Jul 22, 2021
[MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD]
Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi is a short, ongoing, gag, romance manga with a small, cult following. It’s easy to see why people like it. It’s short, has some comedy sprinkled in, and it’s a romance. After reading it, I’ve realized that it isn’t anything amazing.
The story follows Igarashi in an office environment working with her colleague, Takeda. It follows the romance between the two of them, as they get into often cliche scenarios Yes, cliche. Most of the situations these characters find themselves in are often generic, stereotypical situations you’d find in any other romance manga. The cliches often don’t have
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spins put on them either, so it’s just kind of plain and boring.
The pacing is one of the largest issues with this manga. Nothing has happened throughout 154 chapters of the manga’s runtime. They just established “x likes y” and that’s it. Even though the chapters are four pages long, each one covers a separate scenario allowing for something to happen development-wise with the relationships, but they don’t. This large amount of chapters also covered two full years of their romance, seeing as Christmas has passed twice. It’s just stationary with this large amount of time and chapters passing without anything changing.
The characters in this manga aren’t anything special. There are six important characters and all of them are extremely forgettable. I even had to look up some of their names in the middle of writing this.
First, you have the main "couple," Igarashi and Takeda. Igarashi is short and doesn’t want to be treated as a kid because of that. She often contradicts her character archetype by liking cute things and toys, but I do appreciate it as it adds a bit of originality to the character. Takeda is Igarashi’s colleague who acts as her main love interest. He’s loud and large, built to contrast with Igarashi. He often teases her about how tiny she is, but he doesn’t let other people tease her.
The second "couple" is Sakurai and Kazama. This relationship is extremely infuriating. Both like each other to an extremely obvious degree and the scenarios they get into are closer to the level of what you’d expect people that are dating to do, but their development is also non-existent creating this sense of infuriation.
The last "couple" is Natsumi and Yuuto. This is the most questionable one in the manga. Yuuto is either a middle school or high school student who is into Natsumi, an adult in their 20s. This relationship is supposed to be cute, as the reader sees Yuuto try and seduce her and fail, but it comes off as creepy seeing as Natsumi is affectionate for Yuuto, an underage boy.
The art is the best part of the manga. The art is simplistic which fits perfectly with a manga of this style. In addition, after the first few chapters, a lot of it is coloured. The colours are used effectively and allow for the characters to stand out from the background.
Overall, this manga is just another romance manga. It fails to develop any of the relationships while being very cliche. You’ll probably enjoy it if you’re extremely into short and cute romcoms, but otherwise, it’s not worth the read.
Reviewer’s Rating:
4
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