This manga has a penguin in it.

Emperor to Issho is wonderful, yet wholly unremarkable. It is unique, yet ordinary. Charming, yet standard. It is a manga full of personality, sincerity, and creativity, yet there is nothing particularly special about it, save for one aspect. Based off of what little I've written so far, your mental image of Emperor to Issho might be one that is uncertain - uncertain of its quality, its style, and its nature. Though there is one thing that is certain:

This manga has a penguin in it.

For a brief introduction, Emperor to Issho is about a high school girl who finds an Emperor Penguin squished into her fridge and decides to adopt it, with most chapters focusing on life with a penguin, which is native to Antarctica, in your average Japanese home.

Emperor to Issho basks in the warm glow of the ordinary. Despite its unrealistic premise, the manga, for the most part, is extremely grounded and merely consists of a penguin doing penguin things, with some goofy off-beat antics as would be expected with a comedy slice-of-life manga. Emperor, that being the penguin, is in most aspects a completely normal penguin who is also a pet, with the majority of the cast quickly accepting the sudden existence of this penguin. The manga being so ordinary helps to convey a feeling that I personally found really cosy, and coupled with its adorably simple art style, I think this characteristic works in its favour.

I believe it's also worth mentioning that the manga is also generally pretty funny. The scenarios it sets up are, as you'd expect, pretty normal and follow suite with what one would expect from a comedy manga with a penguin (Besides Emperor being materialised within a fridge). There are some clever gags here and there which have gotten some chuckles out of me, but there's just something about this goofy looking penguin standing around minding its own business that is infinitely funny to me. I love this little fella like you wouldn't believe.

What may be its greatest strength is how secure the manga is of its own identity. Emperor to Issho is a manga about family life with a penguin. It never strays away from what it originally intends, providing the reader with a nostalgic feeling of comfort. It is a short and sweet manga, and one that may not take up a lot of vacancy within your mind days after you finish it, but its just an adorable read that will leave you satisfied once you finish it, like a nap after a filling lunch.

Emperor to Issho is exactly what it needed to be. It doesn't break the mold or reshape the genre in any way, it's just a cute little manga about a funny penguin. It doesn't shy away from being heartwarming, yet it never becomes overbearing. The author wanted to show how adorable emperor penguins are, and he succeeded. Leave all your worries behind, don't sweat the details, and just enjoy this regular old life with Emperor. Some things don't make sense, but who cares about any of that when you have a pet penguin?

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Thank you for reading.