Flat

Hmm, The story is about a regular high school boy who had to spend the time with his cousin. At first I didn't intend to read it cause I was reading Usagi Drop, but after while I thought why shouldn't I give it a try! and I was amazed Aki-kun is so adorable, when he's shy or want something I keep thinking that I want a child like him! Heisuke is reminding me a lot about Ginko in Mushishi, not only the drawing even the cold attitude of him! Any way if I really recommend this manga if you want an easy reading manga;)

This manga depicts the relationships of our main character, Heisuke, with his schoolmates and a kid that he has to take care of after school. In theory, this could be pretty entertaining setting, in which you can have your emotional moments, as well as calm ones, while having the realistic and believable background of a story. Did this manga provided something close to this ? Not really. Story wise, the start and the pacing was interesting, new characters were added, they had their short cameos here and there, and initially it was entertaining. But then again, into it's mid-point, some characters arestraight up thrown away, for no good reason, and instead we had a bunch of chapters, that feels like they almost repeat themselves, since the character's banter and the situations they get into are extremely same-y, to the point that you feel that as you see a character, popping up, you know what will happen to the end of this chapter. Sometimes, this may be taken as praise, but certainly not in this case. The manga provides very simple, mostly based on quirky facial expressions kind of presentation, which is certainly fine enough for stories of this genre, but then again it's nothing to be remembered of. The characters of this story are extremely trope-y, very one dimensional and straight up boring. Everyone can be explained by one sentence, and the same goes for the main character, which really doesn't help the reader to be immersed or represented into the story. On the topic of main characters, Heisuke is probably one of the least likable characters, since his relaxed and laid-back pace of doing things eventually can end up making the readers annoyed and dejective of him. The series more or less depicts realistic settings, but the characters feels like cardboard cutouts in them. After the repeatable concept of almost all of the chapters, you can actually ask yourself why are you even reading this work, considering there is zero to none emotional or relatable value, as well being absolutely predictable to a fault. I do believe there can be people that could enjoy this manga, if they are having disjointed reading schedule, and feel problems with picking up story driven manga. There might also be people who enjoy the semblance of chemistry that our characters have, or people who can feel that they can get into the main character's shoes. But this manga is a perfect example of a work, by which the people, trying to get into the slice-of-life genre can wholeheartedly say, that this genre is too boring and has no coherently established characters, nor they are able to channel any emotions to the reader.

flat is about a laid back teenager who takes care of his reliable, younger cousin. Admittedly, I started reading this today because of a recommendation that someone made about My Girl (Mizu Sahara). The artwork is pleasant to look at, and it reminds me of Mizu Sahara's art (and her couple other pen names). Although it's categorized as "shoujo," flat doesn't have a typical shoujo storyline and characters and art, which is precisely why I liked this. No huge eyes, no girl falling in love (though [spoiler?] there is one girl who falls in love with the main character, but her personality is such that shedoesn't blush or stutter -- rather, she's blunt and straightforward [/spoiler?]). I liked the slice-of-life story, which made the episodes not so episodic, and throughout this series, we learn more about the characters, not just the main characters, but also their relationships with others as well as implications of their pasts. Which were more noticeable in the protagonist's friends. flat is a rather well-paced story that allows your mind to absorb information and the panel work is not too detailed nor jarring to the eye. As for the characters, they seem normal and act realistically given their situations. However, the cousin can easily become emotional which can annoy some people, but it's understandable due to his family life and lack of friends. The mangaka uses that to her advantage to worry the other characters and advance the story. One small improvement would be coloring the manga pages. It seems to be watercolor, but I would like to see these pages more integrated with that medium, perhaps similar to Mizu Sahara's colored manga pages. For a debuting mangaka, this is already a great manga and I hope to see more works from her. Apparently, this manga was serialized due to popular demand!