モノクロのふたり

MONOCHROME NO FUTARI

Comedy

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
5
RELEASE
August 2, 2026
CHAPTERS
56

DESCRIPTION

A reliable office worker, Hanaichi Fudo, undoubtedly had a gift for the arts but gave up on his dreams of becoming an artist to lead a normal life. One day, his senior at work, Saori Wakaba, asked Hanaichi for help in writing her manga. Will he take up the pen again?! Written by Yosuke Matsumoto, author of "The Lady Becomes an Idol", a unique new take on aspiring manga artists!

(Source: MANGA Plus)

Note: Includes 13 extra chapters.

CAST

Saori Wakaba
Hanaichi Fudou
Hanako Barazono
Iroha Harugana
Kokoro Miake
Natsuna Fudou
Tanaka

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Soulwarfare
70/100
Another great series that unfortunately got AXED

This series had such a great premise, art style and characters. The first notably great thing about this series was the fact that the main characters were adults. Seeing a duo who just going through the motion before deciding to work together and chase their dreams is bittersweet stuff! The art style is wonderfully distinct and during certain panels where the author is illustrating the massive talents of the main characters, are incredibly! The artist is massively talented and their exploration of manga creation was interesting.

This series was clearly meant to go on for longer considering the rivals introduced, the childhood friend and the slight romance tease between the main couple that would have been explored further if the series continued.

Unfortunately, I think what ultimately led to series getting the AXE was the direction it went in. I found what initially hooked me on the series was when it focused on Fudo and Wakaba's struggle to get a manga serialized while developing the relationship between the two. The core idea of reading about two people trying to chase their dreams despite being a full-working adult, was what resonated with people the most. However, the series pivots when it starts having a supporting character who is a successful mangaka, Barazono, suddenly become involved in the plot. She ends up becoming more of a main character and taking away screen time from the our lovable duo. Now don't get me wrong, Barazono is a fun character with a great character design. The issue is that she was better as a mentor supporting character than being actually involved with helping make the manga with the duo and turning the team into a trio.Our main duo start feeling like supporting characters in their own story.

It doesn't help that the series starts to pivot away from themes of adult struggles and pursuing your dreams to more about the techniques behind making manga. It started to feel more like an educational manga as we learn about how to storyboard, how to make the panels flow well, readability and ways of drawing. I feel a lot of readers just lost interest when it started exploring this because it wasn't why they started the series in the first place. Sadly, I do think the author shot themselves in the foot.

Compare this series to Bakuman, another series that also explores a duo trying to get into the manga industry. Bakuman was incredibly story driven with rivals, drama, romance and an actual end-goal to keep readers reading. Bakuman does do some education exploration of manga making and serilization politics. However, what it does better is that all of these education elements don't overshadowed the whole story and are even used for the sake of drama. This is sadly what Monochrome Days fails to do. Once it pivots, it is now an educational series with a lack of drama.

At least the ending isn't atrocious but it really felt like there was so much potential left...
I hope the author learns from the mistakes made on this series and creates something truly amazing next time because they have a lot of talent!

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