| Ignoring the disappointing final chapter, I ended the series with a happy feeling flowing through me. And that's exactly how I hope to be feeling when coming to the end of a lengthy romantic comedy/drama. But YdA had more than its fair share of problems... The most bothersome problem for me was Nagisa. If I recall, someone in Maison Ikkoku (Godai) described women that burn with jealousy as being lovable, and that's very true. How is it NOT possible to find it cute when a beautiful woman, full of pride, tries and fails to hide the feelings of anger boiling within herself? What made Nagisa's actions bothersome was how hypocritical she acted. Around halfway through the story, Hamaoko - Fujino's eternal stalker - forced a kiss on him. Nagisa found out and promptly entered into ignore mode; not even caring about what he had to say. Then, sometime later, whilst Fujino's had been busy working himself to death, she allowed herself to fall for her crush from the past, Minato; going on a number of dates with him and, finally, kissing him (note: not like when Fujino was surprised); unaware she was doing so in front of Fujino. And she then even agreed to marry Minato - deciding that the needs of a child, together with her childhood crush, were more important than the man she supposedly loved; a man who had been risking his all to get back together with her. When she was FORCED by Minato not to go through with the wedding, she FINALLY decided to go after Fujino. But she only ended up making me more annoyed by placing all the blame on Fujino for him not doing something after she'd misunderstood something completely, kissed a guy, and agreed to marry the guy she kissed. She never once apologized for being such a stupid, self-centered bitch, and that irked me. If not for her deciding to go back to Fujino at the very end of the story, which was required of her after she'd AGAIN completely misunderstood something and ran away to have a marriage meeting, my hatred for her antics would more than likely have ended up outweighing the affection I hold for her cute, shy side. The images of her holding a knife towards Fujino instinctively out of fear he'd jump her, fueled by lust, and reacting with shock as a cute-looking male dog quickly got swept away with his animal instincts prevent me from disliking her--her being drawn far too cutely far too frequently to ever TRULY be hate-worthy in my eyes. YdA's main story-related issue also, in a way, connects to Nagisa. As a rom-com, it's perfectly fine for a pathetic male lead to get involved in comical, often perverted situations with a beautiful girl. Everyone secretly wants a loser to become a winner, and the first seven or so volumes presented the story in such a fun way, with Fujino having no TRUE rivals, that it was easy to get into and enjoy. But once the main two were needlessly separated and Nagisa's stupidity/unfaithfulness got focused on instead of lots of fun, bam--it was no longer easy to derive enjoyment from what was happening. If you're going to create a serious romance story, then having THE most pathetic, weak-willed lead ever, complete with glasses so large that not even a semi-respectable pensioner would wear, isn't the best idea. And having the male do all the chasing and, no matter what, apologizing is plain dumb since that kind of relationship has no equality. The short version of what I'm trying to say is this: as a rom-com, YdE was excellent; Nagisa's 'dot-eyed' cuteness during the comedy bits, as well as the art in general, adding a lot of good into the mix. But whenever the author tried to be more serious, the end result was failure either because A) Fujino was too pathetic to ever seriously win the affections of a woman as beautiful as Nagisa; him not evolving into a better person during the story and B) Nagisa was too selfish and too impatient to be respected. When YdE was something of a MI clone (the characters types) with added silliness, it was great, but... There's another issue that resulted in me 7/10ing YdE in spite of me enjoying it, too: the pacing went to hell around halfway through. The story could, and probably should, have been resolved a hell of a lot sooner. Like I said, Fujino never changed into a different, better person, and Nagisa fell for him from an early point in the story. The arc where the two were separated for numerous volumes, as well as the various other pointless arcs that focused on Fujino's work, were only inserted to extend the length of the story. Before the work related stuff came to the forefront, the main two had kissed... and, when the lengthy separation arc came to end, they remained at first base until the very end. It wasn't as if Fujino ever got promoted or anything; the type of progression characters go through in romantic stories involving school/college-aged characters not being present in YdE. ...What else haven't I said? 1: The final chapter was (predictably, since these types never have satisfying final chapters) quite disappointing. After 17 volumes of build-up, there was no love-making scene, and not even the birth of the baby got covered in any real detail. It was as if the author was trying to cram everything in without really caring; wasting pages on minor characters needlessly. 2: The last ten or so chapters highlighted just how much the artwork changed from the start of the story. I couldn't believe the difference between the lanky, more realistic style the author started with and the round-faced, less realistic but far more attractive style he ended with. The fact I never realized shows how observant I am! ...However, I did notice that, in particular, Nagisa's eyeballs were drawn with lots of detail; looking sparkly and reminding me of shoujo artwork. I was quite surprised to learn that the artist is male simply due to males rarely bothering with the business of making eyeballs look attractive. The female eyeballs in YdE are distinctive and were what sold me on the series from an early point. I think that's just about it. A fun but very flawed little story is how I'd describe YdE. Great for Maison Ikkoku fans because of how much the start of the story would remind them of it... but not so great for those who crave a degree of realism from their 2D romance stories. |
| +1 for the op and Nagisa was supposed to be a man hater cuz the author was trying so hard to make her a pure and virgin. But wtf, she was ok being touched, hugged or kissed by Minato. She was even willing to have sex with him in her college days. Her personality was inconsistent. She's so nice with another guys, but she's short tempered with Fuguno. She was not deserving for Fuguno's sacrifices, effort and his love. Fuguno should have just given up on her and choose Hamaoka or the chief glasses girl (the best girl). The repetitive misunderstanding of the plot made this painful to read. Fuguno don't know how to explain and Nagisa can't even give him a chance to explain himself. |
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