Ranked #584

Hayate x Blade (Manga)

Let’s start with plot. When I heard that it consisted of an all-girls boarding school and a sword fighting tournament, it all sounded like an excuse for yuri and action scenes. Which is cool, I guess, but I wasn’t expecting much when I picked it up at the bookstore and seriously debated whether it was worth paying for.

It surpassed my expectations. The story hasn’t shown itself to be horribly complex or original yet, but it has its merits. It is completely littered with jokes and puns, and very enjoyable to read, and I’m not even a comedy sort of person. Oh, and yes, yuri implications and action scenes. :)

The art was great and consistent throughout. I recognized it from Strawberry Shake Sweet, also by the same mangaka. From the front cover to the back, it’s great to look at and fits the mood.

The characters all vary greatly in personality and character design, so you won’t meet the annoying problem of having difficulty telling them apart in this manga, so there really isn’t much thinking involved. Just casual reading, highly enjoyable.

I don’t regret buying it at all. If you’re into yuri (or don’t mind slight amounts of it… because so far, it really HAS only been implications) and are looking for some good, clean fun (well, good fun, anyhow :P), I would definitely recommend you pick this up for a casual read.
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