The Spring 2022 Manga Guide

The Untouchable Midori-kun

What's It About? 

Talk about meet-cutes... Misaki doesn't recognize her cute new neighbor when he comes to formally introduce herself...until he reminds her that they went to school together for years! But Midori Tachibana is no longer the awkward kid she remembers—he's the leader of Japan's hottest new idol group! But their fated meeting is cut short when he finds out she's an adult film actress...and he can't be seen with her if he's to preserve his squeaky-clean idol image! But can the chemistry between them be so easily erased? A sex-positive, sweet idol rom-com for fans of Tokyo Tarareba Girls and Ex-Enthusiasts!

The Untouchable Midori-kun has story and art by Toyo Toyota with English translation by Joshua Hardy. Kodansha Comics will release its first volume on May 17.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

This is the sort of mediocre book that I could see becoming not a guilty pleasure, but a “why??” kind of read. Mostly that's a combination of unattractive art and a premise that doesn't feel entirely comfortable – the story follows reunited childhood friends Misaki and Midori who last saw each other in the fourth grade. Now in their twenties, they're both working in the entertainment industry: Midori as an idol and Misaki as a porn actress. Needless to say, these are not necessarily compatible careers as far as Japan's cult of purity idol industry goes.

It's clear that things are meant to be funny, and I do appreciate the gender role norms that are being inverted. Misaki is perfectly comfortable with her line of work and proud of what she does while Midori is desperately trying to keep himself pure and virginal – something Misaki can't quite wrap her head around. He doesn't recognize her as “Melon Kotobuki” because he's never seen any porn, which appears to be unique to him in his idol group, because when his bandmate Soji sees Misaki, he knows exactly who she is. Why Midori is so devoted to the idea of sexual purity isn't fully clear, although he frames it as a way of remaining true to his fans, and we have to give him credit for sticking to his beliefs. The problem is that Misaki doesn't feel that this is an admirable pursuit (or lack of pursuit) to devote himself to, and she absolutely doesn't respect Midori's wishes. Her machinations to get him to touch her or sleep with her are supposed to be funny, but they just feel disrespectful.

Nevertheless, I am tempted to keep reading. Something obviously happened back in the fourth grade to cause Misaki to move, and she has no intention of talking about it; Soji's scheming to keep Midori and Misaki apart, which is at least mildly infuriating. This isn't a good book by most measures, but it is one that grows on you like the proverbial fungus.

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Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

The Untouchable Midori-kun is a bit of a hot mess. I appreciate the breakneck pace, but it's almost too fast: right on the first page, protagonists Midori Tachibana and Misaki Suda are being reunited after having been apart since fourth grade. Midori has become an idol with the group Five Club, and Misaki is a famous porn star under the pseudonym Melon Kotobuki. And right away, Midori makes the stringent demand that Misaki never touch him or speak to him. You'd think it's because he's judgmental of sex workers... but his main concern is that his fans are disappointed at seeing him with another woman.

Midori is bizarre, in a failed attempt at being humorous. If he were just absent-minded, that would be fine. Instead, he's a space cadet and he's impossibly pure and he goes zero-to-one-hundred in no time flat. Misaki's attempts at seducing him slide off him like water on a duck and just feel weird and forced on her behalf. There's a good bit of writing where Midori says that idols and porn stars aren't all that different, but it doesn't stop Midori from being absolutely clownshoes around Misaki—and Misaki looks even weirder for her continuous attempts at getting into his pants. There are some really good wild takes, a lot of potential in the story hooks, and a nice running gag about Midori summoning roses around him, but The Untouchable Midori-kun is way too unfocused to recommend.

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Christopher Farris

Rating:

I find myself torn on The Untouchable Midori-kun. Not in my opinion of it, oh no – I'll tell you right away that I absolutely loved this book, but I was unsure about how much I should give away in talking about it. See, the initial roundhouse-kick to the temples that is the twist in the premise, that leading lady Misaki is happily employed as a porn actress, at first can come off as cause for trepidation. Through the opening pages of the first chapter, I was distracted by concerns about how the story would handle this angle in comparison to the titular Midori's idol career, or how the question of reconnecting with her childhood friend might interact with some misgivings you might be able to read regarding Misaki's relationships with others through her job. So if you're going to check this one out, let me be the one to put your fears to bed: Midori doesn't actually judge Misaki for her porn work; in fact he admires her for it, she continues to happily interface with it as a component of her life through this volume, and the characters' interactions within are actually the driving source of so much of the comedy that makes this one an unexpected good time.

In fact, it's the skewering of the idea of 'purity culture', specifically through the idol side of the industry, which sets The Untouchable Midori-kun up on such strong comedic legs. Through Misaki we ponder how many participants in the idol industry actually follow that age-old adage about no contact with the opposite sex to the letter, and react to Midori being one with such absurd devotion to the tenet. But Toyo Toyota here also knows better than to portray Midori as some sort of alien, making clear instead that he's a rather naive boy who's still at least able to be open about his own desires, repressed as they are. It all alchemizes together into an incredible setup I didn't realize I needed in my life until now. The ongoing methods in which the manga illustrates the disparate ways Midori and Misaki are indeed terminally horny for each other reflects the characterizations at the core of the premise, but are also packed with personality. Misaki in particular is an absolute gift, being an endless source of top-tier reaction-face game, while bringing her own bevy of other quirks. The duo's chemistry powers inherent comedy in pretty much any interaction, particularly the absurd second chapter wherein Misaki coerces Midori into watching one of her videos together under the auspices of getting advice from a fellow performer. The ups and downs of that one honestly had me laughing to the point of tears for most of it.

A propensity for perfect comic synergy and some regularly inspired sight gags could almost be enough to carry a comedy series like this, but The Untouchable Midori-kun appears to have even higher ambitions beyond that. That's hardly a bad thing either, since while I was absolutely appreciating the zero-to-sixty unhinged aspects of this will-they-won't-they, there's an appreciable confidence in the book's efforts at developing an actual plot before the end of its first volume. The building blocks are already there, of course, since the premise itself is at least a little bit predicated on the serious idea of childhood friends reconnecting and realizing they actually don't know anything about each other anymore. But then the story goes down into some more intense places regarding those concepts of purity culture and fan expectations that it had previously played entirely for laughs, and makes them work too. It's a good thing that uncertainty at the beginning of this one clears up soon, since what follows turns out to be such a wildly entertaining, over-too-soon introduction to an outstandingly unique story.