Midori no Hibi

Title: Midori no Hibi Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance Rating: 8.6/10

Summary: High school delinquent Seiji Sawamura is desperate to have a girlfriend, especially after being rejected by 20 girls as of late. He's afraid that he will end his life with his right hand as his only companion. Apparently, that doesn't change when one day when he wakes up and discovers that his right hand has become a girl named Midori Kasugano, who confesses that she has had a crush on him for the last three years.

Review: Before we begin I would like to say this is a manga review. I have not watched the anime so I cannot compare the two. I was a little skeptical about starting up this manga after reading the summary because let’s be honest, Japanese don’t always have the cleanest manga. The idea of a girl being my right hand made me a little uneasy, but I decided to give a shot. I’m really glad that I did. It has a couple ecchi jokes, but they are rather rare considering the situation between Midori and Seiji.I enjoyed how the story progressed, and that it wasn’t all sunshine and happiness right off the bat. I mean, come on, how would you feel if you suddenly woke up with a stranger for your right hand? Probably the best character development was displayed by Seiji. He really stood out to me. He did have a very cliche manga delinquent attitude, but you didn't feel sorry for him because was "just misunderstood" or "crying out for help". Seiji showed no interest in what others thought of him. He didn't actively try and change himself, it just came to be over time. I enjoyed getting tidbits of his past self to better understand where he was coming from. It wasn't a dark story, or tragic ending which is a plus for me. Taking our viewpoint else where let us review Midori. Midori's character wasn't all that great in comparison. However, she did show a significant of change of attitude from what they tell you of her past self (pre-handism).  But this occurred almost right off the bat that you don't really get to experience the journey and instead only see the end result. However, from what the author describes I don't think I would enjoy reading about the past Midori. The support characters need a little work. If they were cliche, they were just getting in the way. A support character should SUPPORT the development of the main characters. Some of the characters were an annoyance, and played no crucial role. Even comedic relief often came from the main characters. Despite the couple character flaws the story did progress nicely. The journey was worth the walk so to speak. The art style was lacking a bit. I didn’t like the very oddly shaped bodies/heads, and it seemed low budget. It got a little getting used to, and I still noticed some faults here and there. So don’t expect this to be a pretty manga in terms of art.

Final statements: A short manga (chapter 88) that I managed/wanted to finish in one sitting. If you are into romance comedies as I am than this is easily a high priority read. It also taught me that you can’t always judge a book by its cover, and that I should get my mind out of the gutter. An innocent story of two people with an unusual relationship.