Most likely you have never heard of this manga ("Ooshima-chan Cannot Say her Own Name"), but you may know another one by this mangaka which recently got a controversial anime adaption known as "Aku no Hana." Shino-chan resembles Aku no Hana in more ways than just the very similar art style (the manga's of course not the anime's style).

Story - 8/10

For a manga that only consists of 11 short 20 page chapters, this manga manages to have a well rounded story with good character development (for a short manga), interesting characters, and a very good ending. Even if you're a slow reader like me, it'll probably take a little less than an hour to read this.

Despite starting off a little slow, in my opinion this manga picks up a lot around halfway. The story follows Ooshima Shino, a shy girl with an extreme stutter who can't even say her own name to her class on her first day of high school. After that, she quickly becomes the laughingstock of her class which is only further worsened by her inability to even answer math questions in class or have a normal conversation with anyone. She ends up having no friends and spends lunch behind the school conversing with herself. One day, a girl from her class shows up behind the school during lunch listening to music. The girl notices Shino and starts to leave but Shino tells her to wait. Unable to get the words across, the girl gives a pad of paper and a pen to Shino to use and tells her to quickly write something funny. Shino manages to make the girl, whose name is Kayo, laugh and they decide to become friends. Kayo also tries to help Shino stutter less and get to the root of her problem.

Art - 7/10

As I mentioned, the art is almost identical to Aku no Hana's later art style as this started in 2011 while Aku no Hana started in 2009. While the art is not the best, it is definitely not bad and the emotions the characters show are really well displayed. The character designs are not very unique, (aside from maybe Kayo's) but they don't really need to be for this simple high school story.

Character - 7/10

The only really important characters are Shino and Kayo with a few other minor characters. They have a similar relationship to Kasuga and Nakamura in Aku no Hana except without the darker aspects of Nakamura's personality being involved. Shino's development throughout the story is the stronger of the two and she really becomes a great character by the end of the manga. Kayo is tone deaf, but plays the guitar (well) as a hobby. She is annoyed by Shino's stuttering but tries to help her and be her friend despite that.

Enjoyment - 8/10

For a short manga, I really found myself stuck to it and connected to the characters. Watching Shino struggle with her stuttering problem was kind of hard at first, but that just shows how good the character-to-reader connection is. I recommend this manga especially if you like Aku no Hana or any other manga by the same mangaka (though I haven't read any others yet). WataMote is another similar manga with very similar introverted main female characters, though WM has comedy while this manga has mostly drama. Overall, "Shino-chan" is a good short manga if you just want to sit down and finish something in one sitting. It has a good, short story, nice art, good characters, and a good ending.