Ranked #979

Fujimura-kun Mates (Manga)

Meet the main character Fujimura, who is probably the only sane person in this manga. He is a deliquent and uninterested student who has not been showing up to school.Hilarity ensues when Eri Usumi, who has a crush on Fujimura, comes to convince him to come to school as well as confessing her love for him. That really scares him off, but he hasn't even seen the beginning yet, until he enters school the second day. Classmates consisting of a guy who dresses like a roman gladiator, a girl who can't speak proper japenese (thus giving way to many opportunities for jokes),absent minded and delusional student council president, the school idol (the moe character) and finally the vice president who is the second close sane character. Hilarity ensues with Fujimura's encounters with each of the (crazy) characters, mostly because he's always trying to clear up/explain/resolve misunderstanding of his words and actions. Look for many references to classic shounen works in some of the gags as well as parodies of shoujo cliches that make the story even funnier.

Story 8- Like most gag mangas, it's mostly situational comedy, there's no real plot.The story is about Fujimura trying to adjust to the crazies around him while trying to stay sane and the girls trying to get Fujimura to go out with them (even if it means forming a harem on their own).Still it flows well and moves at a reasonble pace (though not for the poor Fujimura).

Art 8- Art is pretty and I can actually tell the characters apart pretty well. The girls not only have different hair styles and colors, their chest sizes and accessories also help distinguish them.

Characters 9- Each and every character is equally important to the story. They all add their own zaniness to it, also because some of them are parodies of character types (like tsundre, yandere, moe,stoic, etc..). In terms of their personalities and absurdities, I have my personal favs. I liked the first girl introduced, Eri Usumi (stalker girl) and the vice president Harumi, the stoic who is really uninterested in most matters and in Fujimura.

Enjoyment 10- This is the second manga to make me laugh out loud (after WA!) and needless to say that is enough for enjoyment. In between waiting for chapters, I re read the manga from beginning, because it's just as funny no matter how many times you read it. Even the chapter titles are funny, as well as the side notes. Don't skip a word, no matter where it is placed in the panel, because I assure you you'll miss some funiness.

Overall 9- Because of two characters that were introduced in the beginning, r not focused on as much (and they r very funny). I am referring the gladiator wearing classmate and the girl who can't speak proper japanese. So anyways, I am deducting one point from the overall rating because of it.

When I picked this title, I didn't expect it to be such a funny gag/parody manga. Mostly because they're really hard to pull. There are very few mangas, except for some 4koma ones, that r this funny. I highly recommend anyone who's new to parody/gag genre manga to read this. Or even if you are having a bad day and want to laugh, I gurantee that this will make you laugh out loud. read more