Cigarette & Cherry

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Overall enjoyment: 8/10
Story: 6/10
Graphics and style: 9/10 WOW!
Characters: 7/10

I would definitely recommend this manga if you currently have an itch for romance, comedy, and drama that you want scratched in your brain! The story revolves around the relationship between a junior and his senpai blossoming from cohorts, to dating, and through their drama.
In terms of the story, it's fairly straight forward; I wouldn't call it a unique storyline. Kouhai is a desperate college freshman that desires a girlfriend and meets senpai, a cool woman smoking by an isolated ash tray. The story subsequently evolves into being closer together through their jobs, going on trips, ... and introducing side characters that add fluff and comedy. The drama mainly stems from miscommunication between the characters. I enjoyed how the author would switch between characters thoughts so you knew how they felt during the drama. The story was still very engaging and each chapter was composed of comedy, love, or emotion. I confidently went into each new chapter knowing something fun, depressing or interesting would happen between the characters; I never felt bored once while reading.
In terms of the graphics, I was stunned at how the minor details really left an impression on the page. The author was incredible at drawing faces and eyes! As the reader, you could feel the emotion of each character as they spoke on the page; their desperation, happiness, and melancholy. The expressions of the characters all resonated with the reader. I looked forward to each new chapter so that I could see the character's faces as they spoke with palpable, resonating emotion. You could tell the author was passionate about expressing their drawings into emotion.
Each of the characters were fun and unique! Senpai is a cool, flawless person with insecurities. She likes direct communication about feelings but ironically miscommunicates her own. Kouhai is a goofy, immature, and passionate boy who is learning about how to love for the first time. The other side characters such as the boss and 3 coworkers add comedy to the work. It was fun reading about how a composed senpai can learn to lean on a passionate kouhai who both desire a genuine relationship despite their own insecurities. I hope you have as much fun as I did while reading this story!

Human relationships are complicated.

The manga shows them from an unique angle, where although timid one is extremely eager to always do something, while the other acts calm, sometimes even cold i'd say, but one ends up falling for the other.

Unlike your average romance things actually happen, and it shows us how the perks of adult life, work, college and such meddles in our love life, sometimes even ourselves and how we are used to leave some things unsaid.

The art is not really something else but it's extremely on point and helps to tell the story. Characters are unique and each have their own ... unique style and personality traits. The couple of mcs are extremely deep up to the point you feel anxious on your stomach for them.

You read it expecting something easy-going and end up relating to everything they do, and wondering how your decisions are shaping your life. It's just flawless.

This is ok! The initial concept of the series is cute and senpai is a very pretty character but over the course of the series the plot is pretty predictable and insular and the characters are a bit flat and annoying.

Story: The story is basic and very self-contained in the cafe space the characters work at. Not my cup of tea (cup of coffee, more like) but maybe if you like a Friends-type setup you'll like this. As a result, the stakes feel fairly low and unrealistic. Why don't any of these characters have any real lives or interests outside of their work and ... glacial-paced relationships? 5 or so volumes in, another character gets added to the cast (of like, four characters, so this type of occurence is pretty rare) and is immediately shafted as a love interest, within a chapter or so. Boring, predictable logic that isn't super emotionally functional, as again, we don't have much actual character development for most of the manga. Thematically, Cigarette & Cherry is about learning to rely on others in a balanced way? But this isn't addressed in any significant manner.

Art: The character designs are pretty and expressive but there's nothing... greatly noteworthy about the rest of the art. Mangaka seems to thrive off of half-page panels of senpai being pretty (which, I am 100% here for but gets repetitive after a while!)

Character: Ugh... Really dislike the main character. Was cute at first, this unexperienced kouhai who just wants to try his best falling in love with a cool upperclassman. But this guy is really a moron and was so annoying. Senpai too, seems to be eternally in this role of being like. Ok, try again. Try again. Try again. Eternally waiting for the kouhai to make moves and then telling him he messed up and to try again. This type of relationship where the maturity levels are so wildly different is so unrealistic lol and only possible in this kind of space where there is nothing in the narrative outside of this contrived relationship. Outside of that, senpai was really just a boring character lol.

Enjoyment/Overall: I had fun for the first two or three volumes. And kept reading, expecting development of the senpai character. Didn't get much. I wouldn't reccomend this manga lol.