No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, Vol. 1

It’s good but it’s really thin for a book

No Matter How I Look at It, It's Kino!, Volume 1

Termine de ver el anime y sentí muchas ganas de leer el manga, y hasta el momento me ha gustado mucho (^・ω・^ ).

For those who watched the anime first, take note that the show doesn't follow the manga chronologically: there's some manga chapters here and there mixed together to make a single episode. It appears that the first 4 volumes of the manga are covered by the anime, and maybe you can continue with the 5th volume, but I'd recommend starting from the beginning with the manga because there are some things missed by the anime.What I love about this manga is how relatable it can be. Much of the humor is cringe-humor, and it's sometimes fueled by second-hand embarrassment. I find myself cringing and feeling Tomoko's embarrassment a lot, but it always turns out funny and very enjoyable. It's also one of the very few slice-of-life manga I really love. And I don't know about you guys, but I really like the added touch of digital hearts that shine in the light on the front and back covers (As shown in the picture provided). The cover art is really nice to look at. If you're into cringe comedy and can handle embarrassing situations, give this manga a try!

I bought these as a directed gift from a younger relative, and found myself laughing all the way through.I had to learn how to read it back-to-front first, but once that cultural confusion was cleared, the pages turned themselves.An extremely good depiction of being a teenager. The main character sits up all night googling "how to be popular" and worrying obsessively that people won't like her, to the point where it becomes self-fulfilling and she trudges through a lonely school life. True to many teens, she's naive and horrifyingly judgmental of everyone but herself. She takes social cues from the absolute worst possible junk culture, with no defense against heavily-sexualized mass media marketed towards teenagers. I found myself cringing a lot in part-recognition of what life was like during that awkward period, and the many social holes she digs for herself are horribly resonant. Yet her comedic misadventures are bathed in pathos, and you can't help but want her to be happy one day.The fourth volume No Matter How I Look At It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, Vol. 4 in particular has a heart-breaking sequence in which our anti-heroine splits from a class outing she's been preparing for quite a while, and in one silent page she visits an arcade, then a bookshop, and then mingles anonymously with the Christmas shopping crowds. That one page captures "all dressed up and nowhere to go" perfectly.I don't claim to "understand manga" on the back of this one series, but I can see what the fuss is about now, at least. I was expecting something partly exploitative or crassly sexualized, and got a genuinely funny, genuinely touching, genuinely intelligent story instead. Would that Western graphic novels learn from this sort of Japanese storytelling, we've lost our way in the thirty years I've been reading comics, that's for sure.