Manga 95206 Amano Megumi Wa Sukidarake

Amano Megumi wa Sukidarake is an ecchi romance/comedy manga. The concept of Amano's character is based on Amanojaku, a demon in Japanese folklore. From Wikipedia: "It is usually depicted as a kind of small oni and is thought to be able to provoke a person's darkest desires and thus instigates them into perpetrating wicked deeds". As the male protagonist is pursuing his goal of getting into Tokyo University, Amano keeps disrupting his studies whenever they meet. Each chapter is basically a setup for the same joke over and over of the female protagonist accidentally showing her underwear to the male protagonist. Despite that, the story ... is much more than just that.

Its extremely amicable cast of characters provide a low-drama setting. Megumi isn't just a voluptuous body. She is an energetic and hard working athlete who isn't very fond of studying. In the doujo she is admired by her colleagues of the kendo club. Outside the club, she relies on her childhood friend, Manabu Shindou, for whom she secretly has a crush on. Manabu isn't a generic male protagonist. Tall and bookish, he is obsessed with studying due to his dream. Traumatized by failing the test to enter a prestigious high school, he vows to enter the celebrated Tokyo University. Completely different from one another, they form a great pair that complements each other.

What brings me joy in this story is the relationship between the two main protagonists, Amano and Shindou. Despite not formally being a couple, their constant acts of kindness towards each other just show how much they care about each other. Love is not just in big acts of sacrifice. Love is in the details. It is in their casual tenderness for the sake of the other. They are in a relationship. They just don't notice that they are. When one needs help, the other one is always there for the other. A couple whose relation is based on their friendship is just lovely to watch. If you are looking for romantic drama, kisses, and/or sex; give up on this title. It is through and through a situational comedy focused on the friendship side of a relationship. When people complain about that, I can only point out that one of the reasons Amano loves Shindou is exactly because he doesn't keep thinking about getting as quick as possible to a physical relationship. To some people, sex is the whole point of a couple. If you think so, don't even bother with this manga.

It has an episodic nature in the sense that it is a series of short stories that most of the time begin and end in one chapter. Despite that, the characters aren't stuck in an eternal status quo. They are all slowly changing as time goes by. The manga covers the three years of high school and delegates about 100 chapters for each year. It is really cool to see Amano's growth from being a promising rookie picked on by the teacher to becoming the revered captain of the kendo club. It is also nice when a teacher points out to Manabu how well he is progressing on his studies by having Amano on his side. Focusing only on studies is stressful and ends up being detrimental to one's well being. Amano's interference balances Shindou's life into a healthier state of mind. Not only that, it is thanks to all this disturbance that Shindou finds out what career he wants to pursue later in life.

This manga may seem like an excuse to show scantily clad women. While it is, it isn't just that. Beyond the provocative pages, there is a heartwarming tale.

tl;dr: An ecchi rom-com with a really solid final stretch but absurdly repetitive and slow moving before that.

This manga is about a guy named Manabu that is working hard towards his goal of being accepted into Tokyo University. However, his childhood friend, Megumi, is constantly distracting him. Mainly due to how she is constantly inadvertently showing more skin than she should. The problem with this premise, is that it starts out with both of them in their first year of high school. College entrance exams aren’t until third year, however Manabu is solely focused on passing the Tokyo University entrance exam from the beginning of ... the manga. Thus, he doesn’t join any club or much any of the standard high school stuff. And him being so focused on studying so early on results in him not being able to make friends either. There’s somewhat of a plot thread involving him seeming to have a crush on a girl that goes to another school named Mikawa, but its completely and utterly pointless and ultimately goes nowhere.

On the flip side, Megumi is the star rookie of the kendo club and over the course of the manga she starts taking kendo even more seriously, with the ultimate goal of trying to get into a good college through kendo. However, there too what matters most is her performance in her final year of high school, and thus the earlier tournaments don’t feel anywhere near as high stakes. Earlier on in the manga there is somewhat of a focus on actual kendo itself, but as a kendo manga it really just isn’t very good at all. Thus, as the manga progresses it shifts to skipping over the actual kendo and just focusing on the results. Megumi is much more social than Manabu so she has a pretty wide circle of friends, but none of them are all that interesting. There are lots of side characters that have a reoccurring presence, but none of them are fleshed out enough to really care about them.

As a result of not much serious happening, the period of the manga that covers the first two years of high school is essentially just really slow slice of life. It’s basically just a series of comedic shorts, the vast majority of which are ecchi focused. The ecchi isn’t all that good though to be honest. It’s very dense, but it’s really basic. There’s nothing particularly unique or interesting. It’s basically just Megumi not being good at keeping her clothes in mind and thus constantly getting into positions that show her underwear or something like that. It’s really repetitive and not all that fun. There are some heartwarming moments or especially funny moments here and there, and there is some character and relationship development from time to time. But this phase of the manga lasts about twenty volumes, so the good parts feel like drops in an ocean. It’s enough to build investment in Manabu, Megumi, and their relationship, but overall it’s just way too tedious and dull.

The manga goes through a major shift when they move into their third year. Manabu starts going to cram school and actually makes friends. Both of whom are well developed, interesting, and likable characters in their own right, especially Yukino. Megumi becomes the captain of the kendo club and starts taking kendo really seriously. Furthermore, one of her friends, Mio, takes much more a spotlight and turns out to be way more of a fun character than she had been before this. The stakes are high because this will be the year that decides their futures. But on top of that their relationship also comes to a head with a good amount of drama. The payoff is great and pretty thoughtfully written, and thus I would say I was pretty satisfied with the ending. I’m pretty conflicted over whether slogging through the entire manga was worth it however.

The art is somewhat mediocre at first but gets significantly better over time. The later color art is downright fantastic, but a lot of it isn’t included in the scanlations so I recommend looking it up on a booru or something. The mangaka uses minimalist eyes on everyone which is pretty unique as far as manga goes and took some getting used to but ultimately I think it worked well enough. Design wise Megumi and Yukino have great designs. Mio is pretty solid as well. Beyond that everyone has a distinct enough design that they’re easy to identify but none of them are particularly memorable.

I don't understand how anyone could read more than 265 chapters of this manga. It doesn't have a good plot, no good characters or anything worth reading for other than a busty manga girl doing busty manga girl things. What's more, it's not even funny or entertaining. 81 ch. they were enough to drop it.

Completely according to those who read Komi-san, there are many chapters to read but at least they are funny or entertaining chapters. However we have this handle that with cheeky fanservice and a poor plot that goes nowhere is still read.

Do you want to see boobs? I recommend you go nhentai ... before this read this manga.