Review of a Good Manga “Quietly Beautiful Glaring Miss Yoriko (Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san, はんなりギロリの頼子さん)”

2024年3月6日大山悠二

The story is about a Kyoto lady with a scary look but is kind-hearted, helping people from other places.
Each episode is standalone, making it easy to read in your spare time.
With local Kyoto trivia and general knowledge as themes in every episode, it’ll make you want to visit Kyoto.
The series has already concluded and has been adapted into a live-action drama in the Kansai region (where Kyoto prefecture belongs to).

Though a Setting as a Divorced Mid-30s Woman Running a Tobacco Shop, It’s Cute

The protagonist, Yoriko, is a character with a complicated background.
The manga is not specifically for men but not entirely for women either.
Creating a likable and cute character from a divorced mid-30s woman running a tobacco shop, appealing to a wide range of readers, is challenging.
Yet, Yoriko is adorable and very charming.

Kyoto Trivia is Quite Niche

This manga is enjoyable just by looking at the trivia about Kyoto.
Real ways to identify maiko (apprentice geisha), mnemonics for street names, hidden tourist spots, and more.
Yukiko Asano Sensei, the author, hails from Kyoto City and packs the manga with genuine insider knowledge of a true Kyoto resident.

Learning About the Malicious Side of Kyoto People

Kyoto residents are often stereotyped as being spiteful and insidious, with a unique way of delivering backhanded compliments.
Probably such people do exist. In the story, characters of this nature appear frequently.
It’s fascinating. It’s like observing animals at a zoo, but I’d like to meet them at least once.

One of the Best Among Regional Gag Mangas

“Regional gag mangas” were quite popular for a time, with stories set exclusively in certain regions or exaggerated a hundredfold.
This manga, however, is reasonably honest (probably) about the real situations but still hilarious! Depicting true stories generates a sense of closeness and makes you want to visit the places.
I hope to see more of such regional topic mangas in the future.

[1]Yukiko Asano, Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san Volume 1, 2016, Cover
[2]Yukiko Asano, Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san Volume 1, 2016, p16
[3]Yukiko Asano, Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san Volume 1, 2016, p48
[4]Yukiko Asano, Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san Volume 1, 2016, p153

大山悠二

31 years old, single. I have been reading manga mainly as an escape from reality since my junior high school days. The genres I'm most familiar with are 'Moe' and 'Isekai' series from the 2000s.

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