Senryuu Shoujo

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cute, drama free SOL rom-com. I like how the author mixes up 4koma with the more traditional manga format, depending on the scenes, since I'm generally now a huge fan of 4koma manga.

There are indeed similarities to komi-san, and even goes a bit into harem territory, which was pretty much pointless here. But in comparison to komi-san, which kind of lost its identity and recently does not know what it wants to be (gag manga?), this manga kept its flavors. Though similarly, there were some characters that were a bit pointless, and totally could have been left out. Moreover, it has to be said, this ... manga does not really delve into the whole 'communication disorder' thing, and more or less accepts things as they are and characters do not try to 'fix' their situation (nanako/kino), and their shtick is generally accepted.

It bothered me a bit that often chapters seemed like a hard 'reset' on the story, and often did not continue upon the previous chapters. But I guess that's to be expected with the 4koma 'genre'.
Definitely recommended, if this is your thing.

tl;dr: A manga that has a senryu related gimmick, but more importantly has a pretty strong main couple and hilarious side characters.

As shouldn’t be particularly surprising, Senryuu Shoujo is a manga about a girl named Nanako that can only communicate through senryu. Senryu’s are a lot like haiku in that they follow a 5-7-5 structure, and though there are technically differences they’re irrelevant as far as this manga is concerned so I won’t bother getting into them. Only being able to communicate through senryu is somewhat of a ridiculous concept, however it’s integrated quite cleanly into the manga itself and for the most part it’s ... just a background gimmick in that one character’s dialogue is always in senryu. The gimmick definitely adds to Nanako’s character and gives her a certain atmosphere that works very well with her story and it does pop up as actually relevant to the plot from time to time, but for the most part Nanako’s communication method, or rather Senryu in general, aren’t that important.

Thus, ultimately this is a really fluffy rom-com 4koma. Nanako’s love interest is a boy named Eiji, a former delinquent that fell in love with senryu and joined the literature club, though it’s more of a ‘just hanging out’ club really after the beginning. The two are clearly in love with each other from the beginning though they don’t actually start going out until the end. Despite that, this isn’t really frustrating at all since it they’re pretty much already dating anyway. It’s already firmly established that they’re in love and they’ll officially go out eventually. It’s ultimately just a matter of timing. But despite that they’re basically still going on dates and slowly getting closer to each other with all the wholesomeness and fluff that ensues. Thus, even if they’re lacking the formality of having confessed to each other and what not, they still have a pretty cute dynamic going and are fun characters so it’s enjoyable to read about them anyway.

There’s a large number of other characters, and a few also have relationship development. This was really messy in that this was mostly other girls also being in love with Eiji, and thus it was clear from the beginning how things would end. It’s not impossible to write good stories with such a context, but out of three tries this manga only managed to pull it off once. That success, Koto’s graduation arc, was written incredibly well and hit some really strong emotional beats. It went through what it needed to in a pretty well paced manner and felt like it had a solid resolution. The other two failed in that they were rushed to completion alongside the arc where Nanako and Eiji finally start officially going out. The intermixing of plot threads there resulted in bad pacing that hampered everything and resulted in unfocused drama that really didn’t feel like it fit the manga well, and ultimately made what should have been an incredibly strong arc pretty meandering. One of the heroines had so little presence that it probably would have been better to just not give her a relationship arc at all. However, the other, Komachi, had the potential to have an arc just as strong as Koto’s if it was given room to breathe and not rushed so it was disappointing how that turned out.

With all that said this is technically a 4koma. I say technically because towards the later portions it felt like it wasn’t more than it was. Still, as you would expect from a 4koma, comedy is just as important if not more important than the drama. And in that the manga also does quite well. The cast overall is full of larger than life personalities that interact with each other in incredibly humorous ways. There’s a bit of character and development and such here and there, though not much to be honest. Still, the cast is very likable solely based on how humorous they are. The MVP in this regard is Amane, the literature club president, who is so lame she’s awesome. She even gets her own relationship arc that’s also completely devoid of any drama, fluff, or romance at all really, in favor of being just a string of comedic events. Thus, it’s easy to get invested in the cast and the manga uses that investment pretty well for a pretty solid, though pretty generic, ending and epilogue that was pretty satisfying.

I would also like to note that artist is incredibly skilled. That skill doesn’t really show up for a lot of the manga because it’s a 4koma and there simply isn’t much room to do all that much in such small panels and furthermore the setting isn’t particularly exciting from a visual point of view either. However, in things like the color pages, the covers for each chapter, and places where the manga breaks from being a 4koma, it just straight up felt like the artist was flexing because the art was so good it felt kind of out of place. Also, while there isn’t much of a focus on Senryu beyond one of the main character’s dialogue all being in Senryu, one of the main character’s dialogue is still in Senryu, so kudos to the translators that actually pulled keeping 5-7-5 for all her lines.

TL:DR

A cute, wholesome romance with excellent chemistry between the main pair that's unfortunately held back by needless distractions and a dragging second half. I can only recommend this if you want the doki doki and can tolerate love triangles (repeatedly).

Story: 4/10

Not to talk about here, they do all the traditional romance manga stuff. Nothing too unique, it's the characters and their interactions who make the heart of the content here.

It's unexpectedly funny for a romance. Most romcoms I read focuses more on the rom than the com but this one manages to balance both. the humour is alright usually but sometimes it really is ... gut-busting. This is one of the few manga I can say actually made me laugh out loud.

Thank god, it's not a manga that ends immediately after the main couple get together, we get to see them actually do things!

The characters don't actually do anything like a literature club after the first few chapters but that's fine, their antics are much more entertaining.

Lack of any real sense of progress as the two main characters are pretty much already dating, going everywhere together, always hanging out together alone, talking. We also know right from the start that both characters are in love with each other. So what happens is that nothing fundamentally changes until the very end where they suddenly get together.

Unnecessary romantic rivals, who introduce pointless drama. Yes rivals, plural, the author thought it was a great idea to do the same plot three damn times. There was literally no chance of them getting together or Eiji even being conflicted about this, we already know the main pair is in love from the start so there is no tension that something might change. Now, in the manga's defence, the first two rivals are real characters who actually contribute something and are somewhat entertaining but the last is just annoying. For one, nearly every girl Eiji knows being in love with him since childhood is very silly, but it's also a waste that could be spent on developing the other, more interesting characters. Second, no matter how well written the rivals and their character arcs are, it just gets tiring to have the same thing over and over again.

Another sign of the author running out of ideas is the sudden influx of fanservice nearing the end of the manga. It really does feel like the author is desperately trying to hold readers attention

A related issue is that the manga drags on for a while, I understand that the author wants a long serialisation but this didn't need 180 chapters.

Art: who can say?/10

Very good character art, cute. Great reaction art too

Primarily 4koma but lots of normal panels too.

Character: 8/10

Nanako is an innocent cinnamon role. Eiji is the same-old dense, nice guy protagonist. However, I appreciate that he actually did used to be a delinquent, and there are semi-frequent call backs to it, he's allowed to be intimidating or say delinquent-type things rather than being totally glossed over, the author never forgets their character's quirks. They're not very complex characters, but you're here for heart warming cuteness and they delivery.

The chemistry between our two leads is brilliant, their banter, their day to day conversation. Honestly, their relationship is something so genuine that I can't help but smile. The side characters know that they're perfect for each other and I whole-heartedly agree.

To the author's considerable credit, Nanako's fantasy anime disability (namely, communicating only in senryuu) is consistent throughout the entire manga. The author really does write all her lines in 5-7-5, barring a few romance-related exceptions. It's quite impressive, I can't speak moon language yet but I wish I could read it the way it was intended too. The dialogue is so natural despite this, that it doesn't become irritating or a gimmick. Actually, Can I consider this manga epic poetry considering how many senryuu had to be written?

Really all the characters are great and just plain fun to read. Their dynamic is perfect.

The president is an unlucky loser and slightly crazy in the best of ways. She receives hints of her own plotline in that she's an author and a romance near the end. Unfortunately, the heavy focus on the romance drama in the latter half of the manga means there's not enough time to real flesh any of it out.

Kino and Tao, they're together because they're inseparable. They don't show up too much, but they're entertaining and are a nice little addition to the cast. They get to chat together, have little asides of their own. It's nice to have a few chapters that focuses on someone else for a while.

Now the superfluous love rivals, sigh.

Koto starts out as the teasing older-sister type, pretty entertaining. I enjoyed every time she showed up because she was so funny, until the author made her also fall in love with Eiji. Then she became another pining maiden. It's a shame, she's the only character who actually got to grow up through out the manga too! However, I feel that Koto's romance arc is the best written out of the three attempts, you really get the feels here.

Komachi shows up out of nowhere, as character from Eiji's past that we've never seen. Fortunately, she's actually endearing and is allowed to become more of her own character. her gimmick, being a fake delinquent is played well and the gap between the bookworm she is and the badass she tries to be lead to a great many laughs. Again, her arc is relatively well written, the author takes steps to differentiate it from Koto's as well.

The last one rival is… yeah I forgot her name. Not I will not look it up, she's not really important. In fact, she's so unimportant the author forgot to write her any real conclusion. Eiji basically doesn't acknowledge her existence the entire time. Why does she exist? This isn't a bit, i really just don't remember anything about her.

Overall: 7/10

Very enjoyable, despite my misgivings about the repetitive plot, I loved the characters here. Yes, even (most of) the love rivals. Everyone is just so well written and fun. I hate love triangles, and i hate when romcoms decide everyone loves the male MC but it's forgivable as there is enough to differentiate the rivals and their arcs to make it tolerable if you find the characters entertaining, and i do.

Unfortunately, this isn't something that can be said for everyone, three love triangles in a row (sometimes simultaneously) is something I just can't recommend to most people.