Kirai

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I started reading this series many months ago. At the time only 39 chapters of the 41 were available. I revisited the series two days ago when a new chapter was released. I am now waiting in anticipation for the final chapter and the conclusion of the series.

I really enjoyed this manga. The main characters are cute together and I like how the plot progresses. It's a fairly quick read, and good enough that I simply had to reread the series after reading its newest chapter. I plan on rereading it again once the final chapter is out. It's that good! And that sweet ... :)

I'm not much of a reviewer and am only writing because this has zero others. I recommend this series to anyone that likes shojo that's not sugary sweet to the point of cringing. It has plot, and direction. The characters aren't dramatic or assholes just for the sake of of it. The female lead is strong, but not in the obnoxious way. As an old series, the art isn't the most fantastic, but the series as a whole is more rooted. The archetypes aren't as present (though they're still there).

Hope you enjoy it :)

The first three-quarters of Kirai are pretty standard shoujo stuff, if perhaps a better-than-average version of it. And then things take an unexpected turn that make this a decidedly more original and mature, if somewhat harder to process, manga.

Strict girl meets playboy who mistrusts women, but has no problem sleeping with them. They end up step-siblings, so she sets out to correct his bad behavior. They slowly fall for each other. If you've read much shoujo or josei before, you've surely seen a variant of that plot line. Kirai is a particularly good example of it, although for the first ... 30 chapters or so not an especially original one.

And then, over the course of the last ten chapters or so, the manga takes an interesting and completely unexpected turn. I don't want to get into spoilers, but an unexpected event occurs, followed by a small time-skip forward, and suddenly this fun if unoriginal manga becomes something altogether more interesting, mature, and compelling... if also a bit harder to read at times.

A couple warnings: many of the notions of sex are very outdated, particularly regarding sexual assault and consent. (Seriously, having sex with a girl so drunk she is almost passing out is rape, not infidelity.) Also, the artwork looks very outdated; the manga ran from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, and I think the art would have been a bit old-school even then. It's not bad art (though the handsome guy often comes across as funny looking); just old-school.

Ultimately, this is a manga about learning to trust the people that you love, and it is willing to push on that concept pretty far. It may start out a stereotypical "bad boy meets virgin" shoujo, but it ends up as one of the more thoughtful, dramatic shoujo romances that I've read.

In ahort, Kirai is a pretty decent manga if you want a mature romance manga that is not really unnecessarily smutty (although sex does play a large role)

The story is pretty basic, playboy who cannot love or trust women and a strict tsundere-esque girl who hates him however over time, they fall in love. Oh yeah, and their parents remarried to each other.nothing particularly new or unique. The story does continue past high school onto college which is a plus for me since that's not as common and makes the story more mature and reasonable.
The art, is not that great, its definitely old style, which ... I am ok with, however proportions/anatomy and expressions are not always drawn the best and sometimes the characters look awkward.
The characters while not bad, are not outstanding or super lovable either. None particularly stood out nor did I really hold any favoritism towards any, which I guess is a good thing for this manga. Both the main characters did not act well, starting from Hanada, and then Sakura's response to his actions setting the whole drama that happens during the second half (sorry its vague, trying to keep this spoiler free here). Not holding any favoritism towards either, I was able to sympathize with both objectively. However, as one of the other reviews mention, some ideas or concept are quite outdated and even though it is somewhat more understandable because of the beliefs/ignorance of the time it was created, it still does not make it ok. One of the conflicts that happened with Sakura when resolved was turned into a comedic scene when it is a serious matter. Also Hanada is contradictory. My main problem with Hanada is that he sometimes does not hold Sakura to the same standards he is held to, the stuff he is allowed to do, Sakura wasn't, and he never felt any remorse or regret towards his actions towards the girls he played, even if the girls' love are superficial. It is as if he is allowed to hurt others' feeling but people are not allowed to hurt his.
Overall, I did enjoy it enough. I would recommend if you want a mature romance but would not recommend it above any others that are similar to it.