Aho-Girl (2013)

[アホガール]

Volume 1

Author/Artist: Hiroyuki
Publisher: Kodansha Comics Magazine

Synopsis:
An ill-tempered honor student is plagued by his idiotic next-door neighbor.

Story/Characters:
The story is designed so that each chapter we open on a five-panel page, then have a sequence of 4-koma and close on a two-panel epilogue. This format ensures a high density of gags, but we also get a clear narrative thread, so it's not just a series of disconnected jokes. Most of the humor involves our female lead Yoshiko being annoying and getting violent retribution from her beloved Akkun. This is pure Looney Tunes-style slapstick, but I'm sure there's someone somewhere who can get worked into a lather over it.

Yoshiko is offset by her hopelessly nice best friend Sayaka, who is too passive to push back against getting roped into Yoshiko's hijinx. And then there's Yoshiko's rival in the form of the Disciplinary Committee Chair (who I'm just going to refer to as Oppai Iinchou as that's what Yoshiko calls her and we never get her actual name), a girl who seems to get infected by Yoshiko's idiocy as her obsession with Akkun drives her to increasingly outrageous actions. Yoshiko picks up an underling in the form of the delinquent Ryuuichi, who's interesting for his devotion to Yoshiko and his eagerness to make friends with Akkun, who is of course having none of it.

Yoshiko's mother is a real piece of work, initially appearing to be fairly level-headed, only her desperation to get Yoshiko hitched to the reliable Akkun to secure her golden years sends her further and further off the deep end. (She loses major point with me for bullying poor Sayaka, though Mumsy's fears of Sayaka being a vastly superior match for Akkun are entirely justified.) Then there's Akkun's little sister Ruri, perhaps the only person he's soft on, a tragic figure who's as dumb as Yoshiko but desperate to get better. I'd say she has some rather severe undiagnosed learning disability, but because this isn't a serious story, we just have to watch her struggle in vain against such things as basic arithmetic and get angry at her brother for his clumsy attempts to help.

We also have a trio of elementary kids who become Yoshiko's playmates. They play into the trope of little kids who are savvier than their older counterpart, which will get played to the hilt in future appearances. Speaking of which, their second appearance in Chapter 17 has the debut of Inu, king of the canines. He's a good boy.

Art:
Hiroyuki's style is fairly simple and clean. It makes for a really easy transition to animation, for whatever that's worth. One thing that's interesting is that there's a lot of material that would normally be considered fanservice, but given the tone and subject (namely Yoshiko), it doesn't have that effect in the slightest. The opening of Chapter 2, with Akkun's reaction to Yoshiko sleeping in her underwear, perfectly catches the spirit of it.

Other:
We get character profiles for Yoshiko, Akkun, Sayaka, Ryuuichi, Oppai Iinchou, Mrs. Hanabatake, and Ruri. We get a bonus comic where Hiroyuki regales us with the story of how he became a mangaka and an illustration of bunny girl Yoshiko.

Conclusion:
I don't imagine the humor in this series is for everyone, but if it clicks for you, it's quite consistent at getting the laughs. With such a high density of gags, you'd usually expect a fair number of misfires, but that isn't the case here. It's a fun read that's well worth it in my book.

Rating:
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