Aho-Girl

Aho Girl
Cover of volume 1.
アホガール (Aho gāru)
Genre	Comedy, slice of life
Manga
Written by	Hiroyuki
Published by	Kodansha
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	November 28, 2012 – present
Volumes	8
Anime television series
Directed by	Keizō Kusakawa Shingo Tamaki
Written by	Takashi Aoshima
Studio	Diomedéa
Original run	July 2017 – scheduled

Aho Girl (アホガール, Aho gāru) is an ongoing Japanese four-panel slice of life comedy shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since November 28, 2012. Eight compilation volumes by Kodansha have been released so far. A crossover one-shot with Love Hina was released on August 27, 2014.

Plot

The story follows the everyday lives of high school girl Yoshiko Hanabatake, known to be stupid academically as well as socially. She constantly hangs out with and annoys her studious and serious neighbor Akuru Akutsu, whom Yoshiko's mother wants her to marry. Yoshiko becomes friends with the level-headed Sayaka Sumino, who, along with Akuru, try to keep Yoshiko in check. The Public Morals Chairman girl dislikes the free-spirited Yoshiko but when Akuru makes some casual remarks that compliment her, the chairman falls in love with Akuru and begins stalking him while repressing her perverted thoughts. Yoshiko also befriends a delinquent guy Ryuichi Kurosaki who thinks of Yoshiko as a gang leader, a group of playground kids, and some other students and staff at school.

Characters

Yoshiko Hanabatake (花畑 よしこ; はなばたけ よしこ, Hanabatake Yoshiko)

The title character of the story is a high school girl who is stupid both academically and socially. She even gets zeroes on multiple choice tests.^{Ch. 1} She is almost always seen hanging around her neighbor, childhood friend and classmate Akutsu whom she calls "A-kun". She is very energetic.^{Ch. 6} Her favorite food is bananas.^{Ch. 9}

Akuru Akutsu (阿久津 明; あくつ あくる, Akutsu Akuru)

Akuru is a smart and serious high school student who is constantly annoyed by Yoshiko's antics. The reason he and Yoshiko are classmates is because he chose to attend a local high school as the really academic schools were too far away that he wouldn't get much time to study. He scolds Yoshiko for her idiotic behavior, even resorting to punches.^{Ch. 1} He prefers to study, and does not have a girlfriend or any friends besides Yoshiko, although Sayaka agrees to be his friend out of pity.^{Ch. 3}

Sayaka Sumino (隅野 さやか; すみの さやか, Sumino Sayaka)

Akuru and Yoshiko's classmate who ends up becoming friends with the two. She too is level-headed and assumes the straight-man role,^{Ch. 2} often moderating interactions between Yoshiko and others^{Ch. 56, 66}. She is very sensitive, especially when others point out her small chest, and sometimes loses her patience.^{Ch. 3, 22, 66}

Public Morals Chairman (風紀委員長, Jajjimento-chō)

An unnamed girl who is in charge of morals at the school. She cannot stand Yoshiko's idiocy. When Akuru starts complimenting her by accident, saying princely things like "If (Yoshiko) gives you any more trouble let me know." and "She's a hundred times more attractive than (Yoshiko)", she develops a major crush on Akuru.^{Ch. 5} She starts stalking him, and often has lewd fantasies about him.^{Ch. 7, 11, 16, 25} Yoshiko considers her a rival because of the girl's large breast size.^{Ch. 5} In many instances she tries to reach out to Akuru but her interactions give her a reputation of being just as weird, even though she is unaware of that.^{Ch. 7, 32-33, 53}

Yoshie Hanabatake (花畑 よしえ; はなばたけ よしえ, Hanabatake Yoshie)

Yoshiko's mother is constantly worrying about her daughter, but brightens up that Akuru pays attention to her and secretly hopes he and Yoshiko can marry.^{Ch. 2} She hatches several schemes to have Yoshiko flirt with Akuru but they often backfire.^{Ch. 8} At first she perceives Sayaka to be a threat to marry Akuru but after checking her panties are that of a child, she deems her safe.^{Ch. 14}

Ryuichi Kurosaki (黒崎 龍一; くろさき りゅういち, Kurosaki Ryuichi)

A delinquent guy whom Yoshiko interacts with, he becomes Yoshiko's disciple, calling her "anego".^{Ch. 4, 6} He tries to become friends with Akuru but fails because of his shyness, and ends up acting more like his underling.^{Ch. 29}

Atsuko Oshieda (押枝 あつこ; おしえだ あつこ, Oshieda Atsuko)

Yoshiko's homeroom teacher. She tries to teach Yoshiko but with not much luck. She becomes painfully aware of her singleness because of Yoshiko.^{Ch. 15, 21, 28}

Ruri Akutsu (阿久津 瑠璃; あくつ るり, Akutsu Ruri)

Akuru's little sister who is in the fifth grade. She is worried she will become an idiot like Yoshiko as she struggles academically.^{Ch. 10} She admires Sayaka-chan because she helps tutor her a little bit.^{Ch. 18}

Playground kids

Two boys and a girl (Nozomi) whom Yoshiko meets at the playground. They are concerned about Yoshiko's desires to just play all day and not study.^{Ch. 12, 17, 27}

Rinko Inui

A second-year student who takes a liking to Yoshiko and treats her like a dog, even with commands like sit and stay. Her facial expression is difficult to read.^{Ch. 31, 35}

Gyarus

Three gyaru classmates whom Yoshiko starts interacting with later in the series. They don't really like her, but they are just as dumb as Yoshiko in school. The dark-haired gyaru has a boyfriend,^{Ch. 57, 58} and the leader of the three does not like Akuru, who calls her ugly.^{Ch. 62, 66}

Media

Volumes

• 1 (May 17, 2013)
• 2 (October 17, 2013)
• 3 (April 17, 2014)
• 4 (August 16, 2014)
• 5 (January 16, 2015)
• 6 (May 15, 2015)
• 7 (March 9, 2016)
• 8 (October 17, 2016)

Anime

An anime adaptation produced by Diomedéa has been announced and will begin airing in July 2017 with the title Aho Girl: Clueless Girl.

Reception

Volume 1 reached the 43rd place on the weekly Oricon manga chart and, as of May 18, 2013, has sold 27,861 copies; volume 2 reached the 22nd place and, as of October 27, 2013, has sold 61,653 copies; volume 3 reached the 20th place and, as of April 27, 2014, has sold 62,692 copies; volume 4 reached the 22nd place and, as of August 24, 2014, has sold 55,158 copies; volume 5 reached the 34th place and, as of January 18, 2015, has sold 27,473 copies. Volume 6 placed 24th and sold 52,198 copies over 2 weeks. Volume 7 reached number 24 with 30,236 copies sold in its first week.

Works cited

• ^ "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the collected Aho Girl manga

External links

• Aho Girl on Weekly Shōnen Magazine Template:Ja icon
• Anime official website Template:Ja icon
• Aho-Girl (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia