My Senpai is Annoying Manga Review
先輩がうざい後輩の話
  Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi

–> Purchase My Senpai is Annoying Volume 1 from Amazon.com

Thanks to following quite a few manga-ka and Japanese artists on Twitter (X), I sometimes get introduced to interesting new series. Such was the case with Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi. Although the chapters were short, the art appealed to me and I wanted to know more. So when Seven Seas got the license, I happily bought the volumes. Sadly, Manta-sensei brought the manga to an end. So I figured I’d write a review.

NOTICE!!! In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am the adapter for the official English translation of the True Tenchi Muyo! novels, which are also published by Seven Seas.

* * * S P O I L E R S * * *

The Story, in Brief

The story of My Senpai is Annoying begins with IGARASHI Futaba, who’s a new employee at an office. Although she is in her mid-20s, she looks like a young, teen girl. Further, she can be a bit of a tsundere at times. She’s assigned a senpai at work named TAKEDA Harumi. He’s tall, muscular, and middle-aged but single. Futaba finds him annoying due to his boisterous voice. Further, he annoys her by patting her on the head and treating her like a daughter. However, over time, Futaba comes to respect her senpai and even falls in love with him.

Also at the office is SAKURAI Touka. She’s also in her 20s, has a large chest, and is very popular with the males at the office. However, she only has eyes for office colleague KAZAMA Souta. He is also in his 20s and likes video games. Although he finds Touka attractive, he doesn’t believe that a woman as hot as her would be interested in him.

Next up is Futaba’s best friend, KUROBE Natsumi. She and Futaba have been friends since high school. Natsumi is athletic and also has a large chest in addition to a perma-tan. She catches the eye of SAKURAI Yuuto. He’s a high school boy who moved in with his sister, Touka. Yuuto has a mad crush on her. Natsumi enjoys teasing him a bit, and is flattered by Yuuto’s affection. However, she wonders why he would be so into her.

The stories are slice of life tales, told in short chapters, usually four pages in length. The majority of the stories will feature Futaba and/or Harumi. But the other characters get featured stories as well. And sometimes, there are stories where all of the characters are together.

What I Liked

The first thing I can say I liked about My Senpai is Annoying is the artwork. After all, it was the artwork that initially caught my eye and made me interested in the story. Shiromanta-sensei does exceed in this area. If you buy the first volume, Sensei went back and improved the art, as his artwork back then was a bit rougher than at present.

Next up on the list of things I liked are the characters. Every one of them has their own charm. Further, I could relate to all of the characters, which was nice. I could understand everyone’s attitudes. I think Souta is the character I related to the most. After all, when the hottest girl around shows an interest in you, and you don’t find yourself worthy, you would think that you must be imagining things, or that there’s no way such a girl would be interested in you.

In addition, I liked that characters grew over time. There’s no status quo to keep relationships the same. For example, Futaba started out as easily annoyed by her senpai. And yet over time, she came to respect him and fall in love with him. Sure, the various romances in the series didn’t grow very fast as it took the entire manga to run their course. However, Shiromanta-sensei did allow the characters to grow, and that was nice.

And finally, the slice of life stories were quite lovely. Whether set in the office, or out to lunch, or at the beach, or whatever, I just enjoyed watching these characters do their thing.

What I Didn’t Like

While I liked the romances in My Senpai is Annoying, I didn’t like how abruptly the manga ended. I’m guessing that Shiromanta-sensei probably got bored with the series. But, a certain number of pages were needed to complete the final volume. I’ve seen it before where trying to time out things doesn’t work out that well. As such, while we saw a nice resolution and aftermath of the Souta-Touka relationship, we just got a rapid end for the Futaba-Harumi relationship.

Personally, I would have liked to see them actually get married. Instead, we get this as a confirmation on the final page of the manga (not counting an omake chapter that would come in the actual final volume). In addition, I would have loved to see Futaba and Harumi after they are married. But unless we see this in the omake stuff, it was not to be.

Finally, we don’t get a resolution to the Natsumi-Yuuto relationship. I get that some folks had a problem with a 20-something woman being involved at any level with a shouta-looking high school boy. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with it. For a start, I remember being a high school boy. Second, while Natsumi may tease Yuuto a bit, there’s nothing vulgar about it. Further, because of Yuuto’s honest affection for Natsumi, it did cause her to do make stop some bad behaviors on her part.

So I would have liked to have seen something about Natsumi and Yuuto. But we didn’t get that.

Seven Seas

The best translator/adapters in the business are “The Twins” (Alethea & Athena Nibley). That’s because they are in the “accurate but readable” adaptations rather than garbage “localization” where stuff is just made up. Because they translated and adapted My Senpai is Annoying, you know the title is in good hands. No complaints on the adaptation front.

Seven Seas goes the extra mile by printing the volumes in color. As I stated in my review of the first volume of the manga,

As such, it matches what Shiromanta-sensei did for Twitter/Pixiv, though possibly with some additional improvements. It isn’t “full color” as sometimes Sensei only used color to highlight certain things. While I highly approve of Seven Seas retaining the color, some of the pages in print are darker than they were in digital form.

Seven Seas has all of the omake stuff in their volumes, which is nice.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, My Senpai is Annoying is a very enjoyable josei manga series. The artwork is lovely. The characters are fun and memorable. The slice of life stories are enjoyable. And, the characters are allowed to grow, even if slowly. While I would have preferred more aftermath stuff, maybe I’ll get that in the final volume when it is released.

Note: Just as a word of caution–to further support Shiromanta-sensei, I did briefly subscribe to his Fanbox account. Sensei doesn’t do full-on hentai, but he does have characters from the manga in VERY ecchi artwork, highly suggestive of sexual activity. There’s no frontal nudity, so it does seem an odd thing to do. Other artists I’ve liked with wholesome, mainstream manga have full-on hentai manga behind a paywall. 😅