Ne Ne Ne Manga Review

So recently I was on my manga spree and my quest to drive myself broke when I came across two One-shot manga volumes known as ‘Oh, My Sweet Alien’ & ’Ne Ne Ne’. they both are recent releases by the time this review was written. Both share the same theme of marriage. Both of the couples have one individual who is a weird one. And if it’s getting too similar, I’m going to differentiate by saying that I only like one of them.


Let’s figure out why…

I’m going to pick the easier one first: Ne Ne Ne

It’s a romance comedy which follows the story of Shin, a 37 years old ghostbuster who gets married to a 16 years old child named Koyuki. And that’s it. There is absolutely nothing else I can say that is exciting about it. Just a story of a girl getting married and not getting laid by an equally virgin husband. Before I rip it to shreds, let me highlight the positives of this book.

First, the size of this book. I know it seems redundant but stick with me. It’s a very light and small book with not more than 170 pages. It is appropriate for this manga because all it is selling you is a feeling of positivity among similar individuals, albeit for different reasons. From their attire, I can guess its based in old times, or even present but they are living countryside. Every dress was appealing and sold the cuteness it was going for.

The story, as I said, is a slice of life fluff piece, with no redeeming points. Its as generic as ‘The Gods Lie’ by Kaori Ozaki, and I was not pleased. The romance between them can’t move forward for a reason (I’ll come back to that), and the comedy bits were laugh out boring. I can count on my fingers how many times this manga made me chuckle or smile, and the answer is THREE. Pitiful for a ROMANCE-COMEDY.

The art, however, is a double-edged sword. When it portrays the characters like their own age, its very expressive and I can appreciate that. but when it goes all Blend-S chibi, it’s a little awkward to see a child requesting to buy her 37 years old husband for a date. If you thought that was awkward, it was one of the moments that made me laugh.

ZE NEGATIBEZ

Now let’s get to the meat of the material: why do I have such a seething anger towards this manga. First comes first: who in the right mind thought that child marriage is an acceptable core concept of your literature. Are we all living in 2019, or some of us are still in 1800s? To keep everything PG, and to eliminate even a hint of sexual content from your pages, you made this concept a thing. And this is one of the biggest negatives I have against this manga. I don’t know the social structure of Japan, I haven’t been there, but if this is a common occurrence, you can take this BS straight to the garbage dump. What I think, is that the author was capitalizing on the fantasy aspects of the manga. Because everything is acceptable in the fantasyland, right?

The manga starts with our leads getting marries for the union of two families. Political BS? CHECK. But the father of the girl clearly states Shin that he is not allowed to touch her until she turns 20. Guess what scumbag father? The concept works equally if she was 18! Why not make it a little less awkward to say she is 18?

Now to counterargument myself, I bring up ‘The Ancient Magus’ Bride’. Does it have the same core premise as of Ne Ne Ne? to a broad perspective, Yes. Elias wants to make Chise, an underage, his wife. He acquires her as a slave. But does any of this comes up later in the anime like ‘Ne Ne Ne’ slaps its concept into our faces? NO! [Caution: this opinion is based on the 25 episode anime, not the manga]. In Magus’ Bride, fantasy aspects take the front seat, and the relationship between its leads develop over time, not in 7 chapters. Which is another drawback ‘Ne Ne Ne’ has going for it: its very short.

The manga ends at a cheesy hopeful stroke of generic romance that it made me cringe. In a true ‘Tsundere falls in love with protagonist over the course of 12 eps’, they kiss in the latter parts, which gave me some semblance of happiness, because if it ended on another holding hand walk, I was going to jump off my terrace. Oh wait, it DID end like that. but they kissed, whatever.
Another part which I can nitpick, and I will, is the introduction of a cute dragon. It was a ray of hope that made me hopeful for the growth of Koyuki. But they threw that little lizard on the back burner faster than Dragon Ball killed off Raditz. I mean, it reflected the nurturing nature of Shin a little, why not go the extra mile and throw his underaged wife a bone too.

The adorable scenes definitely weigh the boring parts to become an equilibrium of a time well spent. Any exchange with the adorable next door kid also breathed life into this manga, which almost made me like it a whole lot.

In the end, it is a simple read with a lot of heart, only let down by its poor execution and minor flubs on the way.

PERSONAL OPINION: BUY IT [worth a read]
ART: 8/10
STORY: 5/10
WAIFU MATERIAL: 0/110
HUSBANDO MATERIAL: 1.1/0