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姫ヶ崎櫻子は今日も不憫可愛い [Himegasaki Sakurako wa Kyou mo Fubin Kawaii] #1
Himegasaki Sakurako Is a Hot Mess Vol. 1
A rom-com manga about the rejected childhood best friend who is forced to watch her friend fall for another girl–from the creator of I Get The Feeling That Nobukuni-San Likes Me (also from Seven Seas)!
Who wouldn’t have a thing for Himegasaki Sakurako? With her blonde pigtails, cute demeanor, and buxom body, she draws all of the eyes at school. If only her crush, Mimori Natsuki, saw her as more than his childhood gal pal! Can this loveable loser stop getting into embarrassing situations and finally land the boy of her dreams?
Who wouldn’t have a thing for Himegasaki Sakurako? With her blonde pigtails, cute demeanor, and buxom body, she draws all of the eyes at school. If only her crush, Mimori Natsuki, saw her as more than his childhood gal pal! Can this loveable loser stop getting into embarrassing situations and finally land the boy of her dreams?
156 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 22, 2026
Is it possible to craft an effective romantic comedy with only three named characters? Is it possible to provide an engaging schoolyard comedy using only the most banal, snake-bit tropes? Is it possible to scope a good story wielding an ultimately messy and confusing narrative structure? Nope.
HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1, however awkwardly retitled for the western market, cobbles together a handful of story tropes and character formulations for a few laughs and little else. Perhaps it's appropriate that a book about an adorable character who can't quite get her shit together is itself a title whose author has no idea what they're doing (or where their story is going).
Sakurako and her neighbor (Natsuki) are first-years in high school, which, for the longtime friends surely ushers in the array of coming-of-age experiences that will set them on the trajectory for modern adulthood. Natsuki is amiable and average; Sakurako, quite decidedly, is not. The girl is busty, social, athletic, and reasonably good at her studies. The fact that Sakurako is massively crushing on Natsuki, but her clumsiness and rogue bouts of bad luck prevent her from capitalizing on her feelings, is the narrative hook.
The challenge with this manga is very clear, and it is distinctly twofold: (1) Nothing about this story is original. Childhood friends? Average male co-lead? Busty, clumsy blonde? Perpetual embarrassment? Lots of ecchi scenes? (2) Sakurako is a legitimately adorable character. The teenager is inscrutably positive and proud (e.g., dominating test scores, tit-for-tat bickering), while simultaneously being highly focused to the point of utter incompetence (e.g., maybe someone's lying about their test scores; forgetting to close the laptop during an erotic online stream). Readers might genuinely feel for the pitiful girl if not for the book's overabundance of dialogue, erratic emotional outbursts, and jumble of visual gags.
None of these problems are rectified by the fact that Sakurako isn't even the book's narrator; it's Natsuki. Natsuki is the manga's protagonist, and yet the author spends so little time on his shoulder, seeing what he sees and hearing what he hears, that readers likely don't care about the guy some three episodes into the book. HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1 has an unpredictable and messy narrative style that's difficult to like or feel meaningfully invested in. Some storylines run together well (e.g., Sakurako attempting to tutor her assumed rival, Setsuna, only to discover the attractive girl is woefully inept), but the vast majority of episodes lack continuity, strain credulity, or have zero context (e.g., Why is Sakukrako streaming anyway?). HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1 is a good example of the type of manga one might find while browsing a library or a bookstore shelf, only to learn that there are indeed directionless comics out there that are definitely not worth one's time.
HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1, however awkwardly retitled for the western market, cobbles together a handful of story tropes and character formulations for a few laughs and little else. Perhaps it's appropriate that a book about an adorable character who can't quite get her shit together is itself a title whose author has no idea what they're doing (or where their story is going).
Sakurako and her neighbor (Natsuki) are first-years in high school, which, for the longtime friends surely ushers in the array of coming-of-age experiences that will set them on the trajectory for modern adulthood. Natsuki is amiable and average; Sakurako, quite decidedly, is not. The girl is busty, social, athletic, and reasonably good at her studies. The fact that Sakurako is massively crushing on Natsuki, but her clumsiness and rogue bouts of bad luck prevent her from capitalizing on her feelings, is the narrative hook.
The challenge with this manga is very clear, and it is distinctly twofold: (1) Nothing about this story is original. Childhood friends? Average male co-lead? Busty, clumsy blonde? Perpetual embarrassment? Lots of ecchi scenes? (2) Sakurako is a legitimately adorable character. The teenager is inscrutably positive and proud (e.g., dominating test scores, tit-for-tat bickering), while simultaneously being highly focused to the point of utter incompetence (e.g., maybe someone's lying about their test scores; forgetting to close the laptop during an erotic online stream). Readers might genuinely feel for the pitiful girl if not for the book's overabundance of dialogue, erratic emotional outbursts, and jumble of visual gags.
None of these problems are rectified by the fact that Sakurako isn't even the book's narrator; it's Natsuki. Natsuki is the manga's protagonist, and yet the author spends so little time on his shoulder, seeing what he sees and hearing what he hears, that readers likely don't care about the guy some three episodes into the book. HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1 has an unpredictable and messy narrative style that's difficult to like or feel meaningfully invested in. Some storylines run together well (e.g., Sakurako attempting to tutor her assumed rival, Setsuna, only to discover the attractive girl is woefully inept), but the vast majority of episodes lack continuity, strain credulity, or have zero context (e.g., Why is Sakukrako streaming anyway?). HIMEGASAKI SAKURAKO IS A HOT MESS v1 is a good example of the type of manga one might find while browsing a library or a bookstore shelf, only to learn that there are indeed directionless comics out there that are definitely not worth one's time.
January 30, 2026
Actually 3.5 stars. The last few chapters, if you can call them chapters, where Sakaki and Natsuki talk to each other about his liking of Sakurako made me give this another half star, I didn’t expect that to happen. I don’t understand the need to make it read like a 4 koma manga, though. The manga reads normally, yet each page has a heading, why? Overall, it’s okay, nothing special.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews