Midori Days: Volume 1

by Kazurou Inoue, 193 pages

High school junior Seiji Sawamura is a decent guy with a not-entirely-unearned reputation as a thug (not helped by his notorious right hook) that scares away every girl he's ever asked out. All he wants is a normal, happy high school life and a girlfriend to hang out with, but at this rate he worries the only "girlfriend" he'll ever have is his right hand. (Take that how you will.) As with any good fairy tale, Seiji learns the hard way about being careful what you wish for and in very short order discovers that his legendary right hand, breaker of many a nose, has suddenly turned into the upper half of a pint-sized girl his age named Midori Kasugano who, it so happens, has secretly harbored a naive crush on him for years and is therefore more ecstatic than freaked out about their current circumstances. Seiji, on the other hand, is pretty much freaked out. While her parents worry over her mysteriously unconscious real body at home, Midori and Seiji have to figure out how to coexist undetected by others until they can get her back in her original vessel.

I know what you're thinking, and I thought the same thing when I read the synopsis; but insistent reviews convinced me to try this series, anyway, and I'm glad I did. While the comedy is necessarily ridiculous and occasionally a little bawdy, Seiji is a gentleman through and through. Even though Midori tries to throw away his secret porn collection when he's not looking (she's pretty much got control of his whole arm and he doesn't know what she's up to unless he's got an eye on her) and chatters at him nonstop, he frets over her well-being and appreciates her affection for him, even if he doesn't exactly understand it. Little by little, Seiji makes small changes in his behavior to accommodate his unexpected (and unexpectedly devoted) guest and keep her out of harm's way, all of which inch him closer and closer to outwardly being the better person he's always been on the inside. This alteration does not go unnoticed by certain of his classmates. And one gets the impression that unnaturally chipper Midori, whose true self has a neglected admirer of her own, has got some growing up and issue-confronting to do, as well.

So far, over the top, often juvenile humor with oddly affecting sweet moments and something that might actually be character development. Who knew?