• 告白予行練習ヤキモチの答え -- Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu: Yakimochi no Kotae -- “Confession Rehearsal: A Solution to Jealousy”
• Author: Touko Fujitani -- Artist: Yamako
• The novel: Amazon.jp -- Books Kinokuniya -- YesAsia
• The fan translation (by Renna): Renna's Translations
• MAL Entry -- Forum

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This is the second novel in the “Confession Executive Committee Love Series” of light novel adaptations for Vocaloid songs. The first volume was Confession Rehearsal (or Kokuhoku Yokou Renshuu), and this second volume is titled A Solution for Jealousy (or Yakimochi no Kotae). This series focuses on a group of six friends in high school who get caught up in the game of romance. The first volume primarily focused on Natsuki and Yuu — in this one, the lead characters are Mochita and Akari (as seen on the cover).

A Solution for Jealousy continues with the theme of finding the courage to confess your love to someone. In this case, the shy boy Mochita has fallen for Akari, a girl he has hardly even managed to talk to. Akari meanwhile is described as having her head in the clouds, but to me it seemed she was perfectly normal — she just isn’t that concerned with romance, and hasn’t fallen in love with anyone before. At any rate, the story takes its time in bringing the two together, as they’re both busy with their respective clubs (film and art) and helping out their friends.

I liked the first half of this volume well enough — it was very simple, but it was cute. The second half of the story felt like it lost its focus though, and seemed like it was little more than a rehash of events from Confession Rehearsal. The two volumes (and most likely the third volume) take place during the same time period, but offer different points of view. It’s a storytelling technique I’m fine with, but it doesn’t offer much here. I like that Mochita and Akari are there for their friends and all, but not enough happens to make the slice-of-life material interesting.

These light novels are pleasant enough reads for fans of fluffy shoujo manga set in high school, but they probably won’t hold the attention of anyone else. The recent anime film adaptation does well to condense the first two volumes into one much snappier story, so I’ll at least suggest that if you’re in the mood for something cute.

Cho's Rating: Maybe Recommended