I'm No Angel (manga)

I'm No Angel (天使なんかじゃない) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Ribon from 1991 to 1994, with its chapters collected in eight volumes. An original video animation (OVA), animated by Group TAC and directed by Hiroko Tokita, was released in 1994.

Plot

Midori Saejima is a first-year high school student at the newly established Hijiri Gakuen. She is persuaded by her classmates to run for student council, and she becomes eager to apply once she realizes that Akira Sudō, a mysterious boy to whom she is attracted, is also running for student council. Akira and Midori are elected president and vice-president respectively, along with Bunta Kōno, Yūko Mamiya, and Shūichi Takigawa as other officers.

Though Midori and Akira quickly develop a close relationship, Midori learns that he has been romantically attracted to Hiroko Maki, her favorite art teacher, since middle school. Akira reveals that while Hiroko remains an important person in his life, she is already romantically involved with his tutor, Masashi Sakamoto. Akira eventually reciprocates Midori's feelings and they begin dating. However, after Hiroko and Masashi break up, Midori suggests to Akira that they too should break up once she notices he is unable to prioritize her over Hiroko.

After their break-up, Midori begins dating Ken Nakagawa, a musician and friend from middle school, but she realizes she cannot love anyone but Akira and ends their relationship. Before she is able to reconcile with Akira, he suddenly takes a three-month leave of absence from school to search for Masashi abroad. While traveling in France, Akira calls Midori and admits he is in love with her, and the two resolve their relationship. Midori later learns Akira decided to look for Masashi in order to find closure with his complicated feelings towards Hiroko, as well as the fact that he had discovered Masashi is his half-brother.

Once Akira locates Masashi in India, the two return to Japan. Hiroko and Masashi get married and decide to travel abroad, with Hiroko quitting her teaching job. Akira decides to enter a preparatory college to eventually take over his father's company, while the rest of their classmates make plans for after high school graduation. Midori decides to enter a 4-year art college and eventually becomes an art teacher at Hijiri Gakuen.

Characters

• Midori Saejima (冴島 翠)
• Midori is a happy-go-lucky high school student who is popular among her peers and is seen as an "angel" by them. She falls in love with Akira on her first day of high school and runs for student council, eventually becoming vice president. Yazawa wrote Midori to be a popular girl at school to appeal to her reader demographic. She wrote Midori to be a "kind" and "good girl" comparable to an "angel", but she also aimed to depict her as a "human girl" where she has moments where she is naturally not like that to avoid making her appealing solely to her readers.
• Akira Sudō (須藤 晃)
• Akira becomes the president if the student council and stands out among the student body with his pompadour hairstyle. After creating a "refreshing" male lead for her previous work, Marine Blue no Kaze ni Dakarete, Yazawa decided to create Akira as the opposite, with him having a "tough" but "kind" personality with a "dark side." Yazawa also wanted to draw a character with a pompadour hairstyle, having been a fan of Eikichi Yazawa and James Dean.
• Bunta Kōno (河野 文太)
• The secretary of the student council. His nickname is "Bun" (文ちゃん). He is from class D.
• Yūko Mamiya (麻宮 裕子)
• Mamiya is the secretary of the student council with Bunta Kōno. Midori nicknames her "Mamirin" (まみりん) due to her resemblance to Marilyn Monroe. Yazawa considers Mamiya to be Midori's foil due to their opposite personalities, and despite them clashing, they eventually become friends. She has been in love with Takigawa since middle school.[3]
• Shūichi Takigawa (瀧川 秀一)
• Takigawa is the treasurer of the student council. He is very popular among the girls in his school because of his good looks and friendly personality. Midori nicknames him "Takigawaman" (タキガワマン) as he reminds her of a superhero.
• Shino Harada (原田 志乃)
• She was Shūichi's girlfriend and Mamiya's rival. She is seen as an idol by the boys in Hijiri. She is jealous of Mamiya and doubts about Shūichi's fidelity. This will cause them to break up.
• Hiroko Maki (牧 博子)
• Art teacher at Midori's school. She is popular among her students due to her beauty and kind personality. She is in a long-distance relationship with Masashi Sakamoto. Not seeing the love of her life makes her reach her limit but the couple finally gets married in the 4th volume.
• Masashi Sakamoto (坂本 将志)
• Akira's tutor before high school. An avid artist, he leaves Hiroko in Japan and travels around the world (mostly France) for his art. It is revealed in the story that Masashi is Akira's half-brother.
• Ken Nakagawa (中川 ケン)
• Midori's friend from junior-high. Ken is a musician who dreams of becoming a star. He first appears in volume 3, when Midori meets up with some of her old friends on her birthday. He is often mentioned in another of Yazawa's works, Neighborhood Story, as the character Tsutomu bears an uncanny resemblance to him. Ken was inspired by a boy who Yazawa saw pass by her on the street.[4]
• Tomoko Kawakami (川上 友子)
• A student of class A. Her nickname is "Tonko" (トン子).
• Kayo (カヨ)
• A student of class A. She is calm and takes pride in her soft skin.

Media

Reception

By June 2019, the manga had over 10 million copies in circulation.[23] The series ranked fifth in a survey conducted by Oricon on the top ten manga series.[24]

Further reading

External links