Ranked #67

Ao Haru Ride (Manga)

This is my very first review, so i'm very sorry if it's not so good :)


When i started reading Ao Haru Ride, my expectations were very high since i LOVED the mangaka Io Sakisaka's previous manga. However Ao Haru Ride still succed to reach my expectations, yeah maybe even more than that. Note: I only read the 11 chapters that can be found on the internet.


Story: 9


I really like the story. I started to read this manga because i wanted a good shojo and that's exactly what i got. The story starts out with showing the past of our two min characters, Futaba & Kou. Futaba dislikes guys, but she likes Tanaka kou (Tanaka-kun) , he is different to her. Kou also likes Futaba, but overhears her saying she dislikes all boys, and things get difficult. soon after this, Tanaka suddenly transfers to another school and disappears out of Futabas life.

Then we jump forward to 15 year old Futaba whos in high school. Her personality is very much different from the innocent cute girl we saw at first; the reason for this change is that Futabas friends started to dislike her for being cute and taking all the attention from the boys. As a given, Futaba soon meets Tanaka-kun, however he looks different and acks like a totally jerk. And he even changed name to Mabuchi Kou.

I like the story pretty much, since it's a typical shojo story, but not in a bad way. You won't get the "meeeh..." feeling while reading this. If you like Shoujo, there is no way you won't love this.


Art: 10

Io Sakisaka's art is ADOREABLE. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. really, it's just so pretty, shiney-shiney, fluffy and cute without being the usally shojo-style. Io Sakisaka haves her very own beautiful and remarkable drawing style.

Character: 8


The Characters is fine, i specially like our Main hero. Our main heroine, Futaba, is pretty standard shojo girl, She's not too plain and very likeable. At first she's trying to be all un-cutey and such, to make "friends" but soon realizes that she can't go on like that. She manages to make new friends, but is still the lively, not-so-cute girl, but in a way she developed a little. Next time where she develope, -- and this is what make her VERY likeable to me -- is when she realizes she loves - and want to be Kous girlfriend. I can't say WHY this is so special, but read the manga and you will understand, since you will surely think "Oh no.. not this type of manga.. dont tell me she.. oh.. she didn't. YAY!"

I find Kou very interesting. He's not this typical emo-like guy, but he also hides some troublesome past behind him. Everytime i read a chapter, i just want to know more about Kou.


Enjoyment: 10

I enjoyed this manga very much. I looked for a good shojo, and i sure found one! It's also have good comedy in it and good moments between our main characters which just makes you go "Kyaaaa~" (And the art i so pretty too, it's just perfect)

Overall: 10 . I might overrated it a bit, but im just so in love with this manga, i decided to give it 10. And i will recommend this manga to ALL shojo-lovers. Read it! read more

I'm a huge fan of Sakisaka Io's work. There was no doubt in my mind that this was going to be an enjoyable read. The story starts out with a prologue of main character Yoshioka Futaba's life in middle school. Blah blah da da things happen and BAM! She's isolated from the girls in her class. Now in high school, she wants to change her cute, boy-attracting self and gain girl friends. She reunites with her middle school crush Tanaka Kou,(whose name is now Mabuchi Kou) but he's a big as- jerk now. The story was going great, it was flowing nicely,but it has started to shift into completely different story line. Because of that, it got a 7. As long as it doesn't continue to shift, it should be an interesting story.

The art, as always, is beautiful. I'm a picky person, so not many art styles please me. I especially like the fact that the eyes don't take up half the face. It's an 8 for me.

The characters are pretty interesting. The main girl doesn't just sit there and cry all the time and she's getting pretty good at standing up for herself. The main male is my favorite character in the story so far. You barely know anything about him,but he's probably the only thing left in the beginning part of the series(that's relevant to the future parts). He's not the nicest guy, but not many people go for the nice guy now do they? The supporting characters help complete the story. Anything that could be missing from the story, they help add in. I'm interested to see the situations they create. Characters are a 9.

As I stated earlier, I'm a fan of Sakisaka Io and her works. She creates stories where you cannot help picturing your own ending to the stories. She leaves room for imagination which makes the story 10000Xs better. Enjoyment is an 8.

Overall this story has a lot of potential. It's only at ten chapters right now so it can go either way. Hopefully the story stays fresh and upbeat. I recommend everyone to read this, I have a good feeling about this one. Right now..it's an 8.
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