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THIS REVIEW ONLY CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS, SO IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ THIS MANGA, FEEL FREE OF READING IT:

I have to say that when I started to read this manga I didn't plan to write a review after, but now that I finished I see that the other reviews are totally different to my point of view, so here we are. I'm not a huge fan of harem manga, in fact this is one of the first harem manga that I've readed, but I think that I've readed enough good manga to make a point here. First I will say the things that I ... liked about the manga and then the things I didn't like.

One of the strengths of this manga is it's art, I don't know who drawed this but I hope that he draws more manga in the future, because the reading was dynamic thanks to the disposition of the strips and most of the characters had a distinctive, beautiful design. And, if you want to read this because of the ecchi I have good news for you, because I think that it fits perfectly in the ambient of the story, it never feels like it's being forced in it. Also, if you have been an anime fan for a long time you'll enjoy the various references the characters (mostly Aika and Kimito) do to other manga series and to japanese pop culture stuff. The comedy in the series mostly made me laugh, apart from some moments when it really felt forced. Finally, it's true what most of the other reviewers say, this series innovates in the fact that the main character is forced to be there and that all that school-for-rich-girls-only stuff is a pretty refreshing concept in harem manga, but you will enjoy this only for the first few episodes, because then you will surely see some of the issues that this manga has.

The fist thing that I want to point out is the author's lack of concern on character writing and development, there are some barely decent characters (Aika, Karen and Miyuki) but most of them are one-trait characters that don't evolve a single bit in the 83 chapters that this manga has. Another character-based problem is Kimito, the main guy, he is your typical ̶h̶e̶n̶t̶a̶i̶ harem character (even his design doesn't stand out a bit), his only traits are that he is a gentle person by nature, that he doesn't get ANY of the female characters' attempts to propose to him and that he has a thigh fetish. With the fetish I arrive to my next problem with this manga, the stereotyping of homosexuality, early in the manga Kimito is accepted into the school after he is obligated to fake a fetish for musculed men, throughout the entire story when his "homosexuality" is brought forth it is treated as some kind of weird fetish or disease, not as other type of sexuality that has to be respected. Another problem is that this series has a weird development in the industry, it's anime has only one season and the manga has a totally different ending compared to the light novel, because it seems that it also was prematurely cancelled and that the author only had 3 chapters to finish the story, so if you read it all you will notice its abrupte ending. I also want to point out the lack of imagination of the writer, because we can se various times what I will call "the mood-killer door punchline", "the mood-killer door punchline" consists on the main guy and one of the femeale characters both alone in a room, and when fnally she has the guts to declare her love, one or various of the other femeale characters enter the scene, ruining it all. The first time that I readed it it was funny, the second time curious, but the fiftieth time that that happened it wasn't funny anymore. And last but not least, the biggest problem that this series has, the enourmous plotholes that we see throughout all the manga, they are usually badly patched or even not explained at all. In the story you'll see problems that could be exploited to make interesting chapters solved in pages and barely explained to the audience. An easy example is Hakua, the genius loli that the author uses as a patch for a lot of the plotholes that you'll see in the manga, "You need his mobile phone number but he left? Don't worry, I hacked it", "You want to show what's Twitter to the girls? Don't worry, I created an app just like it", "You need money? Don't worry, I have 80 billion yen in my account."... (This isn't said like this in the manga, but you get the idea)

And, maybe you'll ask me "Why have you finished this manga with all the bad things that you've noticed?" and that's a good point. I think that this manga, despite being very bad in lots of it's aspects, it hooks the reader into the story. Also Aika was best girl and I sincerely laughed out loud to lots of the "Tsunpure-san moments". This isn't by far the best manga that I've ever readed, but it surely is entretaining.

Thanks for reading :)

When I finished reading this manga and I searched it on MAL, I couldn't believe so few people had read it or at least had it in their must read list. Maybe no one will ever read this but I need to explain why this manga should be readed.

Showa Ichidai Onna is a manga made by Kazuo Kamimura (teacher of the also amazing mangaka Jiro Taniguchi), known by being the cocreator of Lady Snowblood between others; and Ikki Kajiwara, the screenwriter of Ashita no Joe.

The manga's main character reminded me in some ways to the main character of Lady Snowblood, she's a young woman with ... a strong character and a facility to beat your ass easily. In the manga, we follow her since her childhood to her young adulthood, and with her we see the Japanese society evolve. We see the american occupation troops and the inhabitants of a country that had just lost a war and was completly ruined, and we progressively see how Japanese culture occidentalizes itself and how people starts to work to improve their country.

Surely because it's an unfinished cancelled comicbook, this manga's story isn't brilliant, and it's character development can be confusing or nonexistent. But Kamimura's art (though it isn't his best work) and the background stories that tell how people lived in that era turn this manga in a must-read comic that every manga reader should enjoy.