Lock On!

Author: Tsuchida Kenta

Alternative title: LOCK ON！ ーロックオンー

Type: Manga

Chapters: 18

Tags: comedy, slice of life, shounen, school, romance, supernatural

Short stories usually have it hard to build up story or became somewhat interesting to me but this one managed it really well. Main protagonist is Utsuru who has photogenic memory, he can simply memorize everything he sees and of course is a photographer. One day at school doing his daily stuff, like chasing and asking girls if he can make a photos of them, he meets Niko a girl who just don't like guys. It sounds pretty simple but the deepness and complexity of the story really got me.

Despite the fact it's shounen it's really more focused on its slice-of-life part than anything and that I loved the most. It's about friendship, trust, love, just normal stuff highchoolers do in life with a bit nice spice here and there. It was something different, something new and I appreciated it a lot because I read so many shounens which ripped each other that I got kind of bored by its repetitiveness so I was really glad to found out this little gem.

Art is nice and of course very shounenish, there is not much to it, it's not much special and it's a bit amateurish but it doesn't matter to me because it really makes the story to shine even more. At least it's not confusing.

Characters. Of course they are the biggest part of this manga. Every character is important, every character has it's flaws, problems, meaning. I really got into them. At first glance Utsuru might look like typical teenage pervert but after few chapters I realised that he really cares about girls, he wants them to be happy and he don't hesitate to help them, especially his friends. Niko looked like typical stubborn tsundere character but actually wasn't because there was so much in her! There was really sweet and naive Yuki which got her own problems too or not so typical deliquent Yamamoto who had the sweetest side I've ever seen. I mean all characters looked like typical shounen characters but were more developed and more realistic then in most of them. Also the interactions between each of them were really well done and I enjoyed them really much. It just felt like I was back at my old school days with my friends. So much nostalgia!

Also I must mention humour which happened to hit my taste so everything was way more better. It's a bit hilarious and sweet and sometimes crazy.

Ending was, well I actualy liked it because it fitted the theme of the story but I did really wish for more. To know more about characters to watch more of their lives, their friendship, their love, so it's really sad that it was canceled by Jump. I think that if author had more time this would be a really great manga but sadly there wasn't much fights I guess =(

Overall. Very good story with very typical tropes but they are handled very originally.

Rating: 8/10 (just wished for more)