraitness of the book. If your child is 12 and under you might want to hold off on sharing this with your child, however if the child is over 13 then it might be something he/she SHOULD read and then have a discussion about it. Obviously there's a lot of sexual remarks in this book because of the subject matter, but I wouldn't consider this to be a strike against the book since these things were neccisary to have in the story to help move it forward. If you are looking for a happy story look elsewhere, this story is grim and depressing.

When I read the first volume of "Confidential Confessions" I was caught off guard. I didn't expect to read a comic that would seriously look at a major problem like teen suicide and prostitution, and (for the most part) pull it off successfully. And while I do believe that the story about prostitution was a little on the weak side, I did think that the first story was powerful enough to warrant a purchase, and I do still feel that teenagers probably SHOULD read that book, instead of passing it just because the content makes them uncomfortable! However there are six books in this series, all of them dealing with one issue or another. Here's what we've covered so far:

Sexual Harassment
Prostitution
Rape
Suicide
Drugs
Stalking

So two down, four more to go. As mention before the last book was about suicide and prostitution, this volume is about that oh so touchy subject sexual harassment. Yes, sexual harassment. You've heard about it on TV more times then you'd like to, but despite the fact that this is one of the most talked about subjects on the news and Dr. Phil (again, the mustache man who makes more money then he probably should), neither of these TV programs really gave me an idea on how harmful sexual harassment could actually be! For those of you who have never given sexual harassment much thought before, this will be an eye opener for you. Well anyway, enough of my babbling, let's get on with the review.

Tears

The only story in this book is called "Tears," which is a very fitting title for this story because of the horror the main character in this book will go through. The story revolves around Suzuki, a girl who is aiming to be a professional tennis player. She attends an all-girls school because of Coach Todo. Coach Todo has a reputation for turning female students into the best professionals out there, every person's dream is to be coached by Todo, as their chances of getting into the professional league increases dramatically when they have training from Coach Todo. Of course, the only reputation Todo has is his reputation with training champion after champion, his personal life is not nearly as well known, and that's cause for concern. You see, the story starts without us knowing who Todo is, all we know that this guy is suposed to be "teaching" a bunch of girls how to play tennis, but while he's teaching them he touches them is places he shouldn't, and even gets them into poses that just make you look at the book in disgust.

In fact, this opening alone will make a lot of people not want to read this book, as it takes sexual harassment and just shoves it in your face. Anyway, Suzuki doesn't very much like Couch Todo. She hates the way he teaches tennis, she hates the way he talks about sex in front of the girls (asking such questions as if they've used a condom or ever seen an erect penis before), and she just hates him! Whenever she tries to talk to him about his behavior he always claims that he's doing nothing wrong, and whenever she tries to talk to the school board about him they give her the cold shoulder and side with Todo's story instead (because let's face it, he's person who's making their school's sports program famous). After awhile Suzuki's mother starts to grow more concerned, and when she confronts Suzuki about her behavior lately (why she's always so sad, why does she hate school so much now, etc), Suzuki just smiles and says she's fine. After all, if she told her mom that she'd been sexually harassed what would her mom think of her? That may seem like a stupid question to the observer, but I've seen people on Oprah who didn't want to tell their families that they'd been raped because they were too ashamed too. I think this situation is along those same lines.

The situation becomes even worse when all the girl's tennis team is brought to summer training camp, and all the girls are stuck with Couch Toda for a whole week. During this week Todo gets more aggressive with his sexual attacks, even going as far that he gets naked, shakes his hip, and taunts "If you get embarrassed this easily, then how are you ever going to sex?!" It's about this time when some of the girls start fighting back, by pushing away his hand, and not doing everything he says, but then he bites back by cutting people who don't do everything he says from the team. This injects fear into many of the girls who become afraid that if they fight back they'll lose their chance at becoming a professional tennis player. Which means that when Suzuki DOES get ready to bring him to court, all her friends come to her house and beg her to drop the charges, or "they'll lose their chance at accomplishing their dream!" Its sad to hear the girls talk this way, but sadly, Todo has injected fear into everyone with the power he has that we come to feel more sorry for the girls more then ever.

I can guarantee you that the more you read this, the more you will get sick. With every new sick situation that comes up with Todo, I wanted to rip the guys head off! And every story you hear about how the girls were harassed, the more you want to cry. This story may not be for the faint of heart, but it really is a reality check unlike any other you might read in a comic book. There are a couple of problems though. I guess the most obvious thing you must keep in mind is that this is a story about sexual harassment, written for women by a woman. This all but insure's that a good portion of the men in this book are scum bags. Oh sure there are a couple of men that show up in the story who worry about Suzuki and the girls, including a teenage boy who shows up later on who wants there to be more "women only" train cars, but even he shows up too late to make any serious contribution to the story, so many men right read this and feel like they are being attacked, and this feeling is not totally without merit. And another minor problem I had with the story is that the ending seemed too light of a way to end the story and make its point. Which, given how grim and ugly the whole story was up will the end, is a big disappointment. I a better ending would have helped this story that much more.

Never-the-less, the second book of "Confidential Confessions" is a smash success. It really opens your eye's to the crime of sexual harassment in a way that you will take the subject MUCH more serious from here on! After reading this I can honestly say that I finally get why sexual harassment is so violating. Not that I didn't get it before, except now I really get it. This is a must read book for everyone.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -