Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story)

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Japanese: ご近所物語

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Type: Manga

Volumes: 7

Chapters: 33

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 1995 to Oct 1997

Genre: Romance

Theme: Visual Arts

Demographic: Shoujo

Serialization: Ribon Magazine

Authors: Yazawa, Ai (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.02¹ (scored by 3,840 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #700²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1641

Members: 12,468

Favorites: 341

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8.02

Ranked #700Popularity #1641Members 12,468

MangaRibon MagazineYazawa, Ai (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /7

Chapters: /33

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Synopsis

Welcome to Happy Berry! No, this isn't a fruit stand, but the label dreamed up by aspiring fashion designer Mikako Kouda. In her quest to make a name for herself in the fashion world, Mikako enters Yazawa Arts Academy, a prestigious art school, alongside her strictly platonic childhood friend Tsutomu. But there's one problem—Tsutomu's uncanny resemblance to a rock star skyrockets him to popularity and leads him to date the prettiest girl in school. Now Mikako can't help but wonder if what she feels is jealousy.

(Source: VIZ Media)

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Background

Gokinjo Monogatari has been published in English as Neighborhood Story by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint since December 5, 2023.

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Characters

Kouda, Mikako

Main

Yamaguchi, Tsutomu

Main

Sakurada, Miwako

Supporting

Nagase, Arashi

Supporting

Kanzaki, Risa

Supporting

Nakasu, Mariko

Supporting

Saejima, Midori

Supporting

Tashiro, Yuusuke

Supporting

Oota, Mai

Supporting

Oikawa, Ayumi

Supporting

Reviews

Jul 28, 2009

Master10K

Recommended

Ai Yazawa is a mangaka renowned for her diverse range of shoujo manga and here you’ll see the manga that influenced both Paradise Kiss and Nana. Gokinjo Monogatari is a Shoujo, Romance, Comedy Drama that shows an interesting take on dependency however it’s rife with humour that can ruin even the most serious moments.

Just as you’d expect, the story is set in an Art Institute where Mikako Kouda, our eccentric heroine, is able to study fashion design to her hearts content. Although it is known that Mikako hasn’t had the best childhood one can imagine but what has helped her along the way is the ... support from her childhood friend Tsutomu. This short synopsis does feel like it has been pull out of the “anime cliché” filing cabinet, since a romance story about childhood friends is a fairly common commodity. On the other hand the artistic elements were implemented well enough, so even people who aren’t into art & fashion design are able to appreciate it and even if the story is cliché it does take a few interesting turns that the reader wouldn’t expect.

This mostly had to do with the characters who each had there appealing and unappealing sides. Like this story’s heroine the reader is supposed to empathize with (Mikako), who was cute but personally I just didn’t like her self-centred personality. The good thing is that her and all the other characters around her develop, as they learn more about life’s hardships; and what makes this manga truly remarkable is how it takes a break from the two main characters in order to spend a fair amount of time developing some of the side characters, giving them a story of their own.

The artistic design is certainly able to capture these moments fairly well, including the eccentric style in the earlier 90s. Unfortunately since this is one of Ai’s earlier works, the artwork does suffer from lack of detail. This in turn makes it difficult to tell similar looking characters apart and inconsistencies in the character designs don’t help one bit.

Overall Gokinjo Monogatari is an interesting mix of romance, comedy and drama that has been crudely sewn together. I say this because even though each side of the manga was individually well made, in the end it couldn’t come together as a whole and I believe the comedy is at fault. Sure there’s a whole lot of laughable comedy in this but the mangaka really made it into a running gag to take digs out of her own work (just for lulz) and after a while it became excessive. Good thing the whole “dependency” theme was played off more subtly and didn’t detract from the more prominent “artistic” theme of the story. So if you’ve seen and enjoyed anything made by Ai Yazawa, then check this out. It may not be as good as her newer stuff but it’s a great read for anyone who enjoys a good shoujo/romance.

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Jul 29, 2009

carosene

Recommended

++A review of Gokinjo Monogatari for fans of Paradise Kiss++

Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story) is probably best known as the prequel to Ai Yazawa's international hit, Paradise Kiss. While the setting is the same for both manga, and the events of Gokinjo set up some events in Paradise Kiss, they are quite different manga.

++Moral content and target audeince++

First of all, Gokinjo was published in Shoujo magazine Ribon, whose target audience, according to Wikipedia, is 9-13 year old girls. Ribon titles tend to glisten with innocence, like Full Moon wo Sagashite, Mint na Bokura, Ultra Maniac, Gals! and Fancy Lala. I wonder if Ribon has very ...

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Poll: Gokinjo Monogatari Chapter 4 Discussion Pirating_Ninja - Apr 26, 2014	2 replies	by Safrichh »» Jul 24, 9:55 AM
Poll: Gokinjo Monogatari Chapter 3 Discussion Pirating_Ninja - Apr 25, 2014	2 replies	by Safrichh »» Jul 20, 10:22 AM
Poll: Gokinjo Monogatari Chapter 2 Discussion Agarina - Dec 10, 2009	4 replies	by Safrichh »» Jul 17, 10:01 AM
Poll: Gokinjo Monogatari Chapter 1 Discussion Pirating_Ninja - Apr 25, 2014	3 replies	by Safrichh »» Jul 12, 9:50 AM
Will this ever be officially released in English in America? Eternal_Moon - Jul 25, 2009	4 replies	by ShadowNeo2 »» Jan 14, 3:29 AM

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Neighborhood Story
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