Shounen Shinkaron is a very cute manga by Toshigi Kusanagi-sensei. It was published in Crimson Comics, and has only one single and unique volume. Don’t worry, it has a sequel, Shounen Shinkaron Plus, which has 4 volumes for now. By the way, Shounen Shinkaron means “The Theory of Boys Evolution”.

It’s the story of Sana, 14, a boy who tries to find his place in his father’s shadow. Because Sana’s father, 29 years old Naoki, is also known as Asou Mizuki, a top idol who is supposed to be 16, Sana has to hide his identity. The task is hard since Sana is his father’s perfect portrait, and people tend to think Sana = Mizuki, to the point that when his father can’t go to a show he’s been invited to, Sana often plays his role. Moreover, Naoki has quite a tough character when he’s not Mizuki. Sana has to cope with this situation. Even though he doesn’t show anything, Naoki loves his son and tries to help him, in his own way.

Before I could buy the manga, I had bought Kusanagi-sensei’s artbook, Credo. And before I bought Credo, I had seen a few pictures on the net, particularly the front cover: it was love at first sight. I love Kusanagi Toshiki’s art, I had to buy the artbook, I had to buy the manga. I don’t regret my 35 Euros spent in these 2 items, and I don’t think I ever will. I expected something quite different in the story though, since I had collected very few information about Shounen Shinkaron, I thought Naoki would be the hero, and seeing all the pictures in Credo, I expected Sana to be about 3…

Characters

	Sana is a 14 years old Senior High school boy, quite normal a teen, if his 29 years old father wasn’t pretending to be a 16 yo idol, and if he didn’t look like his father’s twin. Poor Sana begins the story with psychological troubles: he hates his face, because of its similarity with his father’s. People tend to mix Sana with his famous father. It would be rather easy to explain his school mates that he’s not an idol, had he not to keep his existence secret. Why? Because since his father is pretending to be 16, how could he have a 14yo son? Sana isn’t supposed to exist, and a very few people know his existence.
	Sana’s father is the famous idol Asou Mizuki, whose real name is Fujisaki Naoki. Naoki became father at 15, and Sana doesn’t know his mother nor his fater’s story. Mizuki “is” a cute young idol who smiles a lot, with a quiet personality. But Naoki is completely different: he smokes and drinks a lot, he shouts, he hits people etc… He would rather look like Umeda Hokuto in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. Poor Sana ^^; But don't think that naoki is evil, he hides his true feelings most of the time and he's a little awkward, that's all.
	Sugino (alias Sugi) is Naoki’s manager (or should I say Mizuki’s?). He has also been his friend since school and is always here to help him or Sana. Seems he even took care of Sana very often (because of Naoki’s hard temper, his lazyness, and even because of his work). Sugino is of the cheerful type, though not overly genki. He’s a funny character. ^.^

When you’re used to Hana to Yume manga, where every kanji has its hiragana written, you’ll find it harder to understand Shounen Shinkaron, where hiragana are not used often. It’s also harder to find words in the dictionary… The manga isn’t very difficult to understand though.