Manga Review: Onidere!

March 14, 2012
Posted by DarrenW

Good evening readers!

Yes, finally, in a long time, I've decided to do Manga reviews to help out DaBrenz!

Yes, today I've decided to write a review about a manga that I've been following over more than 2 years which just ended! "Onidere!"

Mangaka: Crystal na Yosuke

Dafuq is Onidere?
Well, the title is derived from the combination of "Oni" (Demon) and "dere" (Lovestruck).

At one glance, people will think that this is your ordinary school-type manga. Well, it isn't. Our story begins with our protagonist, Tadashi Inamoto, a super normal (can't get more normal than this) but super kind geek in an ordinary junior high school.

However, with an extraordinary girlfriend, Saya Angelica Ikushima! The head of the all-girl gang "Onigashirashu" in Tadashi's high school, she is the most feared 'delinquent' in all of Japan. Possesing superhuman strength with the ability to destroy anything she wishes to, you would be puzzled or confused as to why she is Tadashi's girlfriend.

Well, under that tough brutal exterior, lies a soft hearted Saya-san, who is actually tsundere towards Tadashi. For some reason, she always over-imagines Tadashi as her knight in shining armour, and faints on sight of being alone with him.

Unfortunately for Saya, she has to hide her feelings as it would mean disaster for her reputation as a feared delinquent. So they hide their feelings for one another and slowly, but surely, become closer together as individuals!

Well, thats the basic storyline. There are a ton of characters associated in this manga, all of whom are not really important, but I'll mention one or two.

Saki Nijinose: The treasurer of the student council, she takes pride in her job, but is the complete opposite of Saya-san, of whom she is fragile and delicate. Often needing Tadashi's help, his kindess rubs off on her and she also falls for him. But of course, our main character is too dense to notice that.

President Tomeo Kinoshita: Probably the WEIRDEST character in the entire manga series, the white-haired President Tomeo's main objective is to rid the school of delinquents and serving up "justice", through a hell lot of methods under the influence of the "god of justice", as he puts it. You will see him mostly hated by most of the characters, though his intentions are good but wacky and irritating.

Firstly, you can take the word plot and throw it out the window. This is your average humour manga, and any details on the plot is minimal. However, with each manga chapter you do get some-sort of segmented plot, but near the end you kind of lose it.

For theme, if they were aiming for highschool romance of a tsundere and geek, I would say they did quite well, doesn't stray off that far.

Some points to note: Humour is quite well shown in this manga. Firstly, its due to the manga's uncanny ability to poke funny ridiculous scenes and jokes at each other. Other than that, its mainly because of the random humour, and if you're Japanese, you're able to associate with it even more, because most of them are local jokes.




It's a good job to the mangaka who made this, for it really made me laugh and have a good mood for the rest of the day. So if you're feeling down or tired, read this and become more relaxed!!

However, near the end of the series, you will eventually get quite lost as to WHAT DIRECTION the manga is turning to be. Main plot WAS rushed near the end.

Futthermore, the art was quite messy at times. I'm not sure whether it was the translator's fault or whether it was intended by the mangaka.

Onidere begun release in 2008, and recently ended with 138 chapters, all of which is available on MangaFox & MangaReader.

That's all for now! Over and out!
Hint: MVCD
DarrenW
Edited by FayeA