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A new star in the genre of shoujo comedy, Obaka-chan Koigatari by Sato Zakuri starts off with a cliche but hilariously presented premise which soon takes a plot twist to become a spectacular love-polygon drama. The high ratio of early chapter jokes will keep the reader laughing from page to page, and before they know it the plot has already thickened, its depth pulling them in.

Starring in Obaka is Sonodo Neiro, a heroine of the strong, stubborn, and violent (but not tsundere) variety. After being known as a delinquent with the reputation of "Kansai's strongest woman", Neiro transfer schools to Kantou region and decides to ... have an image makeover. So she walks into the school and... punches the first guy she sees.

As a result of both her past and current idiocy, she get enrolled into a special class: except this one is for other socially unacceptable people, henceforth the baka class. Just as depression sets in and Neiro ponders about leaving for another school, she finds this super gorgeous princy guy napping in the courtyard and becomes a fan of him instantly. When dear Tokio, the man she punched returns for another challenge, he inadvertently triggers her temper yet again and gets another lashing, right in front of Prince Shin. Just as Neiro becomes worried about her image in front of Shin, he comments from the distance that "like those kind of girls... the strong ones". With such never-before-heard-of encouragement (since guys run away from her), Neiro finishes breaking Tokio's nose for a second time in the same chapter and decides that she wants to become Shin's girlfriend, even if the distance between them is worlds apart: he's in the Prince of the academically advanced class, talented and charming enough to have his own fanclub; meanwhile she's in the infamous baka class.

In the meantime, Neiro gets to discover who else is in the baka class. There's Tokio, the guy who received a broken nose from her, twice, and is just as much of a delinquent who lacks common sense; Nijika, the best-girl-friend whose fashionable and toys about with multiple boyfriends; Kenichi, the gay megane exhibitionist who supports her love love relationship; and Saburo, the guy so shy and quiet hearing him speak is like a school legend. The characters are quite archtypical and overdone by other series, but the way they interact is absolutely hilarious.

Of course, it doesn't take long for Neiro to find out that dear prince Shin-sama is actually not so princy and is simply using others to fulfill personal desires (amusement and otherwise). Just as Shin begins to uncover his true intentions, Tokio steps in and forms the other side of the main characters love triangle by developing a crush towards Neiro from those beatdown and reveals a serious side to him that's both shy and naive.

Thus marks the beginning of an epic journey for the sake of the cast's relationships. I wasn't quite expecting it from the start, but by the time I recognized this series for more than just its comedy, I was seriously attached to the character pairings.

I'm not the biggest fan of Zakuri's art style, mainly because it feels like she's not putting enough love into drawing the characters to her full potential. The images tend to feel hazy at times and the luster of the characters' features isn't quite consistent. But the style does grow on me, mostly since it fits the humorous actions of the characters quite well, and the way Zakuri is goofing off with it is simply hilarious.

Truly a hidden gem amongst Manga. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is like another modern rewrite of the Cinderella story, except fairy tales has never had so much sensibility, or such a well balanced relationship between the main couple (as opposed to one simply sweeping the other off their heels).

I never thought I'd see so much rationale in a fantasy shoujo manga. I mean not only is the entire cast (all of them that matters) likable, but they're all intelligent and hard-working people, whose actions are logical, and whose emotions are balanced, considered, and developed only in response to other character's actions (rather than any plot device).

This ... is especially the case of the main heroine Shirayuki - she's not perfect, she's not strong, but she tackles everything with smart thinking and an iron will. Meanwhile, Zen is content to watch carefully from the sidelines and let Shirayuki do her thing, putting his faith in her strength of character and coming only to help when necessary. He might be the hero, but he certainly doesn't overshadow the heroine.

The story is well paced. Unexpected things may come and go, but nothing jumps out of the blue. The relationship is slowly developed from pure friendship across series of trials and challenges, with feelings and decisions that come gradually but not too slowly.

The art style is great — sim­plis­tic yet ele­gantly beau­ti­ful, cute with­out rely­ing on chibi-esque pro­por­tions, all-fitting yet unique on its own.

Its even more amaz­ing that this seems to be Aizuki Sorata first ongo­ing series! I sure see some amaz­ing works com­ing out of this mangaka’s career!

As a manga based on the Three-Kingdoms era, I thought this was another one of those unoriginal Chinese attempts on making money off the hugely popular historical epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

Boy was I ever more wrong... because not only are the details of this manga original, it is an absolute masterpiece. For once I have to bow down to the author and declare that I'm not even worthy of being a critic of his work.

Basically, we're talking about a manga that perfectly combines the genres of martial action, epic battlefield combat, political/factional scheming, military strategy, detailed character development, and a very complex but ... highly intriguing plot; compiling all the finest elements of Three-Kingdoms literature under one cover:
-----Generals that dominate the battlefield, unmatched in sheer awesomeness that exemplifies the Chinese saying [i]"Taking the head of the enemy commander from amongst the million, is as easy as taking items from a bag"[/i].
-----Tacticians with multi-layered chain strategies so complex it would make Lelouch (or any other military tactician from anime) look like a preschooler.
-----Politicians and warlords embedded in a free-for-all fight for dominance as the Han dynasty, an era so powerful it contributed to the Fall of the Roman Empire from across the globe, comes to a collapse.
-----Heroes stuck between all of it trying to decide just what defines morality when everything is lost in shades of gray and flames of anarchy.


The story is spread into numerous perspectives in order to cover all the major sides of the conflict, to the point it's hard to grasp whom the main character is/will-be. Although it does seem like Sima Yi, a prodigious merchant who'd eventually become the Chief Military Strategist of Wei; and Lianyuan Huo, a fictional name who'd eventually 'earn' his true name as one of the most famous generals of the Three-Kingdoms era.


While the author sticks to most of the major plot points defined by the original novel, he changed MOST of the underlying details - the character histories, the events that led up to each checkpoint, the character personalities, all of that. What's even more awesome is that he gave perfect reasons on WHY the character is known differently thru folklore, so even those who hold the original novel to heart like I do can enjoy this different version.


I only have a few things somewhat negative to say about the manga:
-----It's written in a tradition Chinese grammar, meaning the language is so beautiful it's like poetry in every line. However, not only is this completely lost in the translation process, it also makes it far harder TO translate. All the proverbs, idioms, famous strategems that any [i]real[/i] Chinese would understand can be especially confusing to English readers, despite the notes the translations put out.
-----The plot of Three Kingdoms is epic and renowned throughout Asia, but is also extremely complex and CAN be somewhat confusing, especially for those who know nothing of the era (yes Dynasty Warriors can help a lot, as much as I dislike that game). There's also a HUGE cast, thankfully, a lot of the generals/warlords/tacticians die off fast =9
-----The drawing style is more western than anime-esque. I don't care about this, but some of you might...



P.S. For those Dynasty Warrior fans of Lu Bu, he is ten times more awesome in this series...