Story: 6/10
The story itself is fairly straightforward and inspiring, following Kurosawa as he seeks to become more accomplished in the eyes of others. The storytelling is funny and smart, and the story has some thematic depth as well. The main issue comes from the fact that, like many shonen manga, it follows a general plot structure of the hero getting his ass kicked, recovering, and then coming back stronger than before. That would be fine, except in Kurosawa's case these recovery periods are long multi-chapter stretches of him wallowing in his own misery. The writing is sharp and pretty often witty, but the manga is not philosophical enough or entertaining enough to be able to sustain momentum through these periods, and they drag. If you're willing to put up with that, the manga is very enjoyable, but it's something that should be warned about.
Art: 7/10
It's nothing special, but it's effective and unique and funny and gets the job done. The slapstick moments and shots of Kurosawa off his ass drunk are particularly funny.
Character: 6/10
Kurosawa himself is a likeable character, pitiful but sort of admirable in the way he continually strives in the face of failure, and amusing. That being said, he isn't a strong enough character to retain the reader's interest through long chapters of miserable internal monologues that are essentially the same throughout the entire manga. The character's growth is essentially the same repeated pattern through each arc, like Ash from Pikachu ditching all his Pokemon at the end of each season. This makes reading the manga kind of like watching the Endless 8 season of Haruhi after a while, and weighs down Kurosawa's own strengths.
Enjoyment: 8/10
Although the story is burdened by overlong pauses between action and internal monologues not justified by their depth, it is a lot of fun watching Kurosawa screw himself over during absurd schemes to gain his the respect of his peers, and the story is funny and the characters likeable if you can forget about the fact you've read this scene a couple times before.
Overall: 7/10
Nothing exceptional, but if you're into shonen and want something a little more mature, or are looking for an uplifting story with an especially pathetic character going through a journey of growth, you might want to check it out.
