Manga 128665 Ora Yomekko Sa Ikuda Cosplay Jk No Himitsu No Aijou

I try not to be too harsh on the things that I read as I usually see some sort of value in most manga, even when they might clumsily put a story together. Usually, most manga have one or two good points that make the experience all the more bearable even if the manga overall isn't all that great. The same cannot be said for Ora, Yomekko sa Ikuda! This manga was nothing short of a heaping, hulking pile of fetid canine excrement. This dreadful manga, outside of its art (which is extremely well drawn, I will readily admit here), has absolutely no redeeming qualities ... whatsoever.

Now, the obvious problem of the relationship dynamic aside (you know exactly what kind of manga this is and why it's problematic by default, I'm sure)... Characterization is incredibly poor. The male MC is the most brain dead 25 year old I've ever seen, never mind the fact that he looks (and acts) like he's 15 like the rest of the cast. His behavior is inconsistent, childish, and at times borderline deranged. Chihiro is 15 but easily passes for the age that the MC is supposed to be, and surprisingly acts slightly more mature than him in spite of that. I have no idea why the 3rd wheel, Kiho even exists. She's more or less completely ignored the entire time and doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than giving the author a recurring, well-endowed gyaru character to draw and be horny over. The 4th wheel "Prez" (I don't even remember her name) was just... kind of there? Her presence accomplished almost nothing; and it seems like her incredibly contrived existence was for the sole purpose of advancing a single plot point.

Other characters suddenly appeared/became somewhat relevant over halfway through, received no notable character development because... obviously they wouldn't lmao, and they were all just kind of... there. Certain key events towards the end of the manga are handled in the most absurd way possible by pretty much every character and it really just shows that the author is lost in the sauce and letting the "story" ebb and flow in what I can only imagine to be the most cynical way possible.

Incidentally, I've written the words 'story' and 'plot' multiple times now but there's no story to speak of, so there's not much to even say about that. The story is the plot synopsis, and the "plot" moves about in the zaniest of ways possible sans rhyme or reason, ending before you even know what you were looking at the entire time. Actually, if there's one thing that's predictable about the story it's that you can tell what kind of ending it will have pretty much from the first chapter. I won't say it, but if you know, you know.

In short, this manga is terrible. The ONLY good thing about it is its art. Nothing else. I cannot think of any reason to even read this unless you have a deep hatred of yourself like me, you're a masochist or you accidentally clicked on this and started reading out of morbid curiosity and wanted to see how this dumpster fire would end. The art is great but this is ultimately an ecchi fanservice manga that's not even a good romance, and there are much better things to read than this if you want to have that kind of experience. Even your average H-doujin is less aggravating (and more titillating) to read, and I suspect Takahashi Kou-sensei would probably be a successful H-doujin artist if he spent some time applying his artistic talents on that front instead of writing garbage like this.

Final rating of 2/10, boosted only by the superb art style when it deserves a 1/10 at most. Actual rating, art notwithstanding, would be a 0 if it were possible to give it that score.