That's why I can't give this a good review. I just can't.
Story: 2/10
I give this a 2 because this type of story is dry and uninteresting. A shy girl needs to pick between two boys... that kind of thing is used everywhere. As a plot, I guess I could understand, a school romance could be said to be like this. however, when you look at the real, lonely characters don't often get this sort of lucky chance that the girl in this story gets. And maybe I'm just biased, after reading so many of these sort of tales, but the fact that there are so many of these has proven that this approach is old and tired. A good author can take something that's old and weave from it something new... I feel like nothing new has come out of this story. I can't give this more than a two... it isn't on par with other stories of it's nature.
Art: 10/10
This manga is aesthetically pleasing. I think that this fact can draw in many, many readers. If you think the art is cute, you might think that the characters too are cute so on and so forth.
Character:
There are a couple of characters that I don't really like.
Firstly, Sumino herself is kind of a faulty character in my opinion. I think that in an effort to make the reader feel bad for her, the author chose to make her pitiful. It's just not real... Even the shiest of people get angry, angrier than she ever does. Furthermore, her ascent into the sunlight did not seem like it took very long or took very much effort on her part. For someone who has the background her character had, I feel like it should've taken longer for her to be able to talk with other people in her class naturally. Truthfully, throughout the entire series she is ever growing, but I feel like that transformation takes longer.
The bully, Ayu, is also kind of out of the real. She's not really cunning, but can make an entire school believe her with a few words. I actually don't like this about a lot of manga of this general ilk-- the bully character riles an entire school on the unsuspecting heroine, and she feels smothered. Truly, it can't be so. Because of how people are, not everyone will blindly follow a bully where she leads.
Enjoyment: 5/10
I know that some people enjoyed this series... and for the most part, I can agree that it's alright. But I don't really enjoy the story that doesn't add anything to this age old formula: girl is alone, girl meets boy, boy has friends/enemies who also loves girl, girl must choose, girl is bullied for boy liking her, blah blah. As long as the story is interesting, I can keep reading in suspense. But I'm not really getting that feeling of mystery here. The only thing that is mysterious is we don't know what guy Sumino will pick. That's it. In my opinion, that's not really interesting. If she's going to come from the shadows into the light, why can't we learn more about her hardships? Why is the only mystery 'Which will Sumino choose?' Why isn't there like, 'How does Sumino deal with trouble between the friends she has who are girls?' or 'how will Sumino deal with a classmate who has been put into her previous position?' I mean, there's so much that could have been done, and nothing was done in this story. And so, I am forced to say that overall, I give this story...
Overall: 5/10
