Nononono

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What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your dreams? Love? Your identity? Your safety?
Nonomiya Nono is willing to give it all up in order to win gold at the Olympics.

Story- 8

There are hundreds of stories out there featuring girls who disguise themselves as boys to achieve a goal, but this is one of my all-time favorites. The story is engaging. I really was rooting for Nono to achieve her dreams throughout the story, and I found myself staying up late, reading chapter after chapter because I was so excited to see what would happen next.

Although Nono cries (a lot,) this manga avoids ... many other annoying tropes that I dislike that are commonly found in the gender-bender genre. Nono is depicted as strong and successful. She's not a weakling, and she doesn't back down from a challenge. She's not overly modest about her abilities as a ski-jumper. She knows her worth.

It's obvious from the very beginning that Nono has a 'tragic backstory,' but the manga doesn't force this down our throats. It leaves you guessing just what happened to her family, and provides details scarcely. Yes, this is a bit cliche, but it's executed pretty well.

Sometimes, this manga is a little obsessed with giving people tragic backstories. Many of the athletes competing have a dark past that motivates them to succeed, and this past is not often a happy one. Some of the side characters have absolutely ridiculous backstories, but they don't have a big impact on the overall story.

The most significant flaw I noticed was that this story deals with some themes that I found to be uncomfortable. Specifically, I'm talking about sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault. This is never played for laughs or used as comedy, and the victim is never drawn to seem seductive or 'sexy' during the event. This isn't some rape fantasy. It's always very serious, and it's always depicted as being wrong, regardless of the situation or perpetrator. My problem with this was that there is too much of it in the story. One occasion might have been fine, but it's used as a plot device multiple times in the story. While it serves to show how people can be affected by trauma, it also was hard to read at times. Some of the male characters are constantly saying perverted things (once again, this isn't played for laughs, it's done to establish character.) Some of the male characters, even ones who seem like good guys, take advantage of girls. Once again, the manga doesn't disguise their actions, it clearly establishes that they're wrong.

Art- 6

This manga is a little bit older, and to be honest, the art isn't particularly special. I'm pretty sure it was serialized weekly, so the artist likely didn't have a lot of time for intricate details. It's by no means ugly, but I also wouldn't describe it as 'beautiful.' It's not particularly stylistic, but it gets the job done.

The characters have good designs, and it's easy to distinguish them from one another.

The composition of the frames is well done. During scenes where characters are ski-jumping, it's clear what's going on, and it's engaging and interesting. You can clearly picture the sport happening.

Character- 8

What makes a good character? Authenticity. I really believe that someone like Nono could exist, and I understand why she makes the choices she makes. She has clear motivations. She has a personality that's easy to root for. She's kind, but she isn't a blank slate self-insert like many female protagonists can be.

The main cast are also genuine, authentic characters. They all have personalities and silly traits, and they all have an established backstory and a goal in mind. Some of them are more interesting then others, but they are all distinct from each other.


Enjoyment- 7

I really loved rooting for Nono and her friends to succeed. This story was a wild ride, and I was always waiting to see what would happen next. Although cliche, I thought this story was an engaging read, and I really like the genre. It's not for everyone, but if you're a fan of a gender-bender with a determined female protagonist, you should give this one a try.

TL;DR - Everything wrong with hentai doujins thrown into a sports manga (a little more specific later).

Started off great. A story about a young girl carrying the dreams and wills of her family to get gold at the olympics. She overcomes hardships and comes out on top through effort, talent, luck and the help of her friends.
Sounds great right?

Yeah well for some reason the author decided to place these completely unnecesary characters who do completely unnecessary things. Sports is too mainstream, gotta give it a dose of EDGE. No, not just one dose, some of the ... psychopathic mentality was stomachable and did make it a little exciting, but he just upped the molarity to like 18 or something.

I mean, I know Elfen Lied was a hit (and I'll be honest I moderately enjoyed Brynhildir), but this is just &#%(@#&%*(@#. The tone is just all over the place. I mean, yes it's fine for sports/shounen to get dark, but you don't make it dark with objectifying and sexualising your female protagonist.
If you are NOT cool with attempted rape, rape, murder, attempted murder, blackmail, etc etc occuring in your sports manga/anime. Stay the fuck away.

I am honestly so disappointed. I really liked her character and the main supporting cast, who, weren't the most well-made were overall likeable.

P.S. First review I've done, had to put this out, far out, had to send the word out.

Disappointing, truthfully. I was really excited for a sports manga about a female athlete and in a winter sport of all things, however I found it going a bit all over the place in terms of the story. Really liked the idea of a girl attempting to compete in a sport where only men could (because of the time that it's set in), however I found no real character development and it became a stale read as I found myself going "what? Is that really necessary?" whenever every truly horrific event/background story occurred.

Because I haven't read any of the authors other works I didn't ... know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. By far my favourite character were the other females Kourogi Mikage and Sora as they were the most real and developed characters for me. It could be good for some people and it had a lot of potential, but it fell flat for me.