Kiss

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Kiss is my favorite manga currently.
But in no way am I going to give a bias review so I'll be completely honest of my reasonings and the flaws.

First of all, when you first read the synopsis and start off the first pages you may think this is another one of those mangas-the stereotypical romance manga where two people are completely unaware of their love for each other until the very end, but Kiss is nothing like that at all.
Right from Chapter 1 and throughout the following volumes, Matsumoto emphasizes the struggles after struggles they go through, which is what makes me feel so interested when ... reading-not because of the drama, but because its realistic.
It is very realistic the issues they talk about and go through, which is why I feel such a connection with the manga.

I think this is Matsumoto's gift as a mangaka. Her artwork is not the best I've seen but the way she chooses the wording and shading, it makes a simple stare from the two protagonists have a deeper meaning and you can immediately feel the passion that the characters have.

I think the plot is pretty typical and common, but it is the characters that make me so fond of this manga. Matsumoto has a way of building up the personalities of her characters, which makes them appear, like I said before, REAL.
The way she subtly emphasizes their feelings makes the reader think about the true meaning of the words and the expressions.
I feel like I know the characters personally, so I keep coming back for more.
This is truly one mangaka that I respect and look up to.

Kiss is a really good romance with a skillful mangaka behind the scenes.

The story is simple, but nonetheless good; a piano student falls in love with her gorgeous piano teacher. Now, even if this might sound very shallow and typically shoujo-like, please give it a shot. It's not smut, but rather a story about your first love. It may sound as if I'm overrating this manga, but it is a great romance

Matsumoto Tomo is a skillful mangaka. However, this is one of her earliest works and the art is not as good as it gets in the later chapters. Around chapter 20, ... it becomes much more anatomically correct. I've always though Matsumoto's style is subtle, yet expressionistic and powerful in its simplicity. I love the laid-back, naturalistic style of hers. She has an eye for movements and captures the characters perfectly.

The characters are not completely original, unfortunately, but they do work for the story. The heroine is a girl with a strong will, and you can really sympathise with her as she isn't forced to act as a damsel in distress. The piano teacher is a bit aloof with a cold air around him, but slowly warms up her.

It is really enjoyable: there is always something going on and it's great to see how their romance develops. It feels like your first love, fragile and uncertain. It's a lot of tension between the two of them and the suspense adds interest to the story, making you want to continue to read it. So yes, the enjoyment is very good.

Overall it's a special manga to me since I'm very fond of Matsumoto's style and her other mangas. Still, if you're a fan or not you should give this a try. Please forgive the early chapters since they aren't as good as the later ones, in the art department.

Great music talent. But wasted in an asshole MC and a disjointed way of story telling.

Kiss a shoujo romance series. About a 15 year old girl who has been learning music for about 10 years with her piano teacher who is 22. In the very first chapter the main heroine actually confesses and the MMC and FMC start dating. The story continues dealing with the issues of their age gap as well as past events that they keep bringing up.

This series to me is just a set of wasted potential. It has good bright moments but its just swallowed in this sea of bland ... and shoujo asshole-ism.

I enjoyed the kiss scenes in this series. I enjoyed the piano playing in this series. But i did not like the romance between the main couple. It felt incredibly manipulative. It not just her age he is constantly pushing and pulling her and his entire vibe is just this "I hate you". He was unlikable and pretty stayed that way. He constantly acted cold and repeatedly hurting the FMC. Though some of his anger and harshness was understandable at times. It still didn't excuse his horrible behaviour.

But my main problem with the series are not the uninteresting characters but rather the disjointed way of story telling. The series basically starts at we are a couple now and then the plot takes a backseat to give this explanation of all these characters including how the main character fell in love as well. If the author was going to drop this piece of information in it would've been so much better if the story was just told in chronological order. They're also many stories about side characters and their past and cannot give 2 shits about them. The stopping the plot to show this backstory of these characters have been done before and most of them suck. They are flashback stories out their that are enjoyable but their hasn't been once were i didn't like when they showed up. Not knowing the future, being uncertain about it, to me has always been a better way to tell the series.

There is a bunch of other shit in the series but i don't really care about it. I literally forgot one of the heroines in the series until i started typing this. I remember none of the characters names the only decent thing was the piano playing which i do think was good. Not incredible but was fun when it happened.

I've seen people be glad that the main couple is formed early one but is the point if the most of the story is just flashbacks and other people? They are literally 100's of stories where the main heroines and main hero get together in the beginning or in the middle. Some of them also suck and this is one of them.

TLDR: Asshole characters, Disjointed storytelling but nice kiss scenes and piano playing. To bad most of this was just asshole characters and disjointed storytelling. 3/10