Nononono

Normally I have trouble dropping a series, but this one is just way too excessive. At first it presented itself as "girl has to hide that she is a girl in order to ski!" although admittedly a kind of dumb concept as a girl can compete in any sport if she tries hard enough. Whatever, people love gender benders, it is not totally unreasonable that they gave themselves a good excuse.

Unfortunately, this quickly becomes about half assed tragedy (the tragedy in itself is not a terrible idea, but how everyone talks about it, reacts/reacted to it, how much everything about it is repeated ad naseum). Everything becomes sad faced drawings of characters that looks so terrible. It is not depressing, but it sure is miserable to interact with. My mistake was hoping that this would be a manga with exciting sports competitions, and instead it was Rumbling Hearts, "this time on skis!"

On the "gag" side and "slice of life" side, there are lots of bad blushing pictures and bad character art to accompany those types of story elements too. I do not like these types of elements anywhere, but I have no real particular problem with them when executed well. They are terribly executed in this manga.

The non-character art is really good, and that is about the only good thing I can say about this manga.

What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your dreams? Love? Your identity? Your safety?
Nonomiya Nono is willing to give it all up in order to win gold at the Olympics.

Story- 8

There are hundreds of stories out there featuring girls who disguise themselves as boys to achieve a goal, but this is one of my all-time favorites. The story is engaging. I really was rooting for Nono to achieve her dreams throughout the story, and I found myself staying up late, reading chapter after chapter because I was so excited to see what would happen next.

Although Nono cries (a lot,) this manga avoids many other annoying tropes that I dislike that are commonly found in the gender-bender genre. Nono is depicted as strong and successful. She's not a weakling, and she doesn't back down from a challenge. She's not overly modest about her abilities as a ski-jumper. She knows her worth.

It's obvious from the very beginning that Nono has a 'tragic backstory,' but the manga doesn't force this down our throats. It leaves you guessing just what happened to her family, and provides details scarcely. Yes, this is a bit cliche, but it's executed pretty well.

Sometimes, this manga is a little obsessed with giving people tragic backstories. Many of the athletes competing have a dark past that motivates them to succeed, and this past is not often a happy one. Some of the side characters have absolutely ridiculous backstories, but they don't have a big impact on the overall story.

The most significant flaw I noticed was that this story deals with some themes that I found to be uncomfortable. Specifically, I'm talking about sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault. This is never played for laughs or used as comedy, and the victim is never drawn to seem seductive or 'sexy' during the event. This isn't some rape fantasy. It's always very serious, and it's always depicted as being wrong, regardless of the situation or perpetrator. My problem with this was that there is too much of it in the story. One occasion might have been fine, but it's used as a plot device multiple times in the story. While it serves to show how people can be affected by trauma, it also was hard to read at times. Some of the male characters are constantly saying perverted things (once again, this isn't played for laughs, it's done to establish character.) Some of the male characters, even ones who seem like good guys, take advantage of girls. Once again, the manga doesn't disguise their actions, it clearly establishes that they're wrong.

Art- 6

This manga is a little bit older, and to be honest, the art isn't particularly special. I'm pretty sure it was serialized weekly, so the artist likely didn't have a lot of time for intricate details. It's by no means ugly, but I also wouldn't describe it as 'beautiful.' It's not particularly stylistic, but it gets the job done.

The characters have good designs, and it's easy to distinguish them from one another.

The composition of the frames is well done. During scenes where characters are ski-jumping, it's clear what's going on, and it's engaging and interesting. You can clearly picture the sport happening.

Character- 8

What makes a good character? Authenticity. I really believe that someone like Nono could exist, and I understand why she makes the choices she makes. She has clear motivations. She has a personality that's easy to root for. She's kind, but she isn't a blank slate self-insert like many female protagonists can be.

The main cast are also genuine, authentic characters. They all have personalities and silly traits, and they all have an established backstory and a goal in mind. Some of them are more interesting then others, but they are all distinct from each other.


Enjoyment- 7

I really loved rooting for Nono and her friends to succeed. This story was a wild ride, and I was always waiting to see what would happen next. Although cliche, I thought this story was an engaging read, and I really like the genre. It's not for everyone, but if you're a fan of a gender-bender with a determined female protagonist, you should give this one a try.

TL;DR - Everything wrong with hentai doujins thrown into a sports manga (a little more specific later).

Started off great. A story about a young girl carrying the dreams and wills of her family to get gold at the olympics. She overcomes hardships and comes out on top through effort, talent, luck and the help of her friends.
Sounds great right?

Yeah well for some reason the author decided to place these completely unnecesary characters who do completely unnecessary things. Sports is too mainstream, gotta give it a dose of EDGE. No, not just one dose, some of the psychopathic mentality was stomachable and did make it a little exciting, but he just upped the molarity to like 18 or something.

I mean, I know Elfen Lied was a hit (and I'll be honest I moderately enjoyed Brynhildir), but this is just &#%(@#&%*(@#. The tone is just all over the place. I mean, yes it's fine for sports/shounen to get dark, but you don't make it dark with objectifying and sexualising your female protagonist.
If you are NOT cool with attempted rape, rape, murder, attempted murder, blackmail, etc etc occuring in your sports manga/anime. Stay the fuck away.

I am honestly so disappointed. I really liked her character and the main supporting cast, who, weren't the most well-made were overall likeable.

P.S. First review I've done, had to put this out, far out, had to send the word out.

Aren't you tired of those gender bender stories that are pointless?
Nononono is a rather interesting manga that can keep you reading despite the artwork.

The manga has a strong plot centered on one thing, ski jumping. There is a little romance in the story and doesn't interrupt the flow of the plot.

The drawing of this manga is unappealing but, don't let it fool you. All you have to do is read the manga for what it really is...plus imagination.

The character Nonomiya Nono is a strong individual, with a strong-willed personality. Deciding to live as a boy growing up, she dedicated her whole life to her brother and father. Even if her father wasn't relying on a girl like her to achieve his dreams, Nono chose a life that would deny herself of any female desires. She is a courageous teen who ambitiously pursues her goal.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it. I gave this manga a 6. Just because of all my rating averages to 6. It lost a lot of points when it came to the drawing part. Even though Nononono was a fair manga for me doesn't mean that it's going to be a fair manga for you. Who knows? you might like it better than you thought.

Disappointing, truthfully. I was really excited for a sports manga about a female athlete and in a winter sport of all things, however I found it going a bit all over the place in terms of the story. Really liked the idea of a girl attempting to compete in a sport where only men could (because of the time that it's set in), however I found no real character development and it became a stale read as I found myself going "what? Is that really necessary?" whenever every truly horrific event/background story occurred.

Because I haven't read any of the authors other works I didn't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. By far my favourite character were the other females Kourogi Mikage and Sora as they were the most real and developed characters for me. It could be good for some people and it had a lot of potential, but it fell flat for me.

This isnt a tell me what the story is about section so ill get straight to the review. This was amazing. The story was soo good i couldnt let it go till i reached the final released chapter.There is not one chapter where i would stop reading or get bored.The story and reading is very easy to follow. The art is on the higher end of manga and is very detailed. It makes guys look hot,weird guys look like pedo's,and girls that actually have feminine charm. The kind of art you would expect from an visual novel in a manga.The characters were deep and funny.I enjoyed it completely. This is for seinen lovers.I never cared for the sport or for sport mangas but this manga changed all that.Read it.If you read a lot of manga and have run out this will not dissapoint! Plus the fact that this is written from the author of Elfen lied is also amazing and weird considering how different both of them are. Plus this manga has it all.Slice of life with nono wanting a boy and their school life. Romantic comedy and comedy with her disguised as a boy but with a super feminine heart and love for all things cute will lead to hilarious moments and the funny scenes with the afro group leader(wont ruin it).The names are easssy. i cant remember all that japanese jargon for names and i usually find myself lost. This is not one of those.Hope i convinced you. Watcha waitng for. Go read it

i liked the story behind nonono. I thought that the author wrote a really strong heroine who wasnt above doing anything to realize her dream. I reall y could have done without the ecchi parts; the idea could have been portrayed without them and they werent an intrigual part of the manga.
the supporting characters were as strong as the heroine and i really liked that. However the author seemed to write in way too many incidental characters and random characters, where i lost track of them at some point.
It seems like the author had minimal knowledge on the sport of ski jumping and learned more as the story went on, because i am not big on sports i thought that was really cool. The end was a let down because you dont know if she reached her main goal and what happens after the last chapter.
bottom line. Its a good read the chapters are generally short, sometimes you dont know if the heroine will succeed, and if you like cross dressing/ gender bending there is enough to go around. Sure there is lots of boobs, and other ecchi things. Sure, there are some chapters that were fillers and the end was a bust- but the rest of the ride was pretty good.

Nononono has attempted raid, people being kicked off very high places, boobs, murder, attempted murder, suicide, afros and genderbender. It's a manga about skijumping.
Nononono is the second work of Lynn Okamoto, who is the best known for Elfenlied and Brynhildr in the darkness. Compared to those works Nononono is harmless, but he still managed to get his own personal note of ecchi, comedy and violence into it. It is not like those normal sports manga you see everywhere. If you expect something like Kuroko no Basket or Haikyuu, you will be disappointed.
The manga covers a sport that is very minor in most countries, but it explains the skijumping in a way people unfamiliar with it understand the basic rules. It contains many unique characters. Different from Okamoto's other works there aren't many females, but predominantly male characters. The story has many surprising twists which are caused by characters acting completley out of normal common sense.
Readers should be warned that the author axed the manga himself so the ending is quite rushed. I still recommend it.

Hmm first off all i should apologise if i included too many spoilers although I'll try to reduce them as much as possible.

Hmm I'm not really into gender benders but i decided to pick this up because of a sudden interest in sports manga *cough* Kuroko No Basket * cough* even though I'm actually horrible at sports. I found the plot of this manga to be actually captivating to a certain extent and i was slightly touched by some of the scenes.

The characters of this manga were decent. Not really THAT unique but at least they're slightly better than average. I liked the character development quite a bit and also how they focus mainly on the ski jumping area while including romance and comedy in adequate but not so much that the manga becomes a romance comedy.

Another plus point is that although the main character from this manga is clearly better than average, she isn't too talented or unbeatable. I also liked how it showed the problems faced by athletes who end up losing major competitions such as constant bashing by others ( not that I'm a sadist).

Overall, this manga isn't extremely good or special but is still worth the watch if you have the sudden urge to read an interesting sports manga

I am a fan of gender-bender story lines. I don't know why - I think because you can get very strong female characters. and I like sports storylines. Also, I have no idea why, but I seem to get sucked into them. OFten you get the two combined - I guess so we can see how totally awesome these girls are at the sport. When you think about it, that is sending a message that the rest of the girls are not good, but that is a rant for another occasion.

Nononono is.. well it is good. I put off reading it for ages.

While it is definitely not a comedy (there are some strong abuse themes that run through it) there are some very light hearted moments.

The character of Nono is surprisingly weak, and although it annoyed me at first, it is growing on me. Physically she is obviously amazing, but she is quite a shy girl, who needs to protect her identity. That, obviously, makes for some interesting situations.

Nononono isn't going to suit everyone. You need a predisposition to gender benders/sports stories, otherwise it won't hold your attention. Me? I eagerly await each new update!