まりかちゃん乙 1巻

Another good one from Yukio, the author of Jashin-chan Dropkick. I think this is one of, if not the earliest published manga of his, so it was actually a bit surprising how unlike his main series it felt since all the other series he's done have that feeling of connectedness, but that doesn't mean the DNA isn't there. The big difference between this and a usual Yukio manga is that the protagonist are all normal human girls, nothing supernatural or religious is going on in the background and it's all pretty grounded while still having that absurd tone that I love from Yukio.

Marika is an odd character who has a lot of misconceptions about things and likes playing pranks, but is deathly afraid of being embarrassed to the point where if she realizes the potential for a situation to become embarrassing, she'll try to back out beforehand. As strange as she is, she's never malicious or self-centered like Jashin-chan or Patra-chan, and her friend are surprisingly patient with her nonsense and try to guide her toward a more normal path. It's good funny comedy with a lot of inventive gags, and Marika is a charming protagonist despite her issues. I loved seeing little seeds of threads that pop up in Yukio's other series. On the second page alone Marika wears a paper bag on her head which is one of Medusa's defining traits in Jashin-chan, and the usual bits about peeing in the pool and the dangers getting too used to cheating on tests. It's always fun when you spot those recurring bits across all the different series because they always play out a little differently and it stays fresh. The art quite isn't as refined as in later works, but it's still expressive and funny and does a good job conveying the characters.

The language is probably a hair easier than Jashin-Chan or God Chans due to being more grounded in the real world and I felt like I could largely just read. There are still good situational words that I didn't know, but I think I managed the final quarter of the volume really without any lookups which was really nice.

I had fun diving into another set of characters from basically my favorite mangaka at this point and I'm invested to see what kind of silliness she gets up to in volume 2. The afterword is basically a massive troll job because Yukio can't help but mess with you even on the last page. What a card!