2023 light novel series from writer Teika and illustrator Ham The delinquent girl next to me suddenly dyed her hair black has been adapted into manga by artist Waka Sanada. And One Peace Books will officially bring that manga to English-speaking readers on October 13. The high school romantic comedy revolves around misunderstood “tsundere” girl Kei Shimizu’s clumsy efforts to get her classmate Daiki to look in her direction. Although she is privately “dere-dere”, sweetly in love, Kei’s outwardly distant and cutting “tsun-tsun” personality makes it difficult for her to get close to anyone.
The manga begins by introducing high school boy Daiki Hondo, an ordinary man who treats everyone fairly and doesn’t believe in stereotypes or rumors. When a friend asks him, Daiki replies that his ideal girl is one with long black hair. The next day, Daiki’s blonde classmate, Kei Shimizu, arrives to class with completely black hair. Although she is quite socially awkward and Daiki is slow to notice Shimizu’s clumsy efforts at courtship, the two young men gradually spend more time together and get to know each other better. The first volume of the manga is quite simple and conventional. The story focuses closely on Daiki and Kei. Shunya, Daiki’s school friend, plays a very small role. Kei’s older sister is introduced as a secondary character. No other character in the first volume has enough presence or impact to be significant.
Visually, Waka Sanada’s illustration is attractive. The character designs are smooth and refined, creating a very polished and practiced visual design. As is typical for mid-level manga, the background art is minimal but serviceable. Readers completely new to manga or particularly romantic comedy manga may find Delinquent girl next to me suddenly dyed her hair black be an excellent gateway. The book serves as an excellent introduction to the traditional tropes and aesthetics of high school romance manga and what makes such storytelling different from conventional Western comics. But most veteran manga readers familiar with the tsundere Archetypal and typical school romantic comedies are likely to consider Delinquent girl by my side… too conventional, familiar and even a little boring.
Although not a decisive factor, the first volume of Delinquent girl by my side… The manga contains a number of small and subtle weaknesses. These problems start even before the manga does. the title The delinquent girl next to me suddenly dyed her hair blackis clearly expressed from Daiki Hondo’s perspective; however, the story is not told from his perspective. The first page of the manga begins with Kei Shimizu narrating, revealing that she is the protagonist and point-of-view character of the story. But while the narrative follows Kei, it still limits how much Kei reveals about herself. On the one hand, the narrative technique can be praised for allowing readers to make their own inferences. At the same time, the technique can be criticized. If the story is going to show Kei Shimizu’s private moments and thoughts, why only selectively share some of them? Additionally, the story sadly lacks even the most basic “will they or won’t they?” suspense. The first page of the manga states that the story is a flashback. So readers already know from the beginning that Kei and Daiki will eventually get together as a couple.
A few more thematic flaws weaken the book. Daiki basically identifies himself as boring and uninteresting. The manga finally tries to give him some depth of characterization, but doesn’t try very hard. As a result, Daiki comes across as a flat, one-dimensional character. Supporting character Shunya Matsuoka is even worse, as he seems to exist solely as a cog in the exposition machine. Their dialogue exists strictly to create opportunities for the two main characters to give their opinions. Especially during the first two chapters, original writer Teika seems to have difficulty developing a consistent characterization of Kei Shimizu. Kei’s personality is felt everywhere. She alternates from distant to aggressive, demure, surprised, bossy, embarrassed and evasive, all in a few moments. Initially, she is unaware of Daiki’s social standing and suspicious of his personality even though Chapter 4 contradicts this description of Kei’s consciousness. The dialogue in the first chapter, especially, is periodically a little jumpy, making the thread of the conversation difficult to follow. Readers get the impression that the writer Teika was finding sea bearings so early in the story.
A bit of inequality also applies to One Piece Books’ localization of the manga. The book cover phonetically credits the original character designer as “Hamu”, while the first page of the book credits the artist as “Ham”. The dialog frequently changes font and size. One Peace Books’ manga translations sometimes do this to emphasize inflection or intonation. In this book, the text font changes seem more arbitrary and therefore more annoying. The first three original color pages of the manga are shown in monochrome in the translation. The book contains the first five chapters of the manga without pages or supplementary material. The manga contains no significant objectionable material: there is virtually no foul language, no violence, no nudity, and no sexual references.
As an adaptation of Teika & Ham’s 2023 romantic comedy light novel series, Waka Sanada’s manga adaptation of The Delinquent Girl Beside Me Suddenly Dyed Her Hair Black is a competent and charming-looking effort. No aspect of the magna stands out as appreciably bad. However, the original narrative, Teika’s original story, seems a bit bland and boring. The story feels less like Teika has a compelling story to tell or a compulsive desire to tell this story and more like the author simply takes the opportunity to write a safe, conventional, and predictable narrative. I certainly wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading the manga The Delinquent Girl Next to Me Suddenly Dyed Her Hair Black, but it’s also difficult to aggressively endorse such a prosaic story.
