Apr 2, 2024
TL;DR: I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone that doesn't enjoy dumpster fires (or who actually wants to see and learn from healthy behaviors and relationships), and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who actually does.
As a reader of Hot Gimmick, the mangakas other insane "shojo" manga (in quotes because this 2 definitely ain't for teenage girls) I expected the worst coming into this one. While it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I still got a nice share of unhealthy relationships being presented in a positive light, along with the enjoyment and amusement of seeing how far it would go.
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Setting/Art style
To probably no ones surprise, the story takes place in a highschool. Can't really complain about that, since it's the most relatable setting where the story can take place, especially since this is written for teenage girls. While I'm at it, I can also mention that the art style is also your typical shojo style with pretty boys and girls and bubbly, cute backgrounds, although plenty of them lack any detail, the focus being mostly on the characters with minimalistic background details, so, while it is passable, it lacks many details and shadows, being a pretty bland art style.
Story
It starts because of an accident that is waaay to easily resolved, judging by it's severity (destroying a hard-disk with which 2/3 of the main guys could have one 1 million in a contest ,couldn't find if yen or dollars) and the 2 of them and her childhood friend wanting revenge on her, which pretty much goes nowhere, it's mostly used to start the story, although something milder would have worked just fine and it would have been even better, but good thing the mangaka enjoys setting up her stories in this ways, just like in Hot Gimmick, where the story starts with a presumed child (teenage) pregnancy, so we can easily deduce just how unhinged the story will be. Moving on, soon after, some love interests are formed and they almost completely drive the story, it's characters and the dialogue. There is plenty to say about the characters later on, but let's just say that the character's motivations and feelings toward each other start to feel gradually more forced and hard to believe, which also, of course, afects the quality of the story, since the 3 boys, the protag and her "friend" (more on this later) are the only relevant characters, with the only few recuring and relatively relevant characters being the protags mother/father and the parents of 2/3 boys, somewhat. The ending of this story, without spoiling it, is exactly what should be expected from this story, a good insult to the audience and the development of the relationship between the characters for the simple reason of wishing for the audience to finish the story and see what will happen to each of the ships in their own imagination. While I did have fun with the manga, the ending felt kind of insulting to me, and that ain't happening any day with any story, so yea, it's pretty bad from beginning to end. If I were to say something good about the story, it is the plot/arc that focuses on the protags family and how it portrayed their problems (it had it's own problems, but this was quite decent, at least). Oh yea, and about the story's themes, there pretty much is none and I can only hope that it isn't actually the title "Tokyo Boys and Girls", which would imply that this was supposed to represent an average group of tokyo boys and girls, cuz it's probably bs, especially the way they all ended up by the end of the story. And if you read this whole review, you can easily see why this also fails as a cute romance manga made for teenage girls.
Characters
Damn but these characters are something else. We have the innocent girly protag who goes along with whatever 2/3 main boys do, ending up almost cheating on her bf (or depending on what you consider cheating, she actually does that), then her "best friend" who, while she is portrayed as a hopeless romantic who can't get over her unrequited love, she is a slut and a fake friend to the protag. The boys cast consists of the protags childhoold friend which, while he still has his own problems, it actually becomes quite understandable since he is the only decent human being in their group, then we have probably the biggest cuck (sorry, hopeless romantic 2) I had ever seen in a story yet and is done the dirtiest out of all of them with the direction his character and conclusion goes, and then we have typical play-boy who just does whatever the hell he wants with whatever girl he wants, regardless of what his friends say about it (by the end of the story, I actually questioned if they really are or were friends in the first place, since it didn't seem like they cared about each other's crushes and feelings, each of them competing for at least one of the main girls, which looked more like manipulation and seducing each other's girls). I should mention that I have no inherent problems with any of these character whatsoever by themselves, but if something ain't cool, it's portraying these characters stories, emotions, behaviors and relationships in a positive light while they surely ain't anything close to that and shouldn't be shown as such, because it sends a bad message to the audience, especially in this case, where this story is marketed towards teenage girls. Now I'll go into each character in more detail, so if you ain't interested in being spoiled about pretty much the whole story, I suggest skipping to the end, just know that some wild things happen between these characters and if you actually are like me and are interested in reading a dumpster fire/want to know how bad a story/characters can get, then you can go ahead.
SPOILERS AHEAD (UNTIL THE CONCLUSION)
Protagonist (Mimori) - While she ain't the worst character in the series, she is still quite bad. At her worst, she easily forgives her supposed "best friend" for acting like a jerk towards her due to her own insecurities without even being given a real apology and almost develops a romantic relationship with her friend's one-sided crush WHILE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP, because she can't push back against him because she is too good of a human being and pretty much pities him for his current life circumstance, so she chooses to neglect her boyfriend in order to help a guy that clearly wants to play with her. It's a long way between basic human decency and acting like a friend to neglecting your boyfriend to help a male "friend" who is actually romantically into you. Besides this, she is the typical cheerful innocent good girl which is quite generic in itself, probably something you should expect from a shojo manga.
The childhood friend (Haruta) - Probably the most relatable one of the story (as a guy, at least), while he acts like a tough guy and even a bit like an asshole with his GF (the protag), he is in the right in here since, even though he kind of hated her at first (before realising that he likes her), he at least didn't constantly verbally and physically abused her, as it goes with one of the couples from Hot Gimmick. While the story tries to portray him as a tough but secretly sensible guy, the story kind of fails at that, since he always ends up being mad at his GF because she neglects him and spends her time with another guy, which is reasonable enough for him, on one hand, although, on the other, he could also try to communicate his feelings more, especially regarding his jealousy. His character is built up as being one that is not really emotionally vulnerable and, while that ain't a problem in itself, he never develops from this point on since his relationship is being meddled with by his GF's which is actually his friend too (kind of) and he can never ask the real questions and say what is trully on his mind because every time the protag has a new secret, her male friend ends up finding about it first, which he then rubs it on his face, which caused a conflict between the protag and her BF quite a few times. All in all, he was done dirty by the author, what could have been a nice character arc of him becoming more emotionally vulnerable and fully repairing his relationship with his GF ends up being cucked for the biggest part of his relationship. And I should probably mention that the ending is open ended in regards to who the protag ends up with (even though they live together by the end of the story), which was a perfect kick in the balls for his character because he is constantly made fun of and neglected while having no chance to redeem himself.
The play-boy (Kazukita) - In the first half, he is presented as quite the a*hole who flirts around with girls, only to dump them after he has his way with them. And just to solidy his status as a jerk, he uses the protags girl friend one sided feelings for him in order to make her to whatever he wants, while telling her that he is not interested in her at the end of the day (and this exact thing happens through most of the story). In the second half of the story, he develops feelings for the protag and is shown to be a miserable lonely person, since he lives by himself and his father doesn't care about him since he is too busy running a hospital. The author actually tries to redeem him by developing his relationship with the protag, but it's pretty scummy to try to steal a guy's GF, especially since you two quite know each other and are in the same class, so it falls flat on it's face, making him look like a selfish a*hole. If the author wanted to redeem him, he should have AT LEAST left the two girls alone and tried to develop a real relationship with someone who is actually single and that he respects, unlike what he does with these two and ESPECIALLY apologise to his cuck friend for using the girl the he likes (the slut) however he wants, hurting her again and again, even when the cuck asks him quite a few times to leave her alone. At the end of the manga, it's actually implied that there actually is a possibility for him to end up with the protag, even though she actually is in a relationship (which kind of was the point of the story, them developing their relationship), she seems only to pity him, not like him, and her friend is also in love with him. So yea, if he was supposed to have a redemption story, it was horrendous.
The CUCK (Ran) - Holy hell, where do I begin with this guy. He likes the MC's friend, the girl who loves the play boy (who is also his friend). He may sometimes try to spend time with her, but usually he is getting cucked by his friend or rejected by her because she has eyes only for his friend. This goes on for like half the manga, then they bang. Where that came from? God knows. Actually, probably because she is a slut. She got rejected one too many times, she becomes sad, he finds her, confesses, kisses her while saying that he loves her, she also accepts his kisses while saying that she doesn't love him. Then she asks for a condom and then they do the deed. In the classroom (after hours, but there still is daylight). A bit later we find out she gets impregnated by him in this scene. So he accepts to do it with a girl that doesn't like him, but his friend, he does it while she is vulnerable, using her weakness to get laid with someone that doesn't care about him (pretty much like in School Days, where the protags friend does unconsensual banging with a broken girl, but School Days at least had the decency to show this kind of acts and relationships as unhealthy and morally wrong) AND chooses to take responsibility for the child, even though she doesn't like him and would probably cheat on him in the future. He even asks HIM to help make her feel better instead of doing it himself. The next step is probably letting him satisfy her in bed , in order to complete his transformation into a cuck. And that's pretty much all there is to him, a desperate man that becomes a cuck and uses a vulnerable girl just to get laid. If it weren't for this whole romance thingy with him, he would be a decent human being, he is quite light-hearted and seems like a good guy, but this whole romance just destroys his character beyond any possibility of redemption. In the end, he ends up in a relationship with the slut and wants to take accountability for the child, and her accepting this for some reason, even though she doesn't like him. While there is plenty to say about her part in all this, let's just say that keeping the child of a guy that you don't even like and ending up together with him just so that the kid will have a father/because she wants the baby is quite a tragic and f*ked up fate for a character. Good thing this is all painted in a light hearted, positive and heroic manner for him, am I right?
And now comes the one character that motivated me the most to make this review, THE SLUT (Nana) - It hurts even to say her name, knowing that she shares the name of 2 of the best written female characters that I have seen/read up to this day (Of course, the Nana's from Ai Yazawa's "Nana"). This dear little girl is everything that an adolescent (doesn't matter if boy or girl) shouldn't be or look up to. She falls in love with a play boy that messes with her and uses her one sided love for him for his own benefits, all the while she still keeps liking him. While this is quite realistic, if, after all this, you still wish to be with someone, you should probably think more about yourself and your father (or mother, if the genders are reversed), because this sure as hell ain't healthy and a relationship that you should pursue and glorify to teenage girls, when it comes to this manga. Just because it can happen doesn't mean that it should be portrayed in a story for children as something romantic and beautiful. Moving on from this, her crush starts spending more and more time with her friend. And of course, why would she blame the assertive person that she likes when she can get mad and stop talking with the innocent defensive girl who finds herself at the receiving end in all this, despite not wanting this to happen. While this also happens irl, this doesn't excuse this time of behavior driven by rage and lack of rationality and doesn't make her less of a shitty person, especially while taking in consideration all the things she does throught the story. Then comes the real heavy hitter. She bangs (or rather gets banged) the aforementioned guy while in a vulnerable state, all while knowing that she doesn't like him. While most of the fault is going to him, her just giving in to temptation still isn't the right thing to do, even though it made her look more humane. Too bad this whole tragedy is painted in a positive light, as she becomes pregnant from this, and decides to keep the baby and let him take responsibility for it, all while not liking him in a romantic way and still being in highschool. Nice way of ruining the lives of at least 3 people (including herself) with this decision. But before finding this out she suddenly forgives her friend (although she did nothing wrong to her) and starts talking to her for selfless reasons, like getting to spend more time with the guy she likes and having someone to eat lunch with. She didn't even try to apologise for being a shitty friend and person who was in the wrong, but goes back to talking with her like nothing happened in the next scene when they are seen together. But oh well, all's well that ends well. And finally, the one dialogue that broke me when it comes to this character. While getting closer to the cuck to kiss him, she tells him that she loves the other guy, while also telling him to "love me above anyone else". Now this is a sick joke, if I ever heard one. And this is how her character arc ends. In the end, she is a fake friend that doesn't care about her supposed best and only friend, she loves an abusive guy while rubing it in the face of the guy that impregnates her and decides to keep his child and her relationship with him, despite not really liking him in a romantic sense, all this while she still is in highschool. This relationship and her child have a bright future ahead of them, ngl.
What I should also mention about all of these characters is that they also backstab each other again and again by not being able to keep confidentiality between the two of them, especially the protag and the play boy. And there are also many dialogues, behaviors and decisions that, while they ain't something that important to remember, they still add to the many flaws that the characters already have.
Conclusion
While I did enjoy every moment of this dumpster fire, I can't give this manga in good conscience more than a 4, the enjoyment adding to the final score, because if there is something that a story shouldn't do, it is glorifying unhealthy behaviors and relationships, especially while marketing the story for children or teenagers, who may actually begin to think that this is anything close to what a normal, healthy and functional human being should be like. The only type of person that I would recommend this is one that tolerate and have fun with the questionable writing decisions and gets into this manga while knowing that it should be taken as a comedy, not as a serious romance story, since is miserably fails at it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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