Manga Review: Barihaken

Title: Barihaken
Author: Suzuki Shinya
Release: Weekly
Status: Finished
Genre: Comedy, Shonen
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: C
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about an otaku who through a certain chain of events has become the leader of the delinquents in his school and now has to deal with hiding his otaku-ness from his gang members and all the social stigmas that come from being their leader. Frankly I wanted to give the characters a C score but since I've only seen the first four chapters of this manga so it's okay for the characters to be a flat at this point. The main character is basically an idiot and the story depends on his gang members misinterpreting the things he says and do so that takes down the fun factor for me. The concept has been done before in other ways but this particular "otaku in hiding" plot doesn't stand up very well against those other ones, quite likely due to the fact that it's not unthinkable for a delinquent to like anime. It works for people of high standing but just not a delinquent.