Yomawari Sensei (original) (raw)

True stories never fail to grab my attention, especially in the manga world because there are very few. I started reading Yomawari Sensei not onlt because of this, but also because it was short and had good ratings on MAL. I finished it in about 2 hours and I'd like to share what I thought made Yomawari Sensei a masterpiece. This is my first review so it might be a little bit amateurish.

Story:9
Yomawari Sensei is an episodic manga that follows the life of our main character, Osamu Mizutani, as a teacher who helps troubled youth. Every chapter is quite simple. Mizutani finds a troubled youth,... Mizutani tries to help, Mizutani fails or succeeds. While it is very simple it's also realistic, as Mizutani fails to help as often as he succeeds. I was always on the edge while reading and sometimes to conclusions of some of the characters devastated me. I really enjoyed the change of pace from other manga, as the situations Mizutani gets in aren't your usual problems. A few examples would be a fellow teacher who can't connect to his students, or drug abuse and addictions, something I rarely see in anime or manga.

Art:8
The art is the weak point of the manga, though it is also really good. The feel and overall art style was fitting for the story and setting and there is some brilliant art hidden in many scenes, but it wasn't anything insanely groundbreaking.

Character:10
A large problem I have with manga is the unrealistic characters. In rom-com or shounen manga it's fine, but when a character oriented manga has tropey, uninteresting characters I lose interest fast. The characters in the manga are flawed, but every one of them feels real, which is to be expected from a manga based on a true story. I can see the characters the mangaka was trying to establish in his former students, and I can relate to their problems in many ways, something manga rarely ever make me do. I do think the mangaka made himself look a little to much like a saint, but in the end it shows his moments of weakness as well.

Enjoyment:10
It was short and sweet, all of the stories brought something new, and the tension built up through out every story always helped the ending become something special to me.

Overall:10
An easy new favorite manga for me, I have never felt a manga that portrayed life in such a unique and realistic way. Highly recommended.