Manga Review: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

Title: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan
Author: Yoshikawa Miki
Release: Weekly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Slice of Life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is about a delinquent who gets roped into helping a four-eyed idiot of girl study up for a test by repeated being harassed by said girl while he’s on the can. He eventually does give in and later finds out she’s been asking for his help so she could help someone else. This forms the basis of the relationship between the pair and leads them to both becoming more involved and respected by their schoolmates as they go on to doing the usual stuff for this kind of story. In my opinion, the manga starts off to rocky start with the repetitive slapstick comedy and obvious twists and turns in the clichéd plotlines that the author chose to go with but the story does eventually grow out of the dull routine it was going with and moved into more amusing territories – i.e. the four-eyed idiot runs for student council president and wins. Since then, the jokes and characterization have been pretty good for most part and the manga consistently stays fun and energetic. It does have its fair share of action and hot bloodedness too with all the hooligans thrown in there but I do find it somewhat lacking in terms of those heartwarming and tearjerking moments. I can understand avoiding the latter to avoid a mood whiplash but I feel that all the instances of the former have been superficial since they usually show up for the side characters instead of any of the main ones hence the lack of impact. It is a however does make a good read to pass the time so go ahead and check it out if you haven’t yet.