Hitohito Tadano, after having a checklist of things he did embarrassingly during junior high school (popped his shirt collar, worked on a novel for two years and let his little sister read it to provide the best criticism ever*, used “bango” as a sound effect, to name a few of the 13 things he did), just wants to avoid standing out in high school. The problem is that on the very first day he meets Shoko Komi, who comes across as elegant, refined, and mature based on how she acts and presents herself, which is why her entire class reveres her.
He soon finds out that’s because she’s very bad at communicating.
It is due to Tadano figuring this out though that he is able to break through and actually understand who Komi really is. However, her shyness and poor communication skills clash with her goal to make 100 friends. But to get to 100, she’s gotta start with one. Tadano is her first friend, so time to make 99 more…with his help.
Komi Can’t Communicate is a series of fairly short chapters detailing the travails of Komi as she attempts to interact with others, but she fails immeasurably. The first encounter for Komi is with Tadano, who believes she’s weirdly angry with her. She’s not — she’s just very nervous. You wouldn’t be able to tell since her expressions and face come off as if you made her mad. This is very much a thing that’s consistent with this manga — people interpret her body language and the few words she’s able to say as one thing, but it’s Komi being unable to really respond due to nervousness.
That is one of the reasons most of the jokes land: between her actual expressions and what is actually happening, it makes for a pretty comedic experience. That said, I dunno if this would be as funny if the visuals were poor, so for that, the drawing style is a major contributor to Komi Can’t Communicate. We get to see the gamut of Komi’s faces — intimidating, timid, pure, and even yakuza style at one point — and that makes for a pretty funny read.
The characters that she meets, however, will certainly go a long way into whether or not this manga will continue to be a long term read. We already have Tadano, who thought he’d avoid making waves but was swallowed by the waves anyways — the additional characters range from Najima Osana, a boy that’s dressing in the girls’ school uniform (which at this point confuses Tadano, who knew Osana back in junior high as a boy) and is very sociable to Himiko Agari, who just gets very nervous…and also apparently thinks she’s beneath Komi to an excessive degree. Both of these characters, in some way, manage to provide a foil to Komi since their strengths actually clash with what they’re good at (for example Osana has never been able to get along with Komi), and how they act with Komi moving forward, alongside the other characters teased in the chapter 1 splash page, will enhance how this series turns out. How her classmates react to her also will determine the entertainment of the manga, though will point it’s hard to top her being nominated a god in just the first volume, so good luck future volumes.
But from Komi’s cute and also eerie celebrations as she makes friends to her even speaking (like 5 seconds maybe) on the phone to Tadano, there’s enough nuggets that are nice to make it more than just your standard comedy manga. If you’re looking for a unique comedy that delves into some standard high school tropes, then this is worth your time to read.
*The actual quote was “Worked on a novel for two years and received withering criticism when his little sister read it.”