Ranked #9985

Junai Strip (Manga)

I loved this short volumed manga. It was fun, cute, and an overall sweet story.

As a summary here is the idea. Guy and girl are best friends in elementary and moving on to Junior High/High School together. Unfortunately, even though girl is a nerd in appearance, she's far from being a nerd mentally. What does that mean? She's not smart by any stretch of the imagination. The guy however is a rebel, troublemaker who only applied to the smart school with girl because he liked girl. He got in and is considered a genius. So he's the uber hottie who's very smart. Now it's three years later and girl has another chance to apply to uber smart school that uber smart boy got into which she had failed. He wants her to go to the school with him and willing tutors in all things that is not ONLY school related.

Obviously this story is not very original; it's an atypical teen romantic comedy. However, the characters are well defined and well written that it's just an original story. The story will have you giggling a bit. It has a high level of smut (so fore-warning). But the characters are really fun, I can't say it enough.

A bit of character discussion. The lead girl as mentioned is not smart, but she is given the stereotypical nerdy look. She's sweet. She's a bit naive, but what's great about this story versus some of Shinjo Mayu's other work is that the girl has had some experience in other relationships. So it was entertaining to see the guy deal with that factor and have some anxiety and insecurity about it. The male lead was far from domineering but he was horny as hell and he did throw in a bit of emotional blackmail to get some, but she was totally willing to have some fun too. The entire story seemed realistic and it was a good read.

I personally like these nerdy girl/hot guy stories so it was a plus. The art work is always great and definitely something to read. As a note this story has a bit of similarity to Itazura na Kiss, but if you're American or not the most fitting is the movie She's All That. If you're American or not and have seen this film, you'll see a bit of similarity but the manga is not that deep. But you have the nerdy looking girl who's so NOT nerdy and you have the uber hot/smart guy (in the manga he's running for President but not President unlike the film). So there are similarities there. Great reading.

**Oh, if you haven't seen She's All That...I loved it and I'm a film snob. I think you should get your hands on it.
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Alright, let me start this review by saying that I am usually not very into shoujo. There are very view shoujo manga that I actually like. At first Love Strip seemed like your average cliche shoujo, with a guy who is about two times bigger than the heroine, a childhood freind romance (sort of), and a heroine who's brain is seemingly filled with nothing other than "He is so cute" Oh my, he loves me" and "Kyaaaa".


The story is in one word: sex. Literally there is at least two sex scenes in every chapter. It starts off with the heroine being a "nerd who isn't intelligent and needs help from a perverted bishounen" Who might I add, hardly even HELPS her. He basically focuses more on her breasts than her actual grades. I mean he somehow always finds a way to either grope or rape her.
You want to have me tutor you?- Time to have sex.
You got a question right? - Time to have sex.
You got a question wrong? - Time to have sex.
You miraculously got into the school? - Time to have congratulations sex.
Your going to die soon? - Time to have sex.
The world is ending? - Well then, I think it's time for some goodbye sex.
Think I'm overreacting? When you read manga, you'll see why. Because I honestly cannot see how this is "cute". If anything it's disgusting and revolting. To the point where I was actually laughing at just how idiotic it was. The bishounen who I can't even remember the name of says he "loves her" but really, it's merely sexual attraction. I mean, throughout the whole entire manga, did they ever once have a NORMAL conversation? Or even a conversation at all that wasn't about sex or just him teasing her? Did he ever once say anything about her actual personality that he liked?
At one point she grows a backbone and tells him that he's not even teaching her ( which she was right on. For once.) and that he's only having sex with her. What does he do when he hears her say she won't be his sex toy? He throws a hissy fit and says he won't teach her anymore. I honestly cannot even comprehend how anyone could call that love. Love (to me at least) is where your happy just talking to each other, you don't need to touch them to be excited. What was happening in this manga was not love.
On another note, the art was a bit strange but pretty good. It wasn't really unique, but it wasn't horrible either.
I did not enjoy this manga, and if you are looking for a good shoujo, then I recommend something like Torikagoshou no Kyou mo Nemutai Juunintachi, not this.
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