| Overall |
3 |
| Story |
4 |
| Art |
5 |
| Character |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
This is a shoujo romance centered around a former delinquent and her brother-in-law. Sounds exciting? Well, it isn't. Usually when you think about stories about delinquents, you think about gang wars, violence, and yakuza. There is none of it here. Despite that, this isn't the source of my disappointment. Sometimes you get these feints that lead into something unexpected and exciting. What we get is a woman who is ashamed of being unable to do housework chores. This could be funny, but this isn't a comedy. It is just a bland coming-of-age teenage romance. The main story isn't bad, but there is nothing special about
it.
My frustration with this manga comes from the incredibly stupid setup. Tohru, the older brother of the family, brings Komugi, his newly wed wife, to briefly live with his family before finding an apartment for themselves. After the first few days he has to leave for one week due to work. Right before coming back he abruptly informs that he has to leave the country because of his job. He tells the family by leaving a cassette tape in the mailbox. At first I thought, perhaps this is an old manga. No. It began to be published in 2015. In the age of cell phones, why would someone record such an important message in an old medium? If he had the time to find a cassette tape and its recorder in this day and age, why not just call them by phone? Then throughout the whole manga not once he talks to Komugi or his family about the decision to just maroon her there. How he met his wife, why she loves him so much despite abandoning her, or what is their relationship like is never properly told in the manga. That is because Tohru isn't a character in the story. He is just a device to tell the story. He is like a very feeble crutch to a limping tale.
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