It’s been a while that I haven’t bought something new.

Ani Koi (アニコイ)

No, that ain’t a bro-con manga. AniKoi stands for ‘Anime mitai ni Koi shitai’ (I want to live a love story like the ones in anime). This is a manga I saw in an advertising paper some months ago, and when it has been released last week at the japanese library I haven’t waited long before buying it. Why ? ‘Cause personally, I’m totally fond of otaku-related manga such as Genshiken or Otaku no Musume-san.

Well, the full title tells enough about the story. The main character is a cute looking guy who happens to be a hardcore otaku. He has a dream that I think we otaku have all : he wants his life to be like a rabukome anime. I finally gave a read at this book yesterday, and I can say that it’s a very promising manga.

I ended up scanning a nice bunch from it. So just as I usually do for new manga, I’ll be posting random scans while adding notes about the story, letting you choose if it can be relevent to your interests or not, instead of trying to convince you by any prices to read it.

The main guy, Takatoki. Quite popular because of his cute face, but he is only interested in a love like the ones in anime, an Ani Koi~
If you’re wondering about the dragon, it’s his imaginary ‘friend’, and the actual narrator of the story.

His childhood friend Chiyoko, that everyone misread as Inoko.
Even her supposed childhood friend XD
But that’s some kind of a recurrent gag since everybody calls her with a different name everytime~
Yankee girl with kansai accent, and the strongest badass in town XD

A cute girl ? being cornered by two yankees ?
TYPICAL RABUKOME ANIME SITUATION KITA~ !

Right page : Takatoki plans to escape with the girl (yeah he’s not really a courageous guy XD), but…
left page : bad guys are already being pwnd by Chiyoko XD

x : “… You’re letting the girl fight alone ?”
T : “Yup !”
x : “(what pure eyes…)”
T : “Don’t worry, she’s a gorilla anyway~”
x : “I see… But I can’t escape. My favorite anime hero wouldn’t do such a thing…”
T : “Eh ?”
x : “Those yankees were actually picking on middle-schoolers, and I couldn’t forgive it…”
“… so I wanted an ‘Ani Koi'”

But her ‘Ani Koi’ is a bit different… XD
It doesn’t stand for “Anime mitai ni Koi shitai”, but “Anime mitai ni Koto shitai'” (I want to do things characters in anime do) XD

Seeing such a peculiar girl, Takatoki immediately grows love for her. XD

The next day, Takatoki searches for the girl, but he can’t remember her name, nor her face without fake eyebrows XD
(As you have noticed, he’s our good ol’helpless guy)

They come across a jerk who is recruiting members for his club, by attacking people with a shinai.
Chiyoko is the only one avoiding the attack successfully, so the guy invites Chiyoko to join his club~
You can guess her answer~ :p

And hawt seitokaichou appears~
But man… Her name is Anjolinajolie Azuchi XD (typo intended)
Seriously !? XD
I thought it was some kind of nickname related to her hawtness, but that’s her true firstname indeed XD
Everybody calls her Jolina (except the jerk here who calls her Angeliko).
But man… lol XD

The weird guy is actually the Anime Club President, Fumon Jionji (awesome name again XD ).
I dunno about the drama CD (yup there’s one), but (my) image CV : Katsuyuki Konishi XD (Kamina in Gurren Lagann)

Next day again, Chiyoko finds out that the weird cosplay girl is actually a girl from their school, Yotsugi Asazuma.

doki
Is Jolina actually in love with Jionji ?! :o

Chiyoko finally finds Yotsugi… and wants to make her disappear so she can have Takatoki all for herself XD

Round 1, FIGHT !
But…

TYPICAL RABUKOME ANIME SITUATION KITA~ ! (2)

But again things don’t turn as Takatoki expected XD
Not a surprise, Yotsugi is a member of the anime club~
… and they still want Chiyoko to join ! (yeah, Takatoki is just an ‘extra’ to them XD )

Chiyoko is ready to join the club for making her guy happy~
She reminds me of Kanako from Nyan Koi a lot <3

Another (epic) attempt from the anime club at recruiting Chiyoko~
crash
x : “Don’t worry, it happens all the time~”
C : “All the time !!?”
J : “N- No need to worry, Imoko(?)-kun… Things like that may happens, so my body is well-trained !”
T : “By the way, that’s not the case for me (I’m a girl after all)”
lol~
We also get to see the 2 other members of the anime club : Natsuko the happy-fatty-chan and Fuyuko the osage-meganekko.

The duo finally joins, but they’re still short on members.
So they randomly pick up a passing-by cool-megane-kun XD
By the way Natsuko and Fuyuko are actually twin sisters. XD

Good (?) pick, since the guy is actually an elitist otaku (you know, those guys who love ghibli films, Monster and ‘high-quality’ anime, and despite moe anime)

They’re all wrong in their head, but they do have a serious project for the bunkasai though :
making their own animation.
Book end here~

Back of the book.
I must confess that the ‘awesome gundam cosplay’ reference was the thing that definitely made me think ‘MUST GET THIS BOOK’ XD

This book reminded me of Genshiken on many points. But mainly as the fact that finally, the main character isn’t the male lead Takatoki, but Chiyoko. Just like Saki in Genshiken, she’s a ‘normal’ girl who’s in love with an otaku, and eventually has to stick with a bunch of freaks. And I felt like the manga was focusing a bit more on that than on Takatoki’s romance(s). After all, that’s Chiyoko the anime club wants, not Takatoki. XD

But well… unlike Genshiken, Ani Koi is way more crazier, less realistic and gets more of rabukome elements, so no that ain’t Genshiken ripoff. Anyway, it was a very nice read, and I’m looking forward the next volume~

One last thing. You can call me sick, but because every girls in manga are cute and have nice bodies, let me say this : NATSUKO-CHAN MOEEEE~ ! XD

No seriously, it’s fun to see a fatty-chan in a manga once in a while. XD

:beer:

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