Chikotan, Kowareru, all seven volumes

I bought two different manga from the same author (Imai Yuu), with the other being Imori 201... but I didn't notice. I was dozy. I only realised when that earlier work's two policewomen (Yagisawa Marina and Araki Haruka) get a cameo here in chapter 37 (volume 4 pages 169-174). Both series are sexy romps with a lone male protagonist, a predestined girlfriend character and an all-female supporting cast, although Imori 201 is a real-world series and this one's SF/fantastical. I enjoyed large parts of them. When they're on form, I rate them a good deal. (Of the two, this series has memorable concepts and appears to be much more plot-driven, but Imori 201 herself was a more memorable character than anyone here.)

Unfortunately, this series lost me in book 5. It has a good story with a natural, satisfying ending ending... around chapter 40, which isn't much more than halfway through. Alas, it continues. Perhaps the series was popular with readers, or the editor, or the writer. "But surely it's all over now?" I thought and alas was right. The next two volumes tread water and waste your time. Volume 7 comes alive for a more serious ending... but that raises another problem.

This is a love story. Ousaka Ryouhei and Miyahara Chiko are going to end up together, with the love rival being his childhood friend Nekoyashiki Aya. That's not a spoiler. It's obvious from volume 1. The childhood friend will lose the race... of course, inevitably. That's normal in this kind of story. A rival should be convincing and what better than a childhood friend? The danger, unfortunately, is that you make the rival so likeable that the readers start cheering for her, not the preordained victor. At least this this series avoids the biggest trap, because I also liked Chiko-tan. She's funny. I understood Ryouhei's feelings for her. Nonetheless, though, I still preferred Aya, who on top of everything else couldn't be more generous, kind and fair even to her rival.

The concepts are wacky. Allowing some SPOILER SPACE...

SPOILERS

Miyahara Chiko has a hundred robot copies of herself, usually (but not always) remote-controlled by the human original. If a robo-Chiko has what looks like a fatal accident, a helicopter will appear to whisk away the "corpse" and replace it with another one. The Chikos obviously all have Chiko's personality, though, so they're very human. Their minds can be blown by embarrassment, etc. The series has fun with all this and has had alarming ideas. The Chikos all wear headphones, for instance, that stick big control spikes into their ears. If a flesh-and-blood human put on those headphones, things would get messy. There's also a four-page chapter with a comedy robot decapitation in volume 6.

Incidentally, my first reaction to Imari 201 had been to wonder if the title meant there were 200 clones of her. There weren't, of course. It's her apartment number. Nonetheless, maybe that inspired Imai Yuu to create this series?

I don't buy Ousaka Ryouhei himself. He's a nice guy and I like him, but his voice fetish says to me "eccentric manga idea" and undermines what's otherwise a decent portrayal of a good, real-ish person. I found it too much of a stretch. It fits well into the story's planned plot and character beats, but come off it. I also had no patience with the secret-keeping bollocks (which fortunately gets torpedoed in volume 2) and I don't see why Ryouhei didn't tell anyone about the dangerous evil teacher around chapter 22. Plus, of course, anyone who calls someone else "-tan" is a knob. I wanted him to stop that too.

Overall, this series is a very mixed bag. There's some nice character work, especially with Aya. (I loved her relationships with both Chiko and Ryouhei.) The plot and ideas are imaginative, even after the series's natural end in volume 4. Unfortunately, though, it's not always plausible (e.g. the king-slave sports day tradition in volume 3) and of course the story falls off a cliff for two volumes. Furthermore, it becomes a "tits and arse" manga... not all the time, but enough to give that impression. In short, the very definition of a curate's egg. I'd love to see Imai Yuu with a strong editor.