Cigarette & Cherry

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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.