My reading taste at their very heart are quite cozy. I was raised on cute overly girly comics and shojo manga. I often say that Sailor Moon is in my DNA. I say this because because it is one of the first shows I remember watching as a kid. As bad as the DIC dub was it most definitely shaped my personality and early love for Asian cultures.
I mention this because when it comes to manga my heart will always belong to shojo. This is also more recently true of josei. For those who don’t know what Shojo is it. It is basically the manga that is targeted at young girls and women from childhood till about their early 20s.
Josei is a category that is supposed to appeal to adult women. But the lines between shojo and josei are blurry. They are confusing in the sense that they share lots of narrative and stylistic conventions.
While shojo often has fantastical elements and otherwise unrealistic romantic themes. Josei tends to deal with more down to earth and mature themes like career, family and relationships.
I say all this to point out that Skip and Loafer is most probably a typical shojo. But that it also has some josei elements.
Synopsis
The first volume of Skip and Loafer follows Mitsumi who is bound for high school in Tokyo. She’s leaving her small province and her small class size to go to school and improve her future. Mitsumi has her life planned out in her head. However on her first day of school she learns that plans can go awry when she gets lost on the subway.
She meets, pretty popular boy Shima, who helps her out with being lost and helps her find her way to school. Mitsumi may be book smart but she’s about to learn that things are different than her life back home.
We follow her as she navigates making friends and learning about social norms in her big city life. She soon learns that things aren’t don’t always go the way you plan them out in your head.
Review
This was a charming slice of life manga. There are elements of romance. But these elements aren’t so overbearing that they take over the whole plot. The main focus is Mitsumi and her friends that she makes as well as her overall outlook on life. It is very sweet and humorous to see the way that she thinks things will go. Compared with the way they actually turn out.
This first volume focuses on her backstory and family. It also highlights her first couple of days at her new high school in Tokyo. I like the focus on her small problems such as worrying about her introduction to her class. I also like the focus on her worrying about joining student government. I can sympathize with her in the fact that people are often the most confusing things in any social interaction.
I also love the expansive cast of characters that is slowly growing as the volume goes along. These characters not only have interactions with Mitsumi. But they also have interactions with each other and there is nothing I love more than an interconnected cast.
I’d give this manga five stars. It is very cute, typical shojo, with a protagonist that gives me some autism vibes. I can’t wait to read more of her story.
Do you enjoy romance being featured in what you are reading? If so what is your favorite romance? Let me know in the comments
Happy Reading
Solara
Rose's Book Garden 