Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai
A Condition Called Love

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I'm gonna start saying that I've read 22 chapters so far and I'm not giving it a solid 9 since I don't wanna rush it, but I'm loving this manga.
I'll keep it as simple as I can:
This is a very shoujo manga but the main characters have something other couples in the same genre don't: COMMUNICATION SKILLS. They express their feelings and thoughts clearly, which is sth rare in this genre and usually it's used to create misundersating and give somes sense to the plot, but many times it's simply frustrating.
The female lead, Hotaru is an honest and caring girl but not in the ... stereotypical way and I appreciate it.

The ML, Hananoi, is more controversial:
At first he might seem a bit "obsessed" with her, but truth to be told, I've read TONS of shoujo and this is nth in comparison with the usual trope.
The "obsessive guy" trope is very common and it usually displays aggressive behavior, or an unhealthy way of approaching. More often than not, the obsession lead to the guy to jealousy in great doses and making him act in creepy and stalkerish ways.
This is so not the case with Hananoi and let me highlight this: he's totally respectful of Hotaru and never crosses the boundaries, and it's repeateadly stated by him that he wants Hotaru to feel comfortable and to follow her pace, and he keeps his word.
This guy is simply depressed, or at least that's what I got, and he clings into his ideals of giving himself entirely to love, which kinda reached my heart. So he does some "crazy" things like waiting for her 2 hours early or looking for her brooch in the snow, but he always respects her and states in clear words what's going on in his head, which it's essential for me to enjoy their relationship. Yes, Hananoi is very enthusiastic about going out with Hotaru, and he assumes his way of demonstrating love may be deemed as intense, but he never pretends otherwise and they spend actual happy quality time together.
This is not "the relationship is full of drama but let's pretend it's a happy couple with a panel of sweet words and a kiss" kind of romance and it feels like a breath of fresh air.

Having said that, I wanna add that the art is gorgeous and the story is developing smoothly.
Overall, I' enjoyed it quite a lot and I hope it keeps up this way.

I would honestly say that this is not like any typical shoujo/romance series. The way the characters are very skillfully written, their personalities, how they interact with each other, their character development, it's obvious how much thought the author put into each of them.

I get why a lot of people drop this in the beginning, ML starts off as an obvious red flag (hence the title literally meaning "Hananoi-kun and the Disease of Love"), he was pretty much borderline lovebombing all his past girlfriends and he just went out with whoever asked him out first, even I won't defend him on this because it ... was that bad. If this was real life, I'd suggest he go see a professional and get some therapy. His lack of love from his parents and how he took an old man's advice the wrong way doesn't excuse him for his actions but at least it would help the readers understand why he is the way he is. It's such a waste how people drop this after only a few chapters because they're missing out a lot.

I understood him more too because there was also an actual reason why he asked Hotaru out, it wasn't just some kind of spur of the moment, love at first sight or whatever. He was a bit extreme at first but it's not like Hananoi treated her badly, in fact he always asked for Hotaru's consent for everything and I commend Hotaru for being able to tell him how she feels about his actions so he never did anything that would make her feel unsafe or uncomfortable, he respected her immensely. This isn't a "I can fix him" kind of relationship, it's just that Hotaru understood him and liked him the way he is because they actually communicate with each other. As the story progresses, Hananoi slowly accepts that deep inside he also wanted to have friends and he can't depend on just one person (Hotaru) for his social needs, the character development is crazy, it feels like watching a child grow up and mature. I would honestly choose to defend the Hananoi now(I'm at chapter 49 at the time of writing this) with all my heart and soul if anyone would still insist that he's a red flag, I would like to protect both him and Hotaru and I just want them to be happy.

This manga is really, really bugging me. It's written as if it's a typical cute shoujo romance. Nothing special, girl meets boy, they start dating even though Hotaru isn't sure if she likes Hananoi yet.

The problem I have with it is that Hananoi is continually giving me stalker vibes. He literally knows nothing of Hotaru, yet he's immediately so obsessed with her that he'll do anything for her, such as search for her barrette in a snowy field all night. When they're alone, he throws her against the floor and looms over her threateningly, because he's just so into her he can't control himself. He'll ... do anything for her, but is mean to her friends because he has no interest in anyone that isn't her. He has a shelf in his room hidden by a curtain that is "Hotaru's spot" that he tells her she needs to be prepared to see. He comes many hours early to any meeting they have, because he's so obsessed he prioritizes anything having to do with Hotaru above anything else. Literally all of this would be red flags for me that would send me running. I keep expecting it to become gender inverted Fatal Attraction, yet at the same time, I get the impression the author thought this was a cute romance with a boy that's "a little bit weird." Shoujo isn't normally like this. I think the author made an extreme error, but I can't help but be puzzled how they could fail to notice how creepy Hananoi is.

The good point to it is the art is really good, but I just can't get over how stalker-y it is. I've read a TON of shoujo, but this is the only one I've read where I've gotten this kind of bad impression. This even includes the ones where the male protagonist is one of those forceful "bad boys." The cognitive dissonance between how it feels like the author thinks it's sweet and harmless and how Hananoi's behavior is actually creepy just makes "Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai" even harder to reconcile and accept, versus those with "bad boy" protagonists, you can fully see where the narrative is going, and so you know ultimately nothing seriously bad is going to happen.

I highly suspect given genre tropes that it's going to turn out that Hotaru actually knew Hananoi when they were younger, but she doesn't remember him, and that he liked her even from that time, but Hotaru did not reciprocate. The thing is though, even if that's what happens, it doesn't change the fact that his behavior is obsessive to an unhealthy level. The only thing it really changes is that his obsession didn't come out of nowhere.