Analog Drop – Manga Review

I am back with a full manga review. I’m not sure which I enjoy more. First impressions or full reviews. They each have their own charm. In this case, though, the full series is complete in two volumes so There’s no real point in just reviewing the first one. Or to be more accurate, I couldn’t put down Analog Drop after the first volume and just sailed right into the second one.

Not many people have heard of this manga so it’s my pleasure to share it with you today!

Why I Picked up Analog Drop

Actually, a good friend of mine gave me the series. Like for no reason. She just bought me a random present. One that I actually liked. That is so cool. I might have enjoyed the manga a bit more just because of that.

She bought it because it was the owner’s suggestion at the only manga bookstore in town. I can see why.

Official Summary

Hmmm…. I can only find a French summary. I did read this in French as well. Maybe there is no official English version out yet… Ok so here’s the machine-translated official summary.

Aku is not a good girl: very popular on Instagram, she lies as she breathes. Taking advantage of her success, being a hypocrite, she simultaneously dates three different men to take advantage of each of them … without ever giving them what they hope for in return. But one day, her life will change: after being stabbed in a street, she falls unconscious … and wakes up in the 80s! Her smartphone remains her only link with the world of today. Now invested with a strange mission that she must accomplish before the battery of her phone runs out, she will have to (willingly or by force) learn what altruism is!

Oh, you can feel the Google translate in there. But at least you can understand the paragraph.

My First Impression

Oh wow, updated classic shoujo art style! Cool. Also, I don’t understand half the French (from France) slang but it really fits this character.

What I liked

I grew to like it a lot. Let me get it out there right away, Analog Drop is a supernatural romance, kind of like QQ Sweeper, so it’s not my genre of choice but despite that, I had a great time with it.

The characters are fantastic. Pretty much all of them but I have a special place in my heart for Aku’s three goons. They rocked.

Even though the story takes place in the 80s and there is some social commentary, it’s not pouring it on thick with the nostalgia as American media seemed to be doing in the past years. It’s a welcomed change. Most of the references are kept to the background. While Aku does have a sort of culture clash at the fashion and lack of cell phones because she herself was born after the 80s it’s not framed as nostalgia and most of her observation would apply regardless of the era. It brought something fresh to setting a story in the 80s.

Also, Analog Drop is a lot like Back to the Future. I mean it. The characters are completely different but there are similarities in the plot and themes, and mostly the tome is the same. And well, that’s where my particular nostalgia lies. Not in the actual 80s but in the movie Back to the Future which used to play on TV all the time when I was a kid and I absolutely loved it.

Aku is sort of a jerk but she knows it. And the story doesn’t let her off the hook for being one. But she’s also a pretty smart girl, efficient and resourceful. I really liked that in a romance heroine and sadly I think I can count the examples on one hand without using all my fingers.

At the end of the day, it was a really sweet story and I think it would make an awesome anime movie.

Any drawbacks?

Well, for one thing, it seems that it’s just in French. I’m writing this in late August so maybe an English version has been announced but seeing as it’s not a new series, I would be surprised. I’m going to do something I don’t usually like doing. If you don’t read French or Japanese and don’t want to learn, you may want to consider a fan translation. There are a few available.

Since the story is fairly short, the characters didn’t get as much development as I would have liked. This is partly because I quite liked the characters and I wanted to know more and partly because they remain pretty superficial.

The “moral” of the story is sort of heavy-handed. I liked it. Since the entire narrative is mostly comedic in nature it didn’t feel too preachy to me but I can imagine some readers rolling their eyes.

Conclusion

As far as I’m concerned, Analog Drop was a fun and sweet little shoujo romance. It’s a genre I hardly ever seek out and I’m really glad I got to read this manga. I had a fun time with it. I would happily recommend it to any fans of the genre. Especially if you can read french.