One-Week Family

This is a very wholesome and cute little online manga, a one-shot apparently the author's only published work. A guy (Ren) who has gone into acting is asked to spend time with a child actor to overcome an apparent difficulty with kids to prepare for an upcoming role. This introduces Ren to Yuu, who is beyond adorable, and his 'manager' Kei. The basic setup of the story is okay, and it's very cute in parts, but there are things I was hoping could have been better. I find myself questioning why there are so many stories from Japan about Show Business (like idols etc). Thesubplot about showbiz wasn't really necessary, I really wanted to see the three of them do as the title says and BE A FAMILY and apart from one or two activities, most of the pages revolved around the showbiz stuff. This leads to the relationship between the two leads feeling very stiff and formal; with most of the talk being so formal and wooden it just feels like you're in an office the whole time. You don't really get to know much about Yuu, who says very little but is supposed to be the key to the story. None of the characters get much proper development since this is only one volume. Yuu is convincing as a 5 year old for sure- but he's laden with this showbiz stuff and the story actively prevents him from being a child. It's a plot point- but nevertheless detracted from what the title promises. Apart from that, the art is nothing really to stand out, it's a computer made manga with stock faces and background pictures inserted in- such as the cityscapes here and there- yea that's not drawn it's copied in and filtered. It looks nice, but wouldn't win any awards. This is a nice story you can go through in a couple of days and it's wholesome and pleasant and will make you smile. I would welcome a followup!