Dekinai Futari

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Not a bad one; and a manga that's definitely underrated in my opinion. Especially considering it got a decent live-action movie rendition, too.

I oscillate between giving this a 6.5/10 to 7.5/10 depending on the chapters. I'll be honest: the most infuriating part is the (male) love rival. Not his existence, but the way he's portrayed after the two main characters already establish their (re-kindled) relationship.

Which is a shame, because the dude has GREAT potential as a side character without being propped up by some contrived, forced drama in quite a few moments. I'm really looking forward to seeing him fleshed out better, as his background ... gives opportunities to develop him into something interesting.

Regarding the ML and FL: they have decent chemistry in terms of communication. The shift from non-stop bickering to a gentler, more infatuation-fueled relationship was organic and smooth; the writer did their job well.

The dramatic key moment that they led to the couple's breakup in their high school days makes sense...kind of? I mean I'm thick-skinned about these things and with some of my exes we've gone through worse. However, if we take this into the context of a shy culture (Japanese) and throw in the insecurity of peak teenage years, the whole conflict has some validity behind it.

Art-wise, these are some beautiful panels...and there are some 'just OK' ones. Quality differs across chapters from time to time. In general, though, I dig the style but it's basic. Some facial expressions can be awkward/too unrefined...

In all honesty, so far I see this has a 35-45 chapter manga. Anything more and it'll be watered down. Who knows what the author has in stock for the readers, though?

Story: 7/10
The story starts off quite heavily because it mentions a "trauma" that leaves the FL unable to have a love life after highschool (spoiler alert: it has sth to do with the ML). But thank god, as the story progresses, they finally have a heart-to-heart talk and resolve it quite satisfactorily.
The story is not particularly new but personally, I still got quite hooked based on 2 things: 1) The ML is definitely my type (visually speaking) and he is quite a decent guy. 2) The conflict between the FL and ML from highschool mentions an aspect that is quite impressive to me. The ... conflict was a real deal breaker and certainly has a convincing weight on the FL and ML (although it turns out to be a misunderstanding but damn the hurt was so real and damaging). To me, it was quite original and I was shocked witnessing it happened. What Kurose said during that conflict was really realistic and mature and impactful above the scope of "generic romance".
The rest is just the typical situation where the characters could interact with each other and slowly reignite their emotions (which is fine but nothing really novel).
The love rivalry between Kurose and Kaneshiro is quite average and unimpressive to me (tho I feel quite bad for Kaneshiro's circumstances tho).

Art: 9/10
I have seen worse so this counts as good art to me.

Characters: 7/10
The characters are fine and the chemistry between Shirafuji and Kurose from the first few chapters really made me feel sorry for their separation because clearly they really adore each other from the flashback of their highschool time. The tone was quite light-hearted so the romance is not really fiery. idk how to put it but after the angst passes by, the enjoyment somehow decreases. I guess I wish there would be a more "adult" tone because they are 25 already.
The ML was handsome to my taste so I really appreciate the art, but he's acting pretty reserved and sexless... (not a really realistic portrayal imo). So it kinda detracts from the good things that an "office love" trope could offer. I wish the author could step up their game and heat things up.

Enjoyment 8/10
It can be said to be just a typical, generic manga but I feel quite positive towards this one. I wouldn't normally write reviews but idk I quite adore this manga somehow so I wish more people would read and acknowledge it. It's not the best out there but there are mangas that are worse (so I was a bit sad to see that this one only receives like an average of 7-ish - reasonable but still ;( )

Overall 8/10 (a little bit biased) - if you are bored and have nothing in particular to read then you should check this out once in a while.