The artwork was very cute and stylish, but the story and characters were flat. I think Nala had the best development of all though her personality was her obsession with kawaii/cutesy fashion and her tendency to run away. The dialogue was also stilted.

Things were moving so quickly that many plot points didn’t get developed. One of the biggest problems is the mean girl Emma. She never truly grew or apologized. maybe middle school kids are that fickle. But Emma saw Lilico play basketball one day, then she was bestie #1 forever. First half of the story dragged on and on, but, once Lilico got used to the school, things picked up. Overall, Bounce Back is more plot-driven than character-driven.

There are a lot of references to (mainstream) Japanese items/media: kimono, yukata, pocky, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, katanas, samurai, etc. But it’s done very surface level. Maybe the author thought this is what the young audience would be most familiar with and would appeal to them.

I fully acknowledge I’m not the intended audience though I’m no stranger to reading children’s fiction but I almost dnf’ed this. I didn’t enjoy the reading experience. But I think kids will be super enamored with the art style, the cute animal sidekick, and the kindhearted, harmless Japan-loving friends (“weeaboos” if you want to be mean).

1.5 [rating from personal enjoyment] ( )