Mikako-san

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Japanese: みかこさん

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 7

Chapters: 221

Status: Finished

Published: Jan 29, 2009 to Oct 10, 2013

Genres: Romance, Slice of Life

Theme: School

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: None

Authors: Kyou, Machiko (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.32¹ (scored by 656 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4652²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #8282

Members: 2,439

Favorites: 46

7.32

Ranked #4652Popularity #8282Members 2,439

MangaKyou, Machiko (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /7

Chapters: /221

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Synopsis

The future, romance, everything is "undecided," yet the remaining days of high school seem as if they'll be over in the blink of an eye. Mikako Ichimura, 17 years old. Midorikawa, the strange guy who now sits next to her after a seating change and oddly prefers red pencils. At first, Mikako didn't think much of it, but after learning that they both love the same band, their relationship begins to change bit by bit...

The day to day life of a 17 year girl woven together in a soft literary style.

(Source: MU)

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Ichimura, Mikako

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Reviews

Mar 27, 2018

AK25

Recommended

Mikako-san is incredibly bittersweet.

What the story boils down to is essentially a teen drama about relationships and finding one's place in the world, but it's the author's understated and poetic way of laying it all out and conveying what the characters are feeling that makes it so special. Through out the series are sprinkled symbols meant to relate to certain characters, colors like red for Mikako and green for Midorikawa, objects like the former's tube of candy or the latter's pencils. They're used incredibly effectively the first time, but even more so the fifth, it keeps referring back to these symbols in order to show ... how things have changed, even if only to point out little differences, they basically become plot threads of their own, from things like the rule about not stepping on the white lines to Mikako's red nail polish, it has dozens of elements that warp in meaning and are used well enough to engender themes as a whole.

The manga's look certainly adds a lot to the feel it's trying to go for: the soothingly soft water colors, its rough panel outlines with the corners rounded out, its way of allocating space for the panels and what's inside them to hint to the reader as to which ones they should linger on. Since every chapter is 4 pages long, it wouldn't be a stretch to say it operates very similarly in terms to build up and execution to the way 4koma manga do, hence every chapter has the ability to feel like it's incredibly sweet, a punch to the gut, and everything in between, even with how short they are.

Mikako-san's biggest and most evident appeal is its characters and what they go through. Even with its stylized approach and its use of more subtle storytelling techniques, the story itself is grounded and drenched in pathos: The protagonist just going with the flow with no aim, Midorikawa not being honest with himself, Katou's insistence on going out with a girl he already knows isn't that interested in him, and countless other little things that make something most young adults can relate to. its style and "less is more' method are used as supplements to its already human characters, and that's what makes it so wonderful.

Machiko described the feeling she wanted while reading the manga as "A pensive look when alone", I feel like she managed to capture it perfectly, every chapter left me in a state of contemplation for a minute before I stroll onto the next one, with my heart remaining in a tightened state, looking back on similar events I lived through and ones I'm still going through. Its downplayed depiction of people going through one of the most confusing time of their lives can be attributed to having that philosophy at its core, and I couldn't be more grateful it turned out this way.

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Mar 6, 2024

merubomb

Recommended

First of all, this is undoubtedly my favorite manga of all time. Maybe it's because of that, or maybe in spite of it, but I can never seem to properly review it. I think a lot of my relationship with this manga stems with the way it makes me feel in an abstract sense more than a story sense. The characters are wonderful in all of their flaws, they make dumb teenage decisions, and their personalities exude from the artwork and the few words that they think or speak. Midorikawa and Mikako's relationship isn't my favorite, but I still love the fact that it exists, ...

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Apr 18, 2019

blueraimo

Recommended

A very sweet and refreshing story. I liked every single page of it. The art is very beautiful. The characters feel so real you almost feel like you’re there with them. I would sometimes read a chapter several times because it somehow felt different every time. It’s a very simple story yet so intriguing. Mikako is a casual high school student. Midorikawa sits next to her. They aren’t particularly fond of each other at the beginning but with time they start to develop a special bond.
The only reason I didn’t finish it in one day was because I felt it would be a waste ...

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Poll: Mikako-san Chapter 129 Discussion Tsunamii_ - Jul 4, 2024	0 replies	by Tsunamii_ »» Jul 4, 2024 1:15 PM
Poll: Mikako-san Chapter 111 Discussion Tsunamii_ - Apr 24, 2024	0 replies	by Tsunamii_ »» Apr 24, 2024 2:19 AM
Poll: Mikako-san Chapter 16 Discussion Stark700 - May 22, 2016	1 replies	by NextUniverse »» Jan 9, 2022 2:12 PM
Poll: Mikako-san Chapter 15 Discussion Stark700 - May 22, 2016	1 replies	by NextUniverse »» Jan 9, 2022 2:11 PM
Poll: Mikako-san Chapter 14 Discussion Stark700 - May 22, 2016	1 replies	by NextUniverse »» Jan 9, 2022 2:09 PM

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