"A fun beginning, but alas, the author can't keep it up..." by Mark Carson (USA) on Mar 2, 2004

If you've seen the anime, you know what to expect, right? And if you haven't yet seen the anime, it probably means you're not really interested. But anyway...

Kintaro Oe ("golden boy" Oe) has learned all there is to learn in school, and now is out to learn in the "school of life" through a succession of short-term jobs. Somehow pretty girls and mild perversion always seem to get involved. It's fun stuff, albeit a tad misogynistic at times.

The story direction changes a bit starting in the latter half of volume 2, becoming sort of a meditation on love, passion, and economics, with Kintaro more off to the side. Unfortunately, it declines precipitously in quality as it goes on; I found even the end of volume 3 a bit disappointing. There was some renewed promise in volumes 4 and 5, but alas, the end of 5 kind of dashed any hopes of a sustained revival. Just stick to the first few volumes, and you'll get the best of it.

The Dynamic edition is flipped, but fairly cleanly done. Kintaro's notebook entries are basically all there and legible. (They did skimp a couple of times, but were far more diligent than I think I would have been!)