Ranked #1203

Cherry Juice (Manga)

And I never wrote a review on this... why? I have no idea! What's wrong with me? I love Haruka Fukushima!

Anyways. I own all four of these volumes and love them to bits! For starters, Cherry Juice’ story isn’t exactly original (coughMarmaladeBoycough) nor is it generally crowd pleasing. But if you’re in search of a sweet shoujo romantic comedy with touches of drama, then this will sure to satisfy you.

The story begins with Minami and Otome, two adolescents that have happened to begin living with eachother under their parents circumstances. Five years ago, they were made step siblings. However, after Otome and Amane (who just happens to be Minami’s best friend) begin going out. Does jealousy and sexual tension ensue? Why, yes! Yes, it does. The step siblings cling to each other while slowly realizing how they really feel about other people and their relationship itself.

So as you can see, the story had some nice potential. And Miss Fukushima didn’t proceed to let me down. The story is sweet, with poignant moments that don’t make me gag. The whole taboo forbidden relationship concept brings apprehension, though the story is a bit fast paced. I would have liked for a bit more depth in some of the characters, like Otome’s friends. Or Imai, who appears all of a sudden and you don’t really get time to adjust to his part in the story. But Imai comes later so I shall not spoil anything.

The characters are likeable enough. Though for some reason, main main characters of shoujo manga tend to annoy me. I’m not quite sure why that is. Unfortunately it’s not much of an exception for Otome. Her friends are interesting and somewhat unique though (well, not really unique, but interesting to say the least). Otome’s friends are Naru with her cool and unphased personality and boy-crazy, fun-loving Aiko.

The art is flawed, as Haruka Fukushima’s always is, but I enjoy it anyway. It has a unique look that I could always recognize, and it is very pretty and pleasing to look it. She is one of my favorite manga artists for these reasons. Cherry Juice is not amazing, but I love it. It’s lighthearted, but can be serious when it wants to. Give it a try if you want a nice high school romance.
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