Every once in a while, a series comes along that completely floors me when I suddenly really it’s an ongoing series.

Ohsawa Yayoi’s Black Yagi to Gekiyaku Madeline (and the sequel, Strange Babies) took me a while to cotton on to. Junsui Adolescence by Kowo Kazuma did the same thing.

For some strange reason, it is only marginally surprising to me that Morita-san ha Mukuchi Manga (森田さんは無口) by Sano Tae has made it to Volume 6.

On the surface, this series is a typical one-joke-per-character 4-panel comic. However, it has no prickly inside jokes or characters pretending to tolerate one another to fuel tension, no wacky character with bwawawa~~~ punchlines. Unlike so many of the breed, Sano-sensei has made this series feel…comfortable.

I’m perfectly okay seeing how many gags can be built around Mayu’s silence, Miki’s hair, Hana’s tumultuous homelife, Yukino’s drinking, Mayu’s parents up-and-down relationship, Yamamoto’s coolness. I’m not sure why, but even the stalker girl who stalks Mayu doesn’t bother me. Probably because she’s clearly annoying Sano-sensei, who barely included her this volume.

Yamamoto is amazingly cool and all the girls like her. This and Mayu’s stalker are the only Yuri and the thinnest of all possible reasons for me to mention Volume 5 (which I never reviewed for no specific reason I can think of, I probably read it on JManga and simply forgot to) and Volume 6. Yuri is not why you’d be reading this story anyway. You’d read it for the pleasantly realistic, non-creepy, non-fetishy, totally touching friendships between Mayu and her friends, which should be handed out to illustrate “Friendships Between Women 101”.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

What I said about Volume 4 still holds true, “Mayu’s a good friend, and her friends are good friends. Watching the four of them together has not yet ceased to fill me with warmth.”

I’ll be reading Volume 7. And I won’t be a bit surprised if there’s a Volume 8.