Pika☆Ichi

Pika Ichi is about two students Torau and Hanako who see the corruption in a school they love and their high sense of honor and justice makes them band together to help reform the school.

Story: 8
This story has some cliches like the elite school with arrogant elitist students is hardly a road untraveled, but the way it is portrayed is done in a non conventional way in that even though it's a shoujo manga it has a slightly shonen edge that really sets it apart from other series. You get all the perks of shoujo (Romance, school life, comedy, etc.) with the added edge of the action and principle of shoennen.

Art: 10
The art is very striking it has a very strong edge to it that often just slaps me in the face when I turn the page it goes kinda like this... reading, reading, tooooo much beauty OW!

Character: 10
The characters in this book have only one cliche they have the sudden transformation from unnoticeable to strikingly beautiful cliche but being as its done in a truly BA way it can hardly be held against them. The main characters have a sense of honor and justice that you usually only find in shonen because characters in shoujo make a lot of their decisions based off of emotions rather than principle so having this rational equally strong pairing was very refreshing.

Enjoyment 10
This manga is very enjoyable. I had plenty of HA HA, AAAAAHHH, and THATS RIGHT moments while reading this manga. its just a fun adventure to read.

Overall 10
Every aspect of this manga was well done. Its unique edge sets it apart from the crowd and makes it a refreshing and fun read. I'm definitely going to keep reading the chapters as they come out and enjoy each one.

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I picked this out because I wanted to read a 'delinquent romance' story. In that aspect, it didn't particularly meet my expectations.

Story: 6
Solid story about students wanting to improve the reputation of the school. However the romance was disappointing and the weird love triangle was unnecessary.

Art: 6
It was alright, but nothing outstanding. Quite similar to every other shoujo title from 2005 onwards. Hanako and Mamoru look exactly the same so it hard to keep track of who was who sometimes. Dougen and Tarou also look the same facially, but different hair colour.

Character: 4
None of the characters are particularly memorable, and Dougen's motivations are confusing and I generally dislike him as a character.

Enjoyment: 3
I enjoyed it that much that I read half and forgot about for a year and have only just come back to finish the rest.

Overall: 4
Although the first 10 chapters held my attention enough, it dimished severely afterwards. Coming to the end I skimmed words waiting for something actually exciting to happen. I was also extremely disappointed in the lackluster romance between Hanako and Tarou that literally went nowhere. The manga ends without actually resolving anything on a personal level between the characters. All-in-all, reading this was a waste of time.

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Beautiful whispers of disappointment. I honestly feel like this story conned me into reading it.

*A spoiler free review*

Pika☆Ichi. A story about a pair of ordinary, unnoticeable teenagers who decide to become makeshift bad-asses in order to stop a bully ring in their school sounds great, right? What can be cooler than delinquents fighting for justice? Unfortunately, the execution must also be successful for the story to pay off.

The start of Pika☆Ichi is interesting, actually, and if it had ended sooner my opinion of it might be a little more favorable. I can stand and occasionally even enjoy some shoujo ridiculousness but in this case, it was way too much. The story is really random, has weird plot twist and sprawls in every direction. Most of it feels like a filler and the ending is abrupt and messy. It also goes way overboard with violence; if it's supposed to be played for laughs, the story does a poor job of it taking itself seriously to an excessive degree.

The biggest downfall of Pika☆Ichi is the romance. I was mainly in for that and got nothing out of it. Nothing. As a friendship manga this is decent, but the characters are not well rounded and I had a hard time getting grip of them or caring about them. The female lead is unbearable and most of my feelings towards this manga originated from my pity towards the male lead, who was half-sympathetic but suffered from the same lack of dimensions like everyone else.

I can give this manga some credit for trying to tackle important issues like overcoming bullying. The first arc is decent but after that the story totally loses it.

I don’t really know who I could recommend Pika☆Ichi to. If you’re looking for romance, stay away. If you are looking for coherent story lines or beautiful art, you won’t get them either. Masochists and doom seekers, welcome?

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So I happened to come across this manga while looking in the recommendations of the manga "Arisa" if you are a fan of that manga or "Oresama Teacher" and "Boys before Flowers" than you will definitely like this manga! This review is made after only 10 chapters of the manga.

Story (7 out of 10)- The story is very creative with having Yakuza movies inspire the characters to stop the bullying in the school. The story is very "Boys Before Flowers" -esque because of the feel of having two students going against this higher power in the school. Though there are some cliche scenes the story is very fun in my opinion.

Art (8 out 10)- The art in this story is very nice and clean in my opinion, I'd enjoyed it a lot.

Character (8 out of 10)- I love the characters of this story. The two main characters are shown in the beginning to be extremely shy and forgotten easily with such normal names that they usually compare them with the example names on tests. After the first chapter though the characters change everything even their appearances! You will definitely love the refreshing feel of the main two characters!

I thoroughly enjoyed this manga even though it is not complete yet it is off to a great start! I recommend to read it as it is a very fun read!

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