"Am I not good enough?"
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Romeo: Prologue is the fourth of the "Short Story" comics that come with the limited edition versions of HoneyWorks official albums. Released on February 22, 2017 bundled with the collector's edition of Nando Datte, Suki. ~Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai~, this comic tells a story concerning the focal characters of Romeoー LIP×LIP's members Yujiro and Aizoー as well as first year student Hiyori Suzumi.
Interestingly, the story does not focus on the contents of Romeo's music video, the process of it, or LIP×LIP's idolhood; that would be revisited in Romeo: MUSIC VIDEO MAKING, released over a year after Nando Datte.
Voice Cast
Songs Featured
- Romeo (performed by: LIP×LIP) - Ending Theme
Synopsis
- Hiyori Suzumi, a young girl coming from the countryside, takes the time to bike around town and note all of the things she never got to experience back home. On one such bike ride, she sees a young boy in front of a police station, getting scolded by an older woman for acting recklessly. Thinking Tokyo has its scary side sometimes, Hiyori decides not to look further into the matter and bikes away from the scene.
- She lays her clothes and materials out for school, beginning the next day, ready and prepared to enjoy her first day as a First Year in Sakuragaoka High School. The day of, however, she gets lost quite easily, rushing around to the First Year hall but having no clue where to find it. In a stroke of luck, Hiyori runs into Hina Setoguchi, who gives her the right directions, and thanks her as she runs to her classroom.
- We get a brief interlude with the former Class 1-1 members not long afterwards; Hina reveals that she had a similar experience to Hiyori on her first day of high school, and that she was rushing to the second year hall to talk to her older brother and his girlfriend when asked by Kodai. She and Kotaro begin to talk about how much they've grown, with Ken interjecting that Hina's also grown physically as well. Afterwards, Ken is shown dejected about something, which Kodai initially thinks is about the third year girls graduating. While Ken is his usual easygoing self and Kodai plays his straight man, he hints at "a lot of things" happening over time and then drop the subject, expecting to hit up the first year hall to talk to girls.
- Meanwhile, the school is abuzz with excitement; it appears the boy at the police station is the subject of every girl's attention, and more than that, he's also attending Sakuragaoka in Hiyori's class of 1-4. Hiyori instantly recognizes him from the police station, but before she's able to say anything she's forcibly silenced by another newcomer. Introducing himself as Aizo, he greets the class and goes to take his seat, angrily whispering to the other boy not to mix him up in the latter's business. The other boy, meanwhile, introduces himself as Yujiro Someya and tries to make an acquaintance of Hiyori. Her earlier suspicions were cleared after this talk, and she's able to consider him a cool, handsome city boy. Hiyori comes to believe that the earlier passive aggressiveness was because of something she did, and another girl in class takes notice of it.
- After school, Hiyori runs into Aizo, and thinking that she had something to do with their fight, goes to apologize and asks him to refrain from fighting the other boy. Aizo angrily snaps at her, first asking if she knows who they are, then calling her a bumpkin when she says she doesn't, and brushes her off for supposedly trying to get him involved in something she has no business in, muttering about dealing with women afterwards. Yujiro exits school not long after, and where Hiyori was expecting a warmer greeting like she got at the beginning of the day, she's instead met with a disinterested and flippant stare and a warning to not let his police station incident be known before he leaves the premises. On her own way back to her apartment, she discovers the truth about both boys; that they're actually the recently popular idol duo LIP×LIP, and that they're preparing for a concert soon. The comic ends with Hiyori's complete and utter shock at the revelation.
Trivia
- This is the shortest of the "short story" digital comics at 12 minutes and 10 seconds.
- Interestingly, the digital comic version of this manga is the only one lacking an animated sequence out of the current "short story" comics. Likewise this is the only digital comic lacking an opening theme.
- A poster for Kawaiiku Naritai is shown on a billboard in the city.
- The concert LIP×LIP was advertising for, "Julietta", also is the name of a HoneyWorks concert that ran the same year. LIP×LIP also made an appearance at that concert as virtual idols.