Chica Umino (Jap: 羽海野チカ) is a Japanese mangaka. Her real name is not disclosed, "Umino Chica" is a pen name.
She began work as a product designer and illustrator. Umino has a unique drawing style, listing Studio Ghibli amongst her influences, and her characters are remarkably well-developed.
Her most famous series to date is Hachimitsu to Clover (English name: Honey and Clover), a 'slice of life' manga series which debuted in 2000 in Shueisha's manga magazine, CUTiEcomic. The series won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2003 and was nominated for the Tezuka Culture Prize and an award from the Japan Media Arts Festival. It was also adapted into an animated television series in 2005, a live-action movie in 2006 and two individual live-action TV series in 2008.
Her ongoing recent series is Sangatsu no Lion (English name: March comes in like a lion), which began serialization in 2007. The series won several important prizes including: the Manga Taisho prize and Kodansha Manga Prize (general audience) in 2011, the Tezuka Osamushi Cultural Prize in 2014, and the Bunkacho Media Geijutsusai Manga bumon in 2021.
Umino has also provided the illustration for the 2009 anime series Eden of the East by Kenji Kamiyama, as well as 'Tobira o Akete' and the Glass Heart series, including 'Boukensha-tachi', 'Netsu no Shiro' and 'Love Way'.
I was ready to dismiss this volume as filler material. The first 12 chapters were not clicking with me, and don't get me wrong, it was still pretty solid storytelling from the author. It also has a beautiful cover of Hina as a bakeneko. I thought it was an aberration after enjoying and highly rating the last several chapters. That was until the last chapter which was over-sized. It was a beautiful done chapter, the essence of what I was looking for in this title. It was the natural sequel to that sublime scene in Kyoto from volume 6. 5 stars.
Es el torneo amateur de shogi de los trabajadores, que coincide con el último festival del colegio de Rei. Y los sentimientos de Hina hacia Rei afloran... Qué pasará?
Okay - so those annoying characters I was so worried would eat up the plot several volumes ago? The sister and her violent boyfriend? They’ve totally faded into the background! And when they do appear, they’re all right! Plus, abusive manipulative dad appears and the characters fight him off?! Go go go!
The characters that the story does focus on have all grown on me a lot, and the author does an admirable job of following shogi for awhile, then following the character’s lives, and then mixing the two. (kind of like the “hot / cold / hot / cold” food loop the characters love to get stuck in… “shogi / character development” is a pretty solid loop to go back and forth with, too.)
I was just thinking, last January I got pretty into a manga about rakugo, of all things. (To the point where reading it made me remember some of the rakugo stories, a feat that any number of literature classes never accomplished…) And this January I’m into this manga about shogi. Manga is so great, isn’t it?! Sucks you into all sorts of stories, lives, characters, activities! You name it, it’s probably out there.
Non mi aspettavo questo Rei organizzatore di incontri amorosi. Ma come non capirlo, ci teniamo tutti a vedere Akari finalmente supportata da un uomo e consorte.
Che sorpresa ritrovare i personaggi di H&C! Amo i crossover di questo tipo tra personaggi nati dallo stesso autore.
This is far and away my favorite manga, and this newest volume more and more goodness. The only downside is I read it all in an hour, so now i have to wait a while year for one more hour of bliss. Still worth it.
BEST VOLUME 💕💕💕 Many scenes in this manga make me smile and make my day brighter. Thanks for hardwork Umino_sensei, thanks for making this 'colorfull' manga 💕💕💕