Hino-san no Baka

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TL:DR: Straight up starts being a pedo story do not read this it's a waste of your time.

I wasn't going to review this manga, but after reading the more recent chapters I just feel like people need to know about this before even trying to read this. So this is a manga about two girls who slowly become better friends and eventually start to like each other more and more. Pretty standard romance stuff, it's even hip with having the the main love interest make the mc do embarrassing things though I guess it's usually the other way around. Now where things start to become ... weird is the appearance of the mc. While initially, atleast to me, it seemed to be more so caused by the art style, it's a pretty major plot point that the mc has a childlike appearance. Not only does she look like a grade schooler, not my words btw it's said in the manga multiple times, she also often acts like one. But ok, this can still be summed up to cutesy shoujo ai stuff however, not after what happens a bit later in the story. Around the 100 chapter mark a literal grade schooler gets introduced as a rival in love for the love interest. And not only is she considered as a viable option, and is applauded by the characters for her guts to confess even though there is so many societal issues standing between Hino (the love interest of the mc) and her, another girl in the friend group Chihiro Omi who has like 2 total conversations with her just out of nowhere confesses to the grade schooler and is apparently in love with her. Not only did they have absolutely no build up for this, it's also just straight up creepy. And the reaction to this puts basically everything else that has happened into perspective. And let me tell you the light the entire manga gets painted in is not great. Now every single thing that has happened comes of as creepy and all the themes which are pretty common in the genre of youngish girls discovering themselves start to seem more like a self insert for the author. It's just really creepy and I really wish I hadn't already spent like 10 volumes reading this manga. It's worth writing this review simply because the more positive reviews mostly seem to have been written by people who didn't read past the first 50 or so chapters. In my opinion this is reason enough to just not read the manga at all. Even if we disregard the pedo stuff it's not really all that outstanding of a story. The characters are pretty one dimensional and uninteresting, everyone is weirdly accepting of girls liking eachother though that does seem to be a trend in these types of manga, but it always bugs me a lot, and it's mainly just a softcore porn gag manga with some story elements sprinkled in as an afterthought. So yeah, please do not read this, even if it's just purely out of principle.

It's a girl's love manga that for the most part is formulaic. To be honest, it can be a boring read because it starts off every chapter with Koguma having to do some potentially lewdish task for Hino, only for Hino to then reveal that she wasn't intending for her to do it that way. After the first chapters, the plot does pick up with Hino realizing that she was burdening Koguma, but Koguma was willing to do so because she was...her friend. Yeah, sure, let's go with that. Afterwards, they exchange phone numbers and refer to each other by their first name. Their interactions ... thereafter become legitimately sweet as you can tell that they both care for each other. Maybe as more than friends.

Characters...they are the main ones. Koguma is the typical good girl who tries to be the motivator. Hino is lazy, outrageous, and has that morbid love of teasing Koguma. Out of the two, Hino is the one that has the most character to her. Especially when she began to realize that she was burdening her after seeing what kind of life she had in the classroom. And her interactions with Koguma - when she isn't doing lewd things to her - is truly sweet. Despite her trickster nature, she does truly value Koguma as her friend. She was even willing to cut ties with Koguma so that she wouldn't suffer more. Koguma...sadly, has less characterization. Aside from getting flustered easily, she comes off as being too flat. She starts to question whether Hino has feelings for her, but she comes off as too one-note.

The art is bland. It was obviously drawn by someone with skills, but it isn't awe-inspiring. The shading often feels off in places. It doesn't overall distratct from the rest of the story, but I feel like that should be noted.
Overall, a pretty average GL manga. While it has some pros such as Hino and the gradual development of the girls' relationship, it is otherwise a forgettable manga that becomes too formulaic and tedious of a read.

After keeping up with this manga consistently I now have the accurate information to provide you with a wholehearted review, I will be blunt and not hold back.

First, the creator of this series is strange. The use of loli's was fine at first however, it's resembling borderline pedophilia in the latest chapters. Honestly, it probably was even borderline pedophilia in the earlier chapters depending on how you view Koguma. This aspect of the show alone can butcher the reading experience alone for most viewers so it's worth gaining awareness of before you read.

The manga in its own entirety is also extremely... Strange? Hino's actions towards ... Koguma truthfully made me uncomfortable at times, however, they do also share cute interactions as well which overall led me, and many others to continue reading. The pacing of the show is extremely slow, especially relationship-wise between the two protagonists, the manga is beyond 100 chapters however there's been no real "delve" into the relationship of Hino and Koguma until chapter 119 which is one of the recent chapters. Of course, taking a slow pace to build a strong connection between characters is good most times, however with the constant fan service, and teasing, it feels extremely drawn out and long overdue. Character expansion is also an issue this manga struggles with, this being primarily focused on the main character Hino. Hino's backstory had been mentioned a couple of times however not really delved into until chapter 115.

Now, let's get into the pros. I do not intend to just fully bash this manga.
Due to the number of chapters, this show has you really get attached to these characters. This is something the author did well even if not intentionally, with each new chapter being produced we grow more and more invested in the lives of these characters which keeps us reading. I really do enjoy seeing Hino's world shifted by Koguma, it's extremely heartwarming, yet also creepy at times. Koguma shifting out of her insecurity after meeting Hino san is also a joy to see, it gives life to this manga which is filled with flaws. The characters are truthfully the saving grace here. I mention a ton about how this show is 100+ chapters but I also want to make it clear that these aren't crazy long chapters, however, they are long enough to make you wonder when it'll end.

End: Should you read this? Maybe? I personally wouldn't waste my time on it if I was aware of what it would entail, this show may be someone's cup of tea though... Once again, it's not terrible, it's just truthfully not worth reading.

This is deliciously cute, rapey, and manages to keep the progression of their relationship going at exactly the right pace, for me.

The setup is that we have a pushover good guy, who was elected class præsident for no other reason than that no one else seemed to want to do it, and a bad guy delinquent that constantly skips class, whom the former is to convince to join class initially. The latter enjoys teasing the former with various sexual requæsts in exchange for joining class and trick him with ambiguous language, yet they of course become very close friends and lovers through all this.

There are ... two main characters in this:

Koguma: short, meek, cute, a pushover, deliciously flat-chested always out to help other, severe self-confidence issues. Starts the story getting constantly tricked and molested by Hino, but of course secretly comes to enjoy being the object of Hino's sexual exploitation and teasing.

Hino: somewhat taller, a self-loathing delinquent with little sense of self-worth, not necessarily out to help others but Hino, very little concern for his future. At first convincing himself that he's merely interested in teasing Hino for shallow entertainment, but later comes to realize how much he cares about him.

The art is nice and delivers what is important about this strip: Koguma being cute and embarrassed over being tricked by Hino once again into being molested, or expecting molestation of some sort. Story-wise, it's mostly slice of life, but it's not a status-quo-ante comic where the reader might feel there is no progression; their relationship constantly progresses to a deeper form of intimacy and confort with one another.

i'm going to be incredibly blunt in this review. this manga started out very cute and fun, i actually enjoyed it a lot when i was 15 but i temporarily dropped it in favor of reading something else since it had gotten boring and stale. i just picked it back up today and the random pedophilla - lolicon arc between two of the highschool characters and an elementary student around 116 chapters in is incredibly offputting and strange, now, i do not think this manga was originally intended for lolicons, but putting that in there immediately turned it from a wholesome yuri that anyone can ... enjoy into something that i can't even say i enjoyed due to the pedophillic nature, it offered nothing of value to the story besides the highschooler who fell in love with her realizing that she "just wants the kid to be happy" or whatever. it kinda sounds like a story of grooming? given that the little girl was incredibly vurnerable due to her divorced and neglectful parents. definently groomy, not a fan.

his manga is needlessly long, 134 chapters and each chapter starts out generally the same, hino asks koguma to do some generally lewd act only for it to pan out as not intentionally lewd, few laughs, some fluffy romance, chapter ends. now, i see myself a lot in koguma and i like her character a lot for this reason but i feel as if the way that she was handled was more than strange and after a while became less of "haha you're so short" banter and moreso acting as if she was.. an actual child? which obviously is weird given the premise of the manga, especially when you take into account her and the grade schooler.. being the aame height, and hino even commenting on this saying "i can't tell who the gradeschooler is!"

i do enjoy the art style of the manga and the slowburn romance despite all of its potent flaws. i do enjoy hino's witty, delinquent character and kogumas more shy, reserved, good girl-type character where they are opposites! i think that works incredibly well. sadly, the art style is the only saving grace for this manga, which is not a good thing. i think that someone who doesnt care about lolicon & pedophilla being present without warning and just wants a comedic read would enjoy it, but anyone not into lolicon would definently find this as strange as i did once they get past the first 15-ish chapters.

Guess I gotta write one of these since the negative review bros are tripping. I'll do a quick overview of the manga as a whole after.

I guess spoilers since it's like .70% of the manga about 2 unimportant side characters and spread out. If you've even ended up on this page you're probably a yuri fan that runs through everything you possibly can. You got the greenlight to read. You've read much worse offenders than this. It'll be a 7/10 probably, or an 8/10 if you're sappy and get emotional at basically everything.

Anywho

... If you're worried about the "Pedo arc" or the story going that direction, you're good since the offending content is basically single chapter. The small girl falls in love with one of the MCs and gets rejected outright, but has a few chapters trying to see if she has a chance. At the end you have a chapter where the secondary friend of the MCs that's been helping her admit she likes the younger girl and nothing comes from it, but lays the foundation of that maybe changing, which is soon followed by the character worrying about it because she knew she'd have to wait until the girl was older and was afraid it might not work out with so much time to wait.

And it's never brought again after. In total it's like 8 chapters spread over like 30 because it's like a side background thing. Yeah it's a bit of a weird crush with the 4ish year age gap, but it's so short it's not even worth worrying about. With the format of this having shorter than average chapter length it feels even shorter than it looks as well. Chapters cap out at 14 pages but can be less so the 134 chapters can feel more daunting than it actually is.

It's also wild calling the above grooming when the only interactions are-

young girl venting > help try to figure out who Hino likes > Admit she has crush > vent to friends about unsure feelings and having to wait for her to be older

End Rant. If this still feels like it could poison the well then by all means pass this up. At least you'll be more informed on the matter that's being complained about instead of accidentally passing something that could be enjoyable.

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The main focus of the manga is Koguma(shorter girl) trying to stop Hino(taller girl) from skipping their class, usually by conceding to the teasing of Hino that are often affectionate or lewd to some degree. Sometimes Hino goes too far, sometimes in an attempt to push her away, but pretty early on you realize the situations conclude with mutual feelings towards one another that they don't realize yet. The more absurd requests usually fizzle out because Hino, despite her forward teasing, can't really handle the situations if they actually end up escalating. It adds a layer of innocence behind everything which helps balance out some of the more absurd teasing she does.

That's the loop for the majority of the manga. It uses the growing relationship between the two girls to keep the story pretty fresh along side other situations that deviate from the loop some here and there. It can be a bit absurd at times, but nonetheless it's a pretty adorable and funny story overall with no drama making it a pretty relaxing read if you need a break from that. The characters get some solid background to expand on their motives and personalities as well.

Lastly i'll the say the art is pretty cute and consistent with a lot of blushing to double it down. If you're looking for ecchi moments you'll probably want to look elsewhere despite some of the lewd/absurd teasing. That aspect of the manga is usually painted in a heavily comedic light instead of trying to be something more ecchi. Probably why the tag isn't here in the first place.

That about wraps it up. A shame most the review focused on some random background narrative that leaves as fast as it came, but that's why I wrote one in the first place. Also one of the positive reviews makes you wanna shake your head as much as the negative ones so it feels a bit better to have another thrown down either way.

I've never been into Yuri stuff. No, on the contrary. I'm usually the guy who keeps on pestering everyone with my annoying "no, they're just friends" And this one surprisingly completely hit me from out of left field.

I don't understand the dynamic of these two. They seem to keep forcing and bribing each other into doing stuff they wouldn't usually do but end up doing anyway just for the happiness of the other one.. And it's absolutely adorable.

Nothing here feels forced or unwanted or shoe-horned in. The Characters have depth where you'd expect it least, the style is cute and pleasant on the eyes, nothing ... stays unsaid and even though they kind of annoyed me later on with the constant: "but you said this specific thing 5 chapters ago, so I thought..." It's understandable since both of them are not psychic.

A very lovely romance that doesn't overstay it's welcome. Absolutely reccomended.