I have to admit to having a soft spot for good romantic comedies, in particular those that try to be creative in their approach (as opposed to the standard boy-meets-girl affairs that are rife in manga and anime), and in this sense, Midori no Hibi hit almost all the right notes for me.

Midori no Hibi (or Midori Days), is the most well known work of Inoue Kazurou, who is also responsible for Ai Kora and Aoi Destruction. He trained under Fujita Kazuhiro (Ushio and Tora, Karakuri Circus, etc), after winning the 40th Rookie Comic Awards, and the influence of Fujita is readily apparent in Inoue's work's so far.

The story is about 17 year old Sawamura Seiji, the strongest high school delinquent in the area, and his seemingly endless quest to find a girlfriend. Because of his notorious reputation, and his fearsome "Devil's Right Hand", the girls he meets tend to be afraid of him, and because of this, he longs to meet a girl who won't be afraid of him. In short, he's much maligned and misunderstood, and thus, rather lonely.

This seems like a pretty run-of-the-mill set up for a romantic series, but Inoue added a twist in Midori no Hibi. Sawamura does have a girl who's liked him for a long time, although he doesn't know it as she has always been too shy to talk to him. This girl is Kasugano Midori, and it's the meeting of the two which is where the twist in the story is. Seiji, for one reason or another (it's never really explained), awakens one morning to find that his infamous "Devil's Right Hand" has been replaced by a miniature version of Midori, the girl who has secretly been in love with him. Where his wrist ends, her waist begins.

I have to admit that I like the idea of Midori no Hibi as it seems like Inoue suddenly thought "What if your right hand really was you girlfriend - and was actually a girl as well?" It's a simple concept, but it's a great premise for some hilarious gags from basic toilet usage to house cleaning and making food.

The artwork in the manga isn't anything to really write home about. There's some great parody images of delinquents scattered throughout the series, but on the whole the series is drawn in a very simple, and somewhat basic, manner. What gives the series part of it's charm though, is the fact that Inoue has tried to alter the specific stereotypes of some of the characters, something that more mangaka should try (something which he continued in Aoi Destruction).

Characters are a plus for Midori no Hibi, as they're almost overblown enough to be satirical. Seiji is a good lead character, and it was nice to see how his character changed through the course of the manga. Likewise, Midori also changed during the course of the series, but not to the same extent as Seiji. None of the other characters received the same amount of development as Seiji either, but the series doesn't really suffer from this as each of the characters do develop in some way.

Inoue isn't afraid to play with his characters either, and because of this, the series is a lot more fun to read than most. Part of the appeal of the characters stems from Inoue's ability to alter stereotypes, and more importantly, switch gender roles. This becomes more and more apparent as the series progresses, and actually improves the story on the whole.

I enjoyed Midori no Hibi as it was fun to read, and didn't really require me to engage in any deep thought about the story. The only real question I had at the end of the series wasregarding how Midori ended up on the end of Seiji's arm in the first place.

This is a nice series though, and it's enjoyable enough so one or two questions can be overlooked. There are some great characters in the manga, and some great jokes too. I would readily recommend this to any fan of romantic comedies, or anyone who likes to see old jokes done in unusual ways.

It's nice to see that there are mangakas out there who are willing to let their imagination run wild :)