It's an anonymous community, please don't get your identity exposed.
Staff description
Dive into the intriguing world of 'Bamboo Forest,' an anonymous online forum at Gahyeon University. The protagonist, its mysterious administrator, navigates a web of secrets, managing confessions and crises of fellow students.
Amidst this, a curious suspicion arises about Seo Yerin, a prominent student, potentially unraveling hidden layers of the online and offline university life.
This novel blends anonymity, community dynamics, and the delicate balance between public personas and private thoughts, promising a compelling journey through the complexities of modern student life.
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I also don't consider it a non-mainstream manga because we already know there are plenty of other delinquent stories out there. Nevertheless, one thing that makes me truly enjoy reading it is the combination of past-life stories, love, and idiocy.
Haha... I'm so excited about these last three points here.
Then, here is some synopsis of the story:
The story begins with the appearance of the famous Mon Shiro local delinquent named Shinagawa Daichi. He's a super delinquent who never cares about other people or his entire school environment. His hobbies include just sitting in the toilet, smoking, watching porn, and doing other useless things. He was an excellent shirker. Fortunately, his life changed when he met a glasses-wearing girl called Adachi Hana.
Adachi was just like a clumsy girl with idiotic thinking. Her appearance was really old-fashioned. She had thick glasses, braided hair, and a strand of "ahoge." At first glance, Adachi looks like a smart girl, but in reality, she is the total opposite. She had terrible exam scores; even Shinagawa could easily beat her in math. Shinagawa may seem like a dumbass, but actually, he's a genius in math.
Somehow, Adachi started dragging Shinagawa into various school activities such as extra classes, school festivals, sports, etc. Gradually, Shinagawa's mind opened up to society.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in Shinagawa's life occurred when Adachi asked him to be the student council vice-president during the election. That's unbelievable. How could an anti-social person like him gain favor to participate in the student council election? But in fact, it happened. After several miracles, Adachi won the election, and Shinagawa became the vice-president. During the election, Shinagawa met another strong ex-delinquent named Gakku Izumi. He is good-looking and smart. Shinagawa had some battles with him, and the result was a draw. Instead of being enemies, he decided to join the student council as Shinagawa's teammate.
When Shinagawa performed his duties as vice-president of the student council, he learned a lot about sociality. He often got involved in other students' problems, and unbelievably, he could solve their cases. Of course, he solved them in his own way—the delinquent way. He gained many friends because of that. He realized that he wasn't lonely anymore. He started to care about others. But Shinagawa is still a blockhead who wants to do things egotistically. He's just a delinquent after all.
If I'm not mistaken, in volume 6 of this manga, Shinagawa's love story is revealed. Actually, Shinagawa and Adachi had met before when he took the entrance exam at Mon Shiro High School. Shinagawa fell in love with Adachi at first sight. But that day, Adachi had a different appearance. She didn't wear glasses, and her hairstyle wasn't braided. She obviously looked cute at the time. Unfortunately, Shinagawa hadn't asked her name when they met during the entrance exam. So Shinagawa spent his entire high school time searching for her. Too bad. He didn't realize the person he was looking for was right beside him the whole time.<p>
After this initial triumph, Yoshikawa was offered her own series based on the one-shot in a popular magazine at the tender age of 24. And wouldn't you know it, the duo embarked on more hilarious adventures, and new, amusing characters joined the cast. The manga was well-received, and its sales were impressive.
Eventually, though, Yoshikawa ran out of ideas for humorous adventures. Yet every week, there was that relentless deadline for 20 fresh pages. What to do? Canceling a popular series, especially a young writer's first hit, was out of the question. So she pressed on.
Storylines began repeating themselves. New scenarios were nonsensical fluff that led nowhere. In an effort to break the monotony, many new characters, including underclassmen, were introduced as the main cast aged.
They all invariably failed, each being a progressively weaker imitation of the original five introduced early in the series. But they weren't the only ones who fell flat. Instead of growing more complex, the central characters became increasingly trite and one-dimensional. For instance, by volume 14, Izumi had become a bland, irrelevant character despite having been an amusing, colorful standout when first introduced.
I noticed this decline very clearly. A manga I once looked forward to and laughed at gradually became dull when its plot holes and lack of motivation weren't making it annoying. And as it continued to deteriorate, finishing a chapter became outright torture.
While many readers noticed this significant drop in quality starting around volume 8, many others kept enjoying it.
However, everything came to a head with the manga's conclusion—a finale so dire, lazy, and insultingly stupid that even the staunchest supporters of the series were outraged. Personally, I could almost sense the author's disdain for the characters and her desire to be rid of them. Having them all die in a tragic mercury poisoning accident after eating at the same sushi restaurant would have been more merciful than their actual fates.
If nothing else, the last 16 volumes of this manga highlight the downside of any series achieving success: the unyielding pressure to keep going. Yoshikawa should never have let it reach that point, but as a first-time writer, one can understand her situation.
My advice? Read the first 7 volumes, enjoy them, and pretend that's where the series ended. <p>
The issue with most other reviews is that they are outdated—written before the manga concluded. Let me be clear: up until the ending, this manga was really good. Personally, I was primarily invested in the romance between the two main characters. While the development was slow, I don’t think that’s necessarily bad for a slice-of-life story like this one.
Let me state this very clearly: the ending is the worst I have ever encountered. It simply doesn’t make sense. Seriously, it just doesn’t. It completely ruins the entire manga and the whole backstory, which is incredibly disappointing. This disastrous ending is also why I will stop reading the author's other works, such as "Yamada-kun and the 7 Witches," out of fear that the author might ruin another series in a similar way.
If you want to avoid a MASSIVE disappointment after over 200 chapters, you might want to skip this manga altogether, as it leaves a very sour taste.
Overall: 8/10 before the ending, 0/10 afterward. I know I sound like I’m ranting here, but discussions on various forums (among those who have read the ending) echo the same sentiment.
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Art: I have to say, the art is pretty impressive—detailed, well-drawn characters, and their expressions are absolutely hilarious.
Character: The characters are lovable, no doubt about it. They make you laugh, especially "yankee-kun," whose funny faces are pure gold. And "megane-chan"? Well, let's just say she can be hilariously unpredictable at times.