Reviews

Jul 27, 2016
Mixed Feelings
Chikan Otoko was inspired from a post in a certain forum, that read something along the lines of “Today I was mistaken for a stalker”. Indeed that is how the manga begins. Actually, our protagonist seems like a suspicious guy due to his foul bachelor lifestyle; 20 years old, living alone, half-assing his studies, and acts as a woman repellent. His gateway out of his half-hikikkomori, irl-friendless lifestyle is the darkest corner of the forum, where the foulest of bachelor's lurk, ready to troll and humiliate. A most glorious lifestyle. Hail to those of us who have experienced it (except the repellent part. I sure hope no one lived through such a phase).

After clearing the misunderstanding with the cute girl, he manages to get her to have another cup of coffee. Along the way he meets 3 beautiful friends of hers and the story goes on.

The first thing that is clearly wrong stares right at you; the art is bad. Simple as that. As you read the first handful of pages a second problem emerges; the panel arrangement has no sophistication. A lot (and I mean a lot) of pages consist only of text squares relaying a forum post or an email, basically switching the medium to a novel. A third thing that's wrong is, that while this manga tries to pass as a comedy, it is clearly not. After a couple of OK jokes in the beginning the humor dries out and the genre becomes that of a hardcore slice-of-life.

I noticed that people praise that style and find exciting the meticulous realism in the way that the manga develops. That would be nice and well, if it retained that realism in the major plot turns. Well it doesn't; at every major “event” the outcome is unrealistic, all to force the conclusion upon us, making all the realistic details we have been reading pointless and tedious.

Nothing in this manga stands out, and I can not understand the hype. Overrated, while being mediocre through and through. 5.0/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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