JINRUI NEKOKA ("HUMAN CAT FAMILY")

— by Eric "Scanner" Luce

Are you a bit nostalgic about those high school romance comedies? Or do you sometimes wish to harken back to your days in a Japanese High School of the 70's? Well, maybe not. Here is a story that is funny, somewhat romantic, and short. Yet, despite its length, it manages to include all of the well-known stereotypes for a shonen-style high school romantic comedy.
The basic story: a high school student (Nanase Hokuto) living away from his parents (who are in Australia) shares an apartment house with three older girls. His exposure to their whimsical and teasing nature leaves him pretty much despising females. However, the high-school idol (Taniyama Maina) ends up having a crush on him. Her best friend is Nakajima Atsumi, your typical sukeban. Hokuto's best friend, Moriyama Syuuichirou, is the young-punk biker. These two friends conspire to hook Hokuto up with Maina, much to Maina's delight and Hokuto's chagrin.

Into this setting we interject the jealousy of the rest of the high school, a female rival for Hokuto's attention, a number of fights, the inevitable parents recalling Hokuto, and Maina threatening to run away from home. We could go on, but pretty much everything is in here. We end up with a story that, although cliched, is very fun.
Hokuto's fateful day starts out much like most of his days. He wakes up to find that his housemates have used their common hallway as a place to hang up their underwear-laundry to dry. Hokuto's house-mates enjoy tormenting the poor student. They are Hyodo Makoto, Higuchi Kyouko, and Koyama Asami. As they leave for the day, Makoto makes a big show of giving Hokuto some chocolate, for today is St. Valentine's day. At school, trying to ignore the goings-on of the boys and girls on this day, Hokuto discovers hidden in his desk some chocolate from some secret admirer.

Later in the class, with the teacher droning on past the start of lunch time, Hokuto loses a game of jyanken with Moriyama. Since he lost, he has to sneak out of the class and come back with some food without being noticed by the teacher. When he pokes his head out of his classroom, he accidentally pokes it up into the skirt of Maina-chan. Maina's protector A-chan (Atsumi) quickly slaps Hokuto. He claims to not have seen a thing, nor does he care, since he has no interest in such things. A-chan is still quite steamed, but Maina-chan holds her back, apologizing and calling Hokuto by his first name. The teacher in the classroom hears Hokuto's name being called and, immediately recognizing what happened, displays his chalk-throwing prowess.
After that whole experience, Moriyama quizzes Hokuto on what color he saw (meaning Maina-chan's panties). Hokuto claims, and seems to be honest, about total ignorance (The author, however, helpfully tells us what color in a little comment box). Moriyama is convinced that Hokuto did it intentionally, because Maina-chan is the school idol. Hokuto claims ignorance again (as he knocks the author's little comment box out of the frame). Hokuto wonders, though, why Maina-chan called him by his first name, a rather familiar form of address.

Back at his desk, Hokuto finally pulls out the chocolates hidden there and finds out that they are from none other than Maina-chan.
Although the situations are simple, there are enough twists in the story to keep you reading. The story is also just the right length to keep it from getting tiring. The art style uses simple, heavy lines. The backgrounds are fairly complex and fill almost every frame. The blend between background and foreground is quite seamless and leaves you with a rather continuous impression for each frame. You do not get the jarring of a disparate background/foreground clash. The author's additional little comments stuck here and there, and how the characters interact with them, add a colorful twist on the humor of the story.
The story ends up being cute, funny, somewhat endearing, and easy to read. This is another recommended break from the heavy angst you may be subject to from reading most of the other stories out these days. It also gives you a quick summary to the story so you do not feel bored by reading a story that just goes on too long.