After finishing Batsuichi de Nakimushi na Otonari-san, my initial impression was that it was just perfect. I loved the art a lot and for me just the style and use of color made this manga stand out from any others I've read up until that point. I ended up giving it a 10/10 in my initial review.
In hindsight, I do think I let some bias affect my judgment and believe that score was a tad inflated. I also wasn't a fan of some language I used in my summary and throughout my previous review, so I wanted a do-over.
I'm hoping that in this 2nd take, I will properly convey how I felt, while also fairly assessing the actual content (with my bias more in check).
Now, onto my review...
What makes this manga so impressive (in my opinion) is how it originated as a Twitter comic. It's short and sweet and can probably be read in a single sitting. If you were looking for something a bit longer you might be disappointed. But a positive with this is that it's not that much of a time investment.
As mentioned before, what I think made this stand out apart from any of the other manga I've read thus far was its use of color. First of all, rather than just a few pages at the start being colored (like some manga do), various panels throughout are either fully or partly colored. Sometimes only certain parts are colored too (e.g., just a face, only eyes, the background, etc.). It really feels like the mangaka put a lot of thought into the usage of color in enhancing the illustrations throughout. I'll include some examples below.
I could honestly go on and on with examples of color usage, but hopefully you get the idea. Everything is colored with a purpose and I thought that it was done well.
As for the art itself, I really liked Juugoya's style. After reading this, I ended up looking into their other works as well. Think I found a new favorite mangaka...
I thought that the design of Ochiai-san was cool and felt different from what I've seen up to now for female characters. Having her eyes with a bunch of scribbles really gave her that crazed look for someone who is depressed and constantly at war with themself. The fact the only her eyes were done this way really illustrated the difference in mental state between her and the other characters.
Then we have Sawatari-kun, who frankly looks kinda generic. However, I had no issues with his design and it definitely didn't feel too out of place. I actually liked some of the dorky facial expressions he had throughout. The mangaka really illustrated how clueless this guy can be. The only other character we saw was his sister, Yuika-chan. Frankly, don't have a lot to say about her. Similar deal with her. Looked fine and didn't see any problems.
As for the story itself, it's nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking. Given its length, this isn't too shocking. I have read some short manga (some even shorter than this) that had more depth and development/growth. So, I know it can definitely be done. But I think with this one, it not having as much was just a consequence of originating as a Twitter comic. Honestly not sure how fair it would be to critique this on that, but do think it should be pointed out.
Also worth mentioning that there is a sequel series to this (another volume with an additional 29 chapters). So the story also doesn't get wrapped up in these 26 chapters either.
To wrap up this review, I think that more people should check this manga out. It's fairly good and unique. It's also super short too. While I no longer think it's a perfect 10/10 like I did in my previous review, I do believe it's still worth a read.
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