Ranked #1240

Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu (Manga)

Why am I still reading this past chapter 11 when it becomes painfully obvious that the mangaka can't decide whether to make the hero a quintinssential martyr or a slick bad boy with an inner goodness that shines through only when the heroine is in distress. Groan, I don't know why!

This story starts out ordinarily enough when a straight laced but feminine and talented girl ends up attending her back up choice of high school but still isn't the top student there. That rank goes to a heartthrobby fellow Kyouta who alternated between teasing (read humiliating) Hibino and assisting her when the situation escalates out of control. At first, it's very much a copy of Bokutachi wa shitte shimatta only meaner coz this girl has a callously selfish younger sister and suffers from extremely low self esteem. Eventually she makes friends, but of course end up fallng in love with the molester who apparently makes booty calls for senpais in their classrooms!

But WAIT! Suddenly, it's not enough for the mangaka to just have a normal romance with cutely drawn albeit cliche conflicts, so we're bruptly thrust into this situation where the fiend Kyouta develops a painful past which disallows him to trust Hibino and other women. So while he wants to... well... "make her his woman", he doesn't want a confession, even though he says he'll do "things which she's dreaming of" if she asks him to, because that means she will betray him! Haha, it gets even more comical along the way! I'm guessing more trials and tribulations ensue, but really, you have to be plenty patient with the sluggish plot and the pathetic dialogue to get there.

Plus points... The art is very dreamily gorgeous, for both male and female characters. The story really manages to mortify the reader at times and I wanted to run away from the computer screen sometimes when Hibino was teased or exposed! The few intimate scenes are steamy without being tasteless and many novel mini suplots are portrayed realistically, especially fashion. Also we don't just have a single track minded heroine here, Hibino is very focused on grades but she loves making hairstyles and fashionable clothes and wants to find love as well.

I recommend reading this one when the scanlation group changes hands, coz the one available right now hosts a rather awkward translation and bad quality scans. read more

Note: Cussing ahead so if you don't like that, don't read.
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= Story =
- So... Hibino Tsubaki's and Tsubaki Kyouta's love starts when Hibino cuts Kyouta's hair b/c it's too long and she wanted to get back at him for being rude.
That is a great reason for chopping someone's hair off. Congrats Hibino! You have no common sense and now a bunch of Kyouta fan girls are gonna want to chop off your head and pit it on a stake! :) But seriously, that's how love starts. She fixes his hair by making it shorter, he kisses her and say he'll make her his. Great.
The rest of the manga is basically the results of Tsubaki and Tsubaki hooking up. No spoilers there. It's WAY too obvious. Plus it's a Shoujo manga and whenever a guy says "I'll make you my woman," you know they're gonna eventually hook up.
So yeah... the plot is basically every little drama that goes on b/n Tsubaki and Kyouta's fan girls b/c Tsubaki isn't fit for him and those fan girls are just sluts who want to get in his pants.
Oh, plus there's a lot of jealously and shit b/c Tsubaki is one jealous bitch. She cries a lot and has all this emotional conflict in her head which makes me question her mental state [and that line sounds like a broken record now]. So yeah... I absolutely despise this bullshit of a plot. -

= Art =
- For those who have read my previous reviews, you must be thinking, "Why didn't she give it a 9 or 10? It's not old schooled." For starters, I HATE anime/manga characters with huge ass eyes. REALLY?! I understand that it's the mangaka's style and all and I shouldn't be dissing it off, but seriously. Huge ass eyes ARE NOT CUTE. Ex:) Shugo Chara. NOT CUTE AT ALL.
BUT since I draw better. It's an 8. -

= Character =
- Hibino Tsubaki is USELESS and DEAD WEIGHT. Seriously, all she does is cry and through tantrums and WANT SEX. WTF?! She's a useless slut apparently. A jealous, useless slut.
Kyouta... well... I can't HATE him, but I can't really like him either. But really, he's still cool. We're all cool. :) Hibino just needs to get out of Kyouta's life. She's a selfish, manga bitch. I wouldn't care if she got run over by a car and died. WAIT. No...
I wouldn't give a shit about her even if she stepped on a lego piece! That's how much I hate her. Really. She's a horrible representation of females. -

= Enjoyment/Overall =
- I obviously hated this manga. I have nothing else to say. It's horrible. - read more