Tonari no Seki no Satou-san

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First review!

Romance manga always has a certain set of flaws. Often times, there's misunderstandings, miscommunications, and needless side-tracking, all of which derails from the main story. No matter how strong a story starts, drama traded for character development is always a fear.

It's safe to say that Tonari no Seki no Satou-san is at that breaking point, as I write this review. Before I talk about that, let's review what makes the manga exceptional, even in the field chock-full of shoujo.

For one, the male MC thought process is fully detailed. Often times, we as the readers have to create character's thoughts. While we can see what ... they say, what is left unsaid is usually left to our imagination or in very short thought bubbles. For our male MC (Yamaguchi), the story is mainly told through his mind. Multiple panels of the manga will go through his thought-process on life, love and growing up. The internal debates we all have when day dreaming is exactly what we see Yamaguchi go through as he contemplates over the many actions of the clumsy female MC (Satou). The story and internal thought processes are relatable and easy to follow.

Onto the romance aspect, it is very well done.The more someone dominates your thoughts, the more you fall in love with that person. For Yamaguchi, his current journey toward realizing that is amazing and heartwarming. We're at a bit of a breaking point with drama, so I can't say much, but what I can say is that I have a lot of confidence that given how well the characters communicate, the problem will be resolved with minimal drama.

I'll also briefly speak on Satou. We never see her thought process, and perhaps it's in her character. What you see from Satou is what you get, there's no hidden meaning to her words or some complex thought process. Sure, it may be then that she's simple, but considering how kind and likable she is, as a reader, you know she genuinely cares about each interaction she has with each person. What she says is what she feels.

Overall, I think this manga is highly underrated in its genre. The art isn't stunning, there isn't a ton of laugh-out-loud comedy or fanservice "mistakes"; it's just a boy learning what it means to love someone and the thoughts that guide you on that journey.

What I really liked about Tonari no Seki no Satou-san (Satou-san Who Sits Next to Me) is the relationship progress between Yamaguchi and Satou. Yamaguchi is a boy is the silent but cool type and Satou is basically just a bubbly girl who is also a klutz who tends to talk to Yamachi about whats on her mind. At first Yamaguchi would always be annoyed by Satou's rambling but as the story goes and the more he interacts with Satou he finds himself romantically interested in Satou. A big part of the story is Satou's online relationship with an individual who Satou's never met irl, ... only text messages. Upon Yamaguchi hearing this, he became worried as he thought that this individual couldn't be trusted even though Satou likes this individual. Yamaguchi made it his job to not let Satou's smile go away and become a person Satou can fall in love with. He became more friendly towards Satou as a result. I don't want to go into spoilers so I'll end my review by saying that if I lad to describe this manga in one word it would be 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚, wholesome enough to make me cry.

Nothing revolutionary, but seems promising for any fan of simple, pure shoujo stories.

A smart, silent and cold (but not rude) male MC (Yamaguchi) and an overly enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky, slightly gullible and klutzy female MC (Satou) who are sitting besides each other in class. Initially, Yamaguchi thinks of her as bothersome and would rather just want to be left alone, but as simple-minded as Satou is, she doesn't realise any of that and thus continuously initiates conversations with him.

Those two getting to know each other is literally the entire plot of the manga (so far at least). There are no side-characters introduced and the setting ... is nearly always them sitting in their seats.

Over all, it gives off a slightly simple, but very light-hearted, undramatic and pure vibe and from the pacing so far, I don't think it'll take that long for some romance to develop.

STORY:
The story is a simple love story between two classmates who sit next to each other. There isn't much going on aside from the two's interaction. This is something that provides a change of pace from all the other romance manga that exist.

ART:
Art is nothing special.

CHARACTER:
They have that simple character that makes them easily likeable and relatable. Satou is a bit of an airhead, and might be annoying at first, but she gets likeable easily.

ENJOYMENT:
... It was enjoyable for its simplicity and the fact it has some realistic aspects to it, like liking someone who likes someone else.

OVERALL:
This manga gave me the feels and made me want to root for them. It's a nice read for a change of pace. Don't expect too much though, and you won't be disappointed.

Slight Spoilers?

Honestly, this is a hidden gem of a manga. I really enjoyed it. It's highly relatable especially for me. I've been in the MC's situation (close to the end of the manga), I didn't have that kind of happy ending. Honestly it took a nice twist towards the middle to end part, and didn't just follow the typical troupes.

Yamaguchi as a character is thought out quite well to be honest. His soliloquies were well thought out and helped build him as a character. It goes to show when you are just looking at someone, you can never really understand who they are. When you ... are willing to look beneath the surface, you can find a lot that you may like.

Honestly I don't get why Satou calls herself plain. I thought she was cute. Though I do tend to gravitate more towards plain looking, plain dressed women, because they are often worth pursuing and getting to know. Not to say all attractive women are vain and shallow, far from. I know some knock out drag out gorgeous women who are kind, warm and loving people.

I find the plainer someone looks, the more they are comfortable with who they are, they often grow into kind and loving people as well. It may seem like I am generalizing, and I am to an extent. But Satou has more to offer than she realizes. No matter how ugly or attractive you are, have confidence in yourself, because maybe someone will see whats beneath the surface.

That's the message I take away from this manga. I hope it helps you decide if you are going to read it. Honestly it's quite good. I was going to give it a 7/10, but it was more of a 7.5 out of 10, so I went with 8/10.