Mikako-san

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Mikako-san is incredibly bittersweet.

What the story boils down to is essentially a teen drama about relationships and finding one's place in the world, but it's the author's understated and poetic way of laying it all out and conveying what the characters are feeling that makes it so special. Through out the series are sprinkled symbols meant to relate to certain characters, colors like red for Mikako and green for Midorikawa, objects like the former's tube of candy or the latter's pencils. They're used incredibly effectively the first time, but even more so the fifth, it keeps referring back to these symbols in order to show ... how things have changed, even if only to point out little differences, they basically become plot threads of their own, from things like the rule about not stepping on the white lines to Mikako's red nail polish, it has dozens of elements that warp in meaning and are used well enough to engender themes as a whole.

The manga's look certainly adds a lot to the feel it's trying to go for: the soothingly soft water colors, its rough panel outlines with the corners rounded out, its way of allocating space for the panels and what's inside them to hint to the reader as to which ones they should linger on. Since every chapter is 4 pages long, it wouldn't be a stretch to say it operates very similarly in terms to build up and execution to the way 4koma manga do, hence every chapter has the ability to feel like it's incredibly sweet, a punch to the gut, and everything in between, even with how short they are.

Mikako-san's biggest and most evident appeal is its characters and what they go through. Even with its stylized approach and its use of more subtle storytelling techniques, the story itself is grounded and drenched in pathos: The protagonist just going with the flow with no aim, Midorikawa not being honest with himself, Katou's insistence on going out with a girl he already knows isn't that interested in him, and countless other little things that make something most young adults can relate to. its style and "less is more' method are used as supplements to its already human characters, and that's what makes it so wonderful.

Machiko described the feeling she wanted while reading the manga as "A pensive look when alone", I feel like she managed to capture it perfectly, every chapter left me in a state of contemplation for a minute before I stroll onto the next one, with my heart remaining in a tightened state, looking back on similar events I lived through and ones I'm still going through. Its downplayed depiction of people going through one of the most confusing time of their lives can be attributed to having that philosophy at its core, and I couldn't be more grateful it turned out this way.

A very sweet and refreshing story. I liked every single page of it. The art is very beautiful. The characters feel so real you almost feel like you’re there with them. I would sometimes read a chapter several times because it somehow felt different every time. It’s a very simple story yet so intriguing. Mikako is a casual high school student. Midorikawa sits next to her. They aren’t particularly fond of each other at the beginning but with time they start to develop a special bond.
The only reason I didn’t finish it in one day was because I felt it would be a waste ... to finish it so soon. I’m not a person who can read a story for a second time but this one I might be able to. The story doesn’t really have an “ending” or more like it didn’t feel like an ending because hey, that’s real life. But the more reason to like it.
The only complaint I have is that it was short. Very lovely indeed.

First of all, this is undoubtedly my favorite manga of all time. Maybe it's because of that, or maybe in spite of it, but I can never seem to properly review it. I think a lot of my relationship with this manga stems with the way it makes me feel in an abstract sense more than a story sense. The characters are wonderful in all of their flaws, they make dumb teenage decisions, and their personalities exude from the artwork and the few words that they think or speak. Midorikawa and Mikako's relationship isn't my favorite, but I still love the fact that it exists, ... because of course it does. They don't get together for my enjoyment or preference, they do it because they like each other. It's that level of autonomy, the surging organic nature of every page and panel of this manga, that I think truly made me fall in love with it.

I also identify deeply with the underlying theme of teenage expectation present in this manga. I'm 18 as I write this review, still in high school, and I know many changes are soon to take place in my life. Seeing the characters in Mikako-san navigating their way through the same situations and feelings I find myself in is such an enlightening experience. There is a sense of dread mixed with hope that is present throughout: the uncertainty of the future, the complicated nature of the present, and the unreachable allure of the past.

The attention on the seemingly mundane is probably the most prominent feature of this manga. There is an immense focus on objects and the way that they fit into the stories that make up our lives. I adore how Machiko uses this motif. It only adds to the organic nature of it all, and it does so in a way that is so compelling yet believable that I struggle to realize sometimes just how amazing it is.

But words can't do it justice. I truly believe, however cynical it may sound, that I am the biggest fan of this manga that there is. As such, it's hard for me to express the magnitude of emotion and change this manga has filled me with. There's one page in which, as Mikako takes a late night train ride and looks out the window to seeing a passing passenger jet, she thinks a sentence that does the best job of summing this manga up in my mind.

"I got the feeling I could go far."