Iruka-chan Yoroshiku (いるかちゃんヨロシク) is a sports/romance shoujo manga by Masaru Urakawa. It ran in the mid-80s for 7 volumes, though I’m not sure of the exact timeline. There was a first series of 4 volumes, then it got renewed for another 3 and ended. The story is simple: A Wild Transfer Student Appears! If you’ve read manga for any length of time you must have encountered the Wild Transfer Student type. They’re cool and unusual and good at everything and somehow they get away with doing all kinds of wacky things that a normal student would never dream of. Wish fulfillment at its finest.
It’s the same with Iruka-chan Yoroshiku, where by virtue of being the principal’s granddaughter and extremely good at sports in a school that values athletics, Iruka Kisaragi basically runs roughshod over school rules and basic moral decency all in one go. In chapter 1, for example she antagonizes the school bully and not only refuses to apologize but actually physically attacks her and her lackeys. Oh sure there are all kinds of mitigating circumstances and Iruka herself isn’t a bad person, but she ranks rather low on the likeability scale as far as protagonists go.
The supporting cast is similarly bland. They may start out with their own agendas and personalities but by volume 3 the whole school is virtually a huge Iruka fanclub. Which isn’t all that strange, since Kurashika Academy explicitly values athletic ability above everything else. It makes for rather boring reading though.
What about the romance? It’s all right if you like foregone conclusions. And if you like the fact that Haruumi Yamamoto, the main guy, is basically Mr. Perfect. While he does show a few prideful and competitive traits early on, these are stripped away quickly leaving him as more or less Ken to Iruka’s Barbie. Bleh.
Well, then how is Iruka-chan Yoroshiku as a sports manga? Not bad at all, actually. I picked it up because it was labeled “baseball” on Mangaupdates, but as of volume 3 the only thing they have played is girls’ softball. It’s probably a mislabeling caused by someone who just flipped through the raws and didn’t actually read it. The softball and soccer games Iruka takes part in are moderately interesting and easy to follow, albeit rather heavy on the generic sports drama. But since Iruka-chan Yoroshiku is a romance/character manga and the romance and characters are both rather flat, it’s worth a quick read but not much more than that.
