By Mikage
Yen Press, 112 pp.
Rating: Teen

Despite being a scant 112 pages, I found it impossible to read Ichiroh! in one sitting. Instead (and, perhaps as it was originally intended to be read) I broke my readings into smaller (ten page) chunks and cobbled together a review as I progressed. At first, my review was only one word long—but it is that dreaded M-word that I hate to use. (Plus, I’m pretty sure my editor would not have been impressed by the amount of time I spent on it.) Ichiroh! has all the associated M-word symptoms: a mostly female cast, lots of blushing, way too much crying, and an unlimited supply of characters with shimmering eyes. If you have guessed the magic M-word, you probably know everything you need to know about this title, including whether you will love it or hate it.

Every page of Ichiroh! contains eight panels of identical size and shape. They are meant to be read vertically, so each page contains two full strips. This repeated layout grows stale quickly, as I found out after five minutes. Also, it is important to note that you can open to 99% of the strips and safely assume that at least one panel will containing a blushing girl. Additionally, many of the final panels from each strip feature similarly-composed character poses. While it may be convenient for the manga-ka, it presents a big challenge for maintaining reader interest: since the author has chosen a style that limits artistic variety, surely the other elements of the manga must make up for it.

Sadly, the story is mostly fluff, offering only brief glimpses into the “wacky” personalities of three high-school girls dealing with the societal pressures of entering college. Nanako and her friend, Akane, have both failed to pass their entrance exams and have decided to enter a prep school. Mikage has established Nanako as the normal girl, acting as a foil to her two (annoying) friends. Akane—a manga and video-game enthusiast—winds up rooming with Nanako, while Shino moves on to college. Shino’s character quirk is that she has the hots for Nanako. None of them is particularly endearing or intriguing. Other micro-plots include variations on “I’m a student, so I’m poor,” “Nanako, you act like a mother,” and Shino getting jealous of other people monopolizing Nanako’s time. There’s not a ton of creativity at work here, which brings me to my next point…

If the story isn’t deep, then the comedy must be solid gold… right? Wrong. Most of the strips end with one of the girls doing something that is supposed to be cute and funny. This includes such brilliant moments as Nanako acting completely baffled by her friends’ sheer incompetence, Nanako getting angry at her friends’ sheer incompetence, and Nanako bursting into tears after having to put up with such one-dimensional characterization. Oh wait… that last one was describing my reaction. The gag panels (if you can call them that) are repeated just as often as the artwork is and grow old just as fast.

This manga must have originally appeared in four-panel strip format before being compiled (a la Azumanga Daioh), which would explain why it is a light read, meant to be experienced in short bursts. It’s a saccharin-sweet manga featuring cute, blushing girls. If that sort of thing floats your boat, try it. As for me, I’ll be making good use of bailing buckets until my next review.

(If you’ve been waiting for me to use the word moe…there, I wrote it.)

Volume one of Ichiroh! is available now.