After reeling over the fact that Sekitou Elergy will likely never see a finished translation in the future, I beckoned myself to quest for something—anything—of similar value. What does Sekitou Elergy have that sets it apart? Of course! A delinquent girl! With a strangely fierce determination, I scoured MyAnimeList for a manga that featured a delinquent girl and a decent number of chapters. Not overwhelming, mind you, just decent enough to quench my thirst for cuties with a bite. It was here that I found a bit of an odd premise, a premise that would lead me into reading a manga called Hazuki Kanon wa Amakunai.

It features a delinquent girl, odd characters—one in particular that enjoys filming everything, including sleeping delinquent girls—and a high school setting. The manga cover was cute and it was finished with a chapter count near forty. I was set. For the first twenty-something chapters, I was entranced with the delinquent girl and her misadventures with developing her relationship with others. I found the manga cutesy and sweet and entirely enjoyable, only to have the scanlation stop just three chapters before it ended. Time had passed and my mindset had changed by the time I had gotten back to it. As of last night, I finished the manga in a quick spurt before shoving off for my third-shift job. It was then that I realized something:

This manga is kind of bad.

I should probably chalk it up to my insane desire to fill the void that Sekitou Elergy left me upon reaching the end of its scanlation, but Hazuki Kanon is a pretty bland story with semi-likable characters. It takes advantage of every trope that manga enthusiasts look for in their 100% innocent, totally unperturbed rom-com high school fodder. The term “delinquent” has a lot more meaning than having a gruff attitude and skipping classes and “getting into fights (that are never shown).” If anything, Sekitou Elergy is the only manga I’ve ever read to really get a “delinquent girl” right. All others try to angle them to be a misunderstood, justifiably shut-off pity case who just want a friend/romance. Why can’t delinquents just be cranky and violent for the sake of being cranky and violent, with their caring emotions showing from more than a cute boy greeting them? I suppose the idea of having the main characters being as squeaky-clean as possible is too much to overcome.

The manga is mediocre in almost every aspect; art, humor, character development, and especially story. It’s cliché to the accented “e,” and never shows any interest in setting itself apart, except for perhaps the absurdity of the characters. Then again, a lot of characters in comedies are absurd now. It’s a harmless read, which is the biggest compliment I can give it. If not for Sekitou Elergy (which I feel I’ve brought up more than the actual subject of this post), I would have never read Hazuki Kanon. Whether this is a blessing or a lazy excuse to add more to my completed manga list is up in the air.

The rating for this title and all others can be found on MyAnimeList.