Ranked #1454

Saruyama! (Manga)

I loved it. I mean the story line of, new girl transfers to school, guys like her, she falls in love is not that original but the characters are funny and make it worth while.

Haruna grew as a character and as a person.

The characters area ll likable and act the way you'd expect, there isn't any momental bad choices or anything so dramatic.

All in all I thought it was great and Masaru deserved that ending..and the fact that he was so short is what increases the manga originality

If I'm being honest I LOVE the fact that the funny friend guy is the protagonist instead of the usual, tall, dark, and hansome type. read more

I bought the first volume of "Monkey High" and I enjoyed it a lot! It was light, it was entertaining. And it had plenty of cute moments. The problem is, it doesn't really go anywhere. Sure, maybe in the remaining 3 volumes, something will happen, but from my perspective volumes 3-5 just rehash the same old stuff all the time. The characters don't seem to progress, and I just got bored with it.

Story - Our heroine changes schools - from some super-elite to a normal school, as her father (a former politician) has gone to jail. She is cold, and withdrawn, and doesn't interact with her classmates. But she warms up, mainly through the presence of Michuru, a small, monkey-like boy in her class. This manga pretty much follows the relationship of the beautiful girl, and the monkey boy, and their classmates. It is a nice enough story. It is certainly a gentle story. And, in a way, that is part of my proble. The first couple of volumes set them up, and then nothing happens!

Art - the art is fine. Michuru manages to both look like a monkey and a person at the same time, which is great. The art is not particularly memorable.

Characters - the characters are nice. The main ones are well drawn, and there are certainly more I would like to know more about (Haruka's dad for one thing!), but the minor characters, whilst present a lot, are kind of.. nothing. Which is a disappointment. I didn't feel that this was a manga where the sheer personality of the 2-3 main characters could drive it.

Enjoyment/Overall - as you can probably tell, I have been a bit disappointed with this. I felt like it had the potential to be a lovely story, but it just doesn't go anywhere. I only have the so much time and space to read the same thing happening again, and again, before I am going to move onto something else. And unfortunately, by v5, I just had had enough. Other reviews have expressed much more satisfaction, but I am more than ready to try something else. read more