Ano Ko no, Toriko.

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Ano Ko No, Toriko Manga Review
By: Shiraishi Yuki
May 1 2020

After years of being away, Yori came back to his old place to continue studying. With peacefulness in mind, he relieved himself by staying away from people and being contented having those pair of glasses that hides his amazing looks. However, without a warning, he accidentally bumped into her first love which was also a part of his childhood dream. A dream of being an artist. A dream which the three of them pledge. Running away from it now became impossible to Yori with Shizuku on his side. But being a gravure model, Shizuku is having ... a hard time getting roles as an actress. With Yori on the scene, the break on the entertainment industry she's waiting to happen will come.

In spite of hoping that there's a happy ending waiting just by being on her side, Subaru, with his charismatic looks and attained name in the industry and eventhough a childhood friend of Shizuku, became a rival of Yori for her heart. The story, like most shoujo stories are, will have its confessions and picking of the two male leads. There will be those cute scenarios that will make your heart flutter.

The technicality of it in relation with being an artist is not that deep unlike Skip Beat. What only makes it possible for them to act and take a role of being an artist is because of how the characters are drawn. Each of the character looks great. The way they stand and the clothes they're wearing, their hands with no signs of deformation, the shadow parts and also the background, it was handled delicately. But most of all, it was how their eyes and expressions were made. It was sharp, but it was also soft. The eyes sold it for me. Even if it's kind of "one of the common path" a shoujo takes, reading something like this once in a while can take away your boredom.

Maybe I'm too easy with the ratings, but I think this manga was totally my style.

Story 9/10
You get a childhood friends love-triangle between 2 hot guys and 1 pretty girl. Basically both the male childhood friends fight over the only female childhood friend, but we have one of the male childhood friend with a slight upper-hand as we read the manga in his point-of-view. The one we read in his point-of-view is more of the quiet/innocent type and the other male childhood friend is a talkative/outgoing type. The female childhood friend is a workaholic/innocent person. They all share the dream to become great actors/actress and ... we get to see the romance side develop as they work towards their goals.

Art 10/10
The art is beautiful as the manga is filled with good-looking characters and nice scenery/backgrounds. There were even a few times where I didn't like a certain part in the manga in terms of plot/character-wise, but the art-style was so beautiful that it made me forget/careless about the plot flaws.

Character 9/10
Every character is pretty much good-looking in this manga. No one is really "annoying" for a long period of time, so you won't even remember to hate on any character at all. This manga is quite short, so I think character development was fairly good as it didn't overly complicate or simplify the characters. The main characters obviously get the main focus of the manga, so side-characters were not necessary to have much screen-time.

Enjoyment 10/10
At first, I was scared this manga was going to be a typical love-triangle of two guys fighting over one girl while the girl was going to delay the entire manga by finally picking the one she loves in the end. However, the pacing of this manga unexpectedly flowed quickly but perfectly at the same time. The plot and characters with the beautiful art-style made me flutter at this manga. It also helps that I am a sucker for childhood friends love stories and for good-looking characters.

Overall 10/10
If I have two 9/10 ratings and two 10/10 ratings, then I'd feel like I have to give it the best rating to show my appreciation of the manga to the manga artist as it is well deserved. :)

This manga might sound a bit typical to you at first, but don't judge a book by it's cover! If you like beautiful/cute/innocent romance mangas like me, I definitely recommend you to read it.

damn it! Yamamori, Mika really raised the bar (and no, she is not the author of this manga).
I started reading Ano Ko no, Toriko after finishing reading 'Hirunaka no Ryuusei "and Tsubaki-chou lonely Planet", both by author Yamamori, Mika and I couldn't even finish chapter 8 of Ano Ko no, Toriko. Why? Because Ano Ko no, Toriko is just a shoujo manga with a beautiful design. it is a pity but there is no emotion in the way the story is told.
The characters are not catchy especially Yori. He has a low self-esteem and although he makes some "advances" in Shizuku, he is too feminine. ... pfff! in chapter eight he is kissed by surprise by a girl and is outraged that "she stole his first kiss". that was so lame.