Lock On! is a short manga by Tsuchida Kenta. It was first serialized as a one-shot in Weekly Shounen Jump in 2009 and later began serialization as a series in 2010.
The premise is simple – Utsuru Sanada is a professional photographer at age seventeen. He likes girls, and he likes taking pictures of girls. Not those kind of pictures – he actually dislikes people who make the assumption that he takes dirty pictures. The thing he really enjoys is seeing girls smile; not fake smiles that girls pull off in front of the camera, but “real” smiles that he knows are genuine. The secret to his power of seeing “genuine smiles” (as well as other things) is his “Shutter Eye”, which he normally keeps covered with an eye patch. His Shutter Eye functions similar to a camera, giving him superb memory.
He meets Kurihara Niko, a beautiful girl who is a martial arts master and hates men, believing they are all dogs and should not be taken seriously. Sanada makes it his goal to take pictures of Niko when she really smiles. Niko, of course, has a best friend, named Yuki, who is the typical happy airhead you always need in a manga. However, Yuki, and the rest of the characters as well, grow and change throughout the story – Yuki becomes more intelligent and a bit less naïve by the end of the manga. Another character introduced is Yamato Takeaki, a “delinquent”-type character who has an enormous crush on Yuki.
The art of the manga is surprisingly good for a weekly one; the art is original and has a rather distinct style. The quality does go down a bit near the end, but it is still very good. One thing I will point out is that it’s rather obvious that the author is being suppressed. He wants to focus on more serious subjects, but it seems to me as if his editors were constantly forcing him to pull off gags and make the manga less serious than he wanted it to be. This is especially prominent in the one-shot – it was a bit different in that Niko was the target of “dirty pictures” by other boys at the school which gives it a more serious feel. Even the serialized manga itself has a bit of this serious tone – while it is mostly a romantic comedy, there are a few chapters in which Yuki is kidnapped by two men who say they want to take pictures of her, while hiding their true intentions.
Since it is a shounen manga, there is some fanservice, but only a bit and nothing that I can really complain about. Actually, the fanservice manages to be funny when it does appear, and isn't explicit or particularly erotic in the least. From what I can remember, there is only a panty shot (which, as stated before, manages to be funny given the situation; read the manga and you’ll see why) and a scene where girls change in the locker room – although that part wasn’t emphasized. It was just…there. It wasn’t racy or fanservice-y in the least.
Lock On! is a very cute, romantic, shounen comedy. Some people say it has clichés, although I didn’t notice them, probably because I was too busy laughing or simply enjoying the storyline. The manga has enormous potential – I really, really wanted to see where it would go. And then…out of nowhere, it was discontinued. I think it has in part to do with the “romance” of it, and also the way the author couldn’t truly send the message he wanted to. It is a very good manga – it’s just a shame that it ended so soon. I look forward to Tsuchida-sensei’s next works, because Lock On! was really a very enjoyable (albeit a tad short) read.
