Scumbag Loser
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
High-schooler Masahiko Murai has exactly one thing going for him: a keen sense of smell. Not exactly the sort of defining trait that helps someone become one of the popular kids, especially given the malodorous scents he finds particularly appealing. But that's okay. He's set the bar pretty low in terms of his expectations. He doesn't have to be cool or popular -- or even liked. Just as long as he isn't the biggest loser, he can get by.
As luck would have it, there's always been one rung lower on his class's social ladder, but when the "biggest loser" gets a girlfriend, a panicked Masahiko pulls a name out of his past -- Haruka Mizusawa -- playing the long-distance relationship card in a desperate attempt to keep his worst nightmare from becoming reality. Naturally everyone's skeptical, but when Haruka shows up at school the next day and backs up Masahiko's story, their skepticism is quickly laid to rest. You'd think that Masahiko was off the hook...
But what he failed to share with his classmates was that Haruka actually died years earlier...so who's turned up wearing her face, and why is she playing along with him at all...? Masahiko's about to learn that there are far more horrifying fates than being the biggest loser in school...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Masahiko Murai is a judgmental and bizarre high-schooler with an acute sense of smell a gift he uses to fetishize people's foul scents and no redeeming qualities. When Masahiko lies to his unhygienic classmate, Yamada, about having a girlfriend for competition's sake, things become strange. The "pretend" girlfriend, Haruka Mizusawa, transfers into his class the next day. Just one problem: the real Haruka has been long dead and Masahiko knows it. In order to avoid becoming the biggest loser among his peers, Masahiko strikes up a deal with the fake Haruka, unaware of the danger she poses. This setup seems a promising springboard, but the plot soon devolves into a series of forced events through implausible plot conveniences. Yamaguti's generic and uninspired artwork does nothing to rescue it. A cast of unlikable characters, poor writing, and forgettable art gives this manga a sour aroma.