|| Hibi Kore Koujitsu ||

Every Day Is a Good Day
1 Volume
Shoujo
Publisher: Shueisha
ISBN: 4088475860
Mangaka: HINATA Mahiru

Notes on Title: Thanks to a university class on samurai and Zen Buddhism, I now know the meaning of the title: "Every Day Is a Good Day." This means that it is up to you to make your day good. In other words, you are in charge of your destiny. Supposedly it is the answer to a famous Ummon Koan, which he gave on his death bed.

Plot:
YAMAGUCHI Ritsu has a summer job delivering for a noodle shop. Who knew it would lead to such a thing? One day she finds herself in the house of yakuza (Japanese gangsters). She hightails it out of there, only to find that one of them has followed her back! But he's no ordinary gangster. All he wants is.... a date.

What I thought:
Cute art, with a good balance between people and backgrounds. Her heroine and hero are both adorable characters, even if gangster boy is too sweet to be real. Nice to see a girl not allowing a guy to treat her like crap and shove her around; she has a nice right hook.

Kiyoshi's absolute cluelessness and inability to live in the real world lead to some great laugh-out-loud moments, especially when you throw in his father's well-meaning gangsters. I especially love when they show up en-masse to usher him into Ritsu's shop and frighten all the customers away. Whenever he gets excited about giving Ritsu a present she starts worrying.

Although it may be too sweet for some, I tend to have a low tolerance level for fluff. I think the humor makes this story a winner. I originally thought that this was a one-shot story, but I came across a volume containing more chapters just last month! It gets better with every chapter, and the author's explanation for the mysterious disappearance of Pi-chan had me in stitches as well. <-- Perhaps I am too easily amused?

Translation:
Ch 1