Matsumaru Kumi of Daily Yomiuri recently reviewed the manga “Yasuko to Kenji”. Matsumaru wrote, “I opened the manga Yasuko to Kenji with great anticipation, having been enjoying the current TV adaptation of the slapstick comedy about high school girl Yasuko and her elder, overprotective, gang-leader-turned-mangaka brother Kenji. But whether because of the show’s better story-telling or changes in characterization, I found the original manga a bit monotonous and roughly plotted compared to the TV version.”
“What made the TV drama interesting in particular is that Kenji disguises himself as a popular female author of a shojo (girls’) manga in the drama, while he appears as a male mangaka in the manga version.”
“In the TV drama, Masahiro Matsuoka, a member of pop group Tokio, plays Kenji, while Yasuko is played by Mikako Tabe, who is also set to play the heroine of Tsubasa, the NHK morning serial starting next spring. The popularity of both actors probably attracted many viewers.”
“Still, the manga about a short-tempered young man and his younger sister who just wants to lead a normal teenager’s life is seen as a representative work of mangaka Aruko, who created it as a serial in Bessatsu Margaret magazine from April 2005 to November 2006.”