About the Mangaka
No information on Mikage Naoyuki, this seems to be her first work (or his). If you have any info please drop me a line.
About the Manga
I have to admit I was not looking forward to this, to me it just looked and felt like the same old same old we’ve been seeing of late in 4-koma. Sadly it didn’t improve when I finally got a hold of it and read through.
That’s not to say it’s a bad series, but to be honest It has nothing new to make it stand out from all the other 4-koma out there. For me, Shoulder a Coffin, Sunrise Sketch, and Suzunari are great 4-koma. Sadly everything else after that has a samey feel to it.
I won’t say I have not enjoyed reading other 4-koma, such as this one, because I have. However there hasn’t been much variety in the story setting, even the characters feel a bit like a carbon copy at times.
I do love the cover design for this volume, and the back cover design is just as cute. The colouring is vibrant and bright. Especially the back cover, which I really do love, and it does showcase the character personalities as well hehe
The colour continues into the manga, as is standard (or so it seems) with 4-koma, and like all the others the colouring is perfect. The first page is a single full sized colour panel, and like the back cover, it’s awesome for it’s cuteness and it’s ability to showcase the characters individual personalities.
The next page is the character profile page, and is again in full colour. Full of well drawn chibi’s that are both cute and funny (gotta love Baa-san’s chibi). The next six pages are the start of the manga, and are in full colour.
While I say it’s got nothing that makes it stand out, I have to admit it starts of strong, and the characters personalities are well structured and apparent. The pacing of the story does feel a bit off, a bit to fast. However since this is only two volumes long, it’s to be expected.
Shino is damned funny with her obsession over Nanako, though I do think it goes a bit to far almost to stalker, though she’s nothing compared to the brother.
We get introduced to a lot of characters in this volume that I feel borders on overwhelming. However this is true with all short series, and this can and probably will be one of the failing elements of this series.
While the three main girls (Nanako, Shino and Akane) do indeed have a well fleshed personality, I felt some of the others were a bit lacking and flat, most notably Mai and Wakaba.
I was kind of hoping to see the girls in the miko outfits more often, since that seemed to be one of the central hooks, but it wasn’t emphasised much (what can I say, I love miko outfits!!)
The story, while isn’t amazing, is good enough to keep you reading to the end. But I do think it’s not going to appeal to everyone. If you like Hidamari Sketch you will probably like this, since that’s the series it’s most similar to.
I do think it’s got a lot of potential, and is definitely one i’ll follow, though I’m not completely sold on it.
Like with all of Yen Presses 4-Koma releases it’s slightly over sized and has been given their usually high standards. With omake, great attention to details and flow consistency of the translations and adaptation. As always titles and honorific’s were left intact with explanations given in the glossary, which always get a big bonus from me.
Overall I liked this series, but since I’ve recently been reading a lot of 4-koma it didn’t stand out enough from the crowd to make me really love it. So it doesn’t make it onto my Essential Read list, it is one I can recommend though, and if it had had a bit more oomph, it probably would have made my list. So if you liked Hidamari, give it a try.
Where to Buy
