Mikakashu Rock by Kana Watanabe

Mashikaku Rock by Kana Watanabe

Art and story (c) Kana Watanabe

            Length: One Volume – 3 Chapters and 3 One-shots
            Genre: Shojo


            The art is very modern looking, and it has a bit of a messy quality. Hair is is fat and falls in the face a lot, but in a good way, and the eyes convey the feelings well. Clothes are baggy, and mostly school uniforms, but they fit the body frames very well. The bodies themselves are generally skinny and lank, once in a while the arms and legs looked a little short, but its more of a style issue than anything else. The goofy faces are really funny, and made me giggle from time to time, but the mangaka doesn't rely on them even though there are quite a few of them present. There is a bit too much teeth showing from time to time, though.
            Miyako's father always told her that if she lived diligently and honestly, she'd have no troubles in life. Taking the advice to heart, she never breaks any school rules and she devotes her self to her studies. Yet, there was one other thing her father taught her before he died, and that was how to play the guitar. When helping the drama club she uncovers a very tempting guitar and when she thinks no one is looking Miyako picks it up and plays it. But, the boy she thinks is her absolute opposite catches her and blackmails her into joining his against the school rules rules band. Miyako, caught between the two things that her father left for her doesn't know which to choose.
            The emotions are really well conveyed through out all the stories in this volume of manga. I was sort of mad to find out that the main story was only three chapters and the rest of the chapters were unrelated one shots, but after getting to the end of it all I found I enjoyed myself too much to stay angry. The main story is a little disappointing when it comes to the music aspect of it, but it flows and takes you along easily. Most of the story is just high school kids with vastly different personalities hanging out and bonding through a shared hobby, but as far as school related shojo goes, this one has and interesting flavor. The ending of the main relationship isn't entirely satisfying, though. Its sweet and fun. The three one-shots, like I said, are well worth reading. The first one made me bawl, fair warning. The second one is silliness and a love triangle. Then the third one is the weakest, it is fairly generic with a plot like a girl in love with a guy but she just thinks he's annoying that I've read several times, still cute but its been seen. This volume of manga makes me want to look up the author and hope there's a longer story with this brand of emotional impact. Fluff is nice and so is a deeper story, this manga was a bit of both.

4/5 Worth a read for story and art.