A dead end job in your 30s, a relationship that seems to have a predetermined expiry date and a boring life. Until one day when everything changes. i really enjoyed the concept of this book, if I had to make a comment I would say maybe reevaluate the cover art.

This was a nice read about a woman who feels stuck in life and takes up skateboarding. I liked the characters and related to their experiences. The only problem was that I couldn't help but feel that there were too many characters introduced in what was the first volume.

Great artwork and a good beginning to this series, in which a girl questions the hum drum existence of her life, her job and her non-committing boyfriend. When she sees some skateboarders one night something ignites a long forgotten passion in her and she begins to realise that life is so much more.

Copy provided by Kidansha Comics via Netgalley it exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you Kodansha Comics!

"Ako finds herself coasting along, watching her twenties pass her by. Work at the video rental store, see her boyfriend, repeat... Her days are becoming an indistinguishable, listless blur. Until she encounters a skateboarder practicing a trick--and she's a girl! For some reason, Ako feels a pull toward the sport. Slowly, all the dreams and ambitions she gave up on and the futures she imagined for herself come flooding back, and Ako resolves to change herself now, before it's too late. But is it ever really too late to discover something new?"

A graphic novel for readers who enjoy stories about women in their late 20s and 30s still figuring out life and finding new hobbies! I'm excited to see where the story goes in the next volume. The art style is also cute!!

This is a perfect read for those who enjoyed Princess Jellyfish.

I loved the art and style of this book. As someone who is thirty, I relate to the character in this book and could easily validate the feelings in this book. It also was very inspiring to me.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this manga. This manga was one that was interesting but confusing at the same time as far as the plot is concerned. However, I think I enjoyed learning about the different aspects of skateboarding and how a variety of people can discover something and enjoy it. Because of these points, I have to give this a 3 out of 5 stars

The first volume of Sketchy compiles the first five chapters of Makihiroshi's josei skateboarding manga.

The manga portrays a group of young adult women who are not quite satisfied with where they are in life, but are not quite sure where they want to be either. They decide to try something thing new and different by taking up skateboarding lessons.

This first volume is rather slow and is mostly just introducing the women and how they get into those first beginner skateboarding lessons. The art is not that aesthetically pleasing, but fits well with the theme and tone of the story. However, I found the situations the characters are in relatable and I liked the pages introducing real life girl skaters in between chapters.

This manga volume is out already and I may check out the next volume to see how the characters progress and the story develops.

I think I missed out on this read. I was very bored and ended up skipping to the end. I had trouble getting hooked on the subject and the characters. I had the impression that everything was skimmed over, that I didn't really understand the connection between things, etc. I didn't really like the drawings either.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC! Sketchy is certainly a very interesting start to the story that will come over time: a thirty-year-old girl discovering herself, who still hasn't understood who she is and what she likes, is one of my personal favorite themes. The drawings are really beautiful, this first volume flows slower than I would have imagined, but Ako as a character is really interesting and how things will evolve for her.

Ako is a aimless young woman working a dead end job. She has a boyfriend, but he won't commit and she doesn't really know what to do with herself. In her mid twenties, most of her friends have a family or exciting careers. So when she sees a group of young women skate boarding and doing amazing tricks, she is mesmerized. They seem so strong and determined. Drawn to the idea of getting to know them and becoming a skater, she enrolls in lessons and starts learning about skate culture. This is a story of self empowerment, and it even includes short bios of real professional female skaters.

Loved this story and the illustration throughout. Now, I am not thirty but I still fill as if I could relate to the main character. She found something she loved and put her heart into it. This story had some truths that needed to be told and kept me wanting more. Thank you to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this

At first I thought Sketchy was josei, but this is actually seinen. The series is six books long and about skateboarding - women skateboarding (!). Ako Kawasumi works at a video rental store and life passes by basically. She has a boyfriend, but the guy isn't too keen on having a serious relationship. Everything changes when Ako sees this girl skateboarding and doing tricks and now she wants to try it herself. She wants to change her life and have something to herself. I love it how passive Ako is at the beginning and how finding something you like changes you respectively. The slow tempo of the manga is wonderful and this feels so adult in a sense. The only thing that bothers me is the "let's learn skateboarding" approach we so often see in sports series. It feels detached somehow when the context is so different.

The art looks interesting and somewhat different. Even crude at times perhaps? The art compliments the atmosphere, which highlights the story amazingly well. I love sports series and this is good, but perhaps I wanted a little more? Less "this is cool" and more normal (adult) life when it comes to skateboarding.

I went into this completely blind and had absolutely no idea what to expect when I requested it on Netgalley.

But it’s great!

It’s about women in their 30s starting skateboarding for the first time and I could completely understand everything they felt before, during, and after, because adults are so often discouraged from trying new things because “they’re for kids”, or “you should’ve started when you were younger”, but adults deserve to have hobbies and to /start/ new hobbies at any age, and this manga fully captures this!

I will 100% be continuing reading this series!

My main criticism is the cover to be honest. It just doesn’t work for me, and as I say, I knew hardly anything about this prior to reading, and that can partially be attributed to a cover that doesn’t tell you anything.

A solid start. This volume does a good job introducing the main characters. The mangaka is able to capture the anxiety and struggle of not being where you want in life very well. There are some double page spreads in here that are really neat. I'm excited to see how the story will continue.

أعرف إنها راح تكون من مفضلاتي !

قصة عن ثلاث نساء يرميهن القدر (نوعاً ما) في طرق بعضهن، يجمعهن صف تعلم التزلج بالألواح للمبتدئين (ما متأكدة من اسمه بالعربي بس هو الـskateboarding) واللي يظهر وكأنه - بصورة ما - مهربهن الوحيد من حيواتهن (الجامدة … الأسوء من إنهن يقدرن يواجهنها بكل خساراتهن وأخطائهن وضياعهن) … بكل بساطة نوعي من القصص تماماً !! نساء يكونن روابط قوية مع بعضهن البعض ويجتمعن على "هواية" جديدة عليهن، يكبر شغفهن بها وتعلقهن وحبهن لعبض مع مرور الأيام ؟ ذا غير إنهن يتعلمن بسبب هالعلاقات (وهالشغف اليديد) كيف يحبن حياتهن مجدداً ؟ كيف يعيشن ؟ أوه راح أشبع جداً جداً !

[ذا غير إنه لإحداهن تاريخ يبدو وكأنه فيه يوري 🤭 متحمسة جداً ]

The manga is about skateboarding. More especifically women skateboarding. And that's why we follow a 31 year old woman who works at a store and has got nothing exciting going on in her life and how she slowly starts to get interested in skateboarding. She also pikes her coworkers interest and starts to like the sport too. The other woman is not related to this two, an office worker, but their storylines will meet.

Overall a nice start of a different sports series with a not common sport and adult women being the main characters

I was having so much fun reading this that I started frantically swiping when I realised it was over to try and find more. My only complaint is that it’s not long enough!

As someone who picked up skateboarding later in life, this reignited that passion and made me miss my board. To see someone go to those beginners lessons
- something I was too scared to do- was very comforting.

I loved the addition of real woman skaters and their @‘s being incorporated into the art, so that the readers can go support those amazing skaters. Its just so uplifting.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this.

Full review for Booklist Magazine

This book might be more for adult audiences as the protagonist is an adult who is looking for a purpose in life outside of her mundane job at a video store. She decides to pick up skateboarding as a way to find some fulfillment after seeing some female skateboarders filming tricks and longing for that kind of excitement in her own life. Teen readers may still find enjoyment but most might not connect with the protagonist's struggle, having not reached that stage in their life just yet.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

This digital ARC was obtainable via NetGalley for an honest review.

I related a lot to "Sketchy". I have a few more years until I will hit thirty and I have been wanting to learn how to roller skate since I was a teen. This manga makes you feel like it's never too late to learn a new skill. I really like that all of the characters are in different walks of life, but they somehow found themselves yearning to learn how to skate. This has definitely given me inspiration to bring out my Imapla skates!

Ako leads an aimless life. She works a dead-end job at a video rental store, she's dating a man who seemingly doesn't care about her beyond getting him the title of "boyfriend" and just feels aimless. Then she sees a female skateboarder practicing tricks and immediately becomes enamored. This story is pretty slow-paced, with it mostly being about Ako slowly learning about skateboarding. The story completely stops its story momentum by suddenly showing us these two other women who learn about skateboarding. I get that they're introducing these other two women, likely to make both of them and Ako become friends later on. But the sudden stop of Ako's point of view and pivot to these other two characters really throws off the story flow. It feels like Ako's story was temporarily cut off, to suddenly start two other plotlines. The art is pretty good. It's not my favorite style, but it's easy to read, and nicely done.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!