GE: Good Ending

The first romance anime I ever watched was "Kimi ga Nozomu Eien" (Rumbling Hearts); and since then no other romance has just quite satisfied me. Whether the characters were too shallow, the plot was too cliche, or any other wide variety of faults, I was always disappointed- until now.

For me, being able to relate to the characters is one of the most important parts of a manga/anime. If I can't relate, I won't even try to finish the manga/anime. Some where down the road, someone decided that making the main character a helpless, worthless sack of shit was a good idea, and for some reason almost all the other authors jumped on the bandwagon. GE: Good Ending starts off with a male character that fits into the former category, but fortunately he turns into a normal human being who can actually wipe his own ass.

What pisses me off the most is when the supporting characters seem to fall on their knees and grovel for this aforementioned worthless character. Thankfully all the romance in this was at least somewhat believable. We got some good character development, peering into their pasts, which showed us why each character did what they did, which leads me to the next point.

For me, unless the manga is super short, romance without drama is very boring. The problem with drama in romance is the fact that usually the author will blow everything out of scale. The author wants to keep the drama relatable, so he/she makes the drama a small problem- something like a bad breakup. However to keep the story moving, that one breakup ruins several peoples lives, making the story seem almost silly. GE has quite a bit of drama, at some points their was maybe even too much drama for my taste, but all the effects of the drama were believable. One character has a sex tape spread throughout the school without her consent, and after that she has a hard time wanting to love; which I feel is very believable.

As far as art goes, I felt it fit the story line perfectly. It wasn't too dark, but it wasn't too.... fluffy(?) either. I don't think anyone will have any complaints with the art. I found myself enjoying the story line almost every second I was reading. In fact, I read this manga for 6 or so hours straight, and finished it one sitting. The story was just long enough to give us a really deep emotional attachment to all the characters, but it wasn't to long as to let the drama get redundant.

The only reason I gave GE: Good Ending a 9, and not a 10, is because the main character started out as the kind of character I truly despise the most; a worthless sack of shit. If you get turned off by this fact, however, do not fear. After about 10 or 15 chapters his act turns around and he turns into one of the best romance protagonists I've seen. GE: Good Ending isn't quite on the level of Rumbling Hearts (in my opinion), but it sure comes close. If you want some romance with a bit of drama; you won't be disappointed.

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One of the biggest weaknesses of japanese romances set in high school is that most of them don't feel like a high school. The (supposed) teenagers simply don't act like... well, teenagers. They act more like five years old who think that kissing results in babies. This annoyed me greatly, but, thankfully, not every japanese romance is like that. This is proven by Ge: Good Ending.

Beginning serialization is 2009 and ending in 2013, Ge: Good Ending was created, written and drawn by Kei Sasuga.

Its story doesn't seem very original, but if you get through the unassuming beginning, it gets better. Insanely better. It takes advantage of the clichés and subverts them. This makes the whole ride a lot more entertaining to the eye that already saw everything else.

Said that, the events that led up to the finale were just plain cliché and a tad bit melodramatic. But this is just one small hiccup in a road of greatness.

Each of the main and side characters pass through their own hardships and, at first, they seem to be the traditional ones, but the way they are dealt with is different and unique. Differently from most of other romance manga, the characters actually act on their wishes and aren't just indecisive kids.

Also, they aren't as innocent as high school manga normally portrays teenagers. They actually act like teenagers instead of crybabies that can't understand how relationships actually work. This brings a problem: they can be jackasses. But that is good, people can also be kind of di**s.

One thing that was extremely refreshing was that the protagonist Utsumi wasn dense. He noticed what was happening around him and, most of the times, acted on it. Also, he was actually affected by it and became marked by his situation, in a way that reminded me a lot of Haruki Kitahara from White Album 2.

The art is, as a whole, quite beautiful, but the character design took some time to get used to. The characters were much more... robust than in most of other manga, but this wasn't bad, just different.

Ge was a wild ride that hit every right not for me. It scratched an itch for unusual romance and realistic teenagers that built inside me for a long time. It knew how to use its strengths to make everything more enjoyable.

More experienced viewers/readers of romance will find a lot to like here, even if just by its refreshingness. But, and this is a big one, it needs a more experienced viewer to be fully enjoyed, as it plays with the clichés of the genre.

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This is really one of my favorite romance manga I have ever read!
I have found it hard to find a nice romance manga that would please me in terms of having a good and intresting story with plot twists and a little bit of sexy action. This had them all and didn't go overboard with the sexiness and panty shots ect.
It really pleased me as a femal reader because I don't really care about seeing tits or anything in neither anime nor manga, but I do love to get exited when things get hot between a couple.
This manga had a nice mature perspective about relationships between young people and the characters were very easy to pond with and even though there were a lot of swinging feelings and it might have felt like the characters were repeating themselves, it really pleased me so I had to stay up late because I couldn't stop reading.
I would really recommend this for someone who likes romance but doesn't feel like the popular romance mangas please them enough.

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Ge-Good ending is an outstanding manga !

I have to say it's one of the best love mangas i have ever read and i have read many of them .One of the best parts about this manga is the story .Nowadays romance manga repeat everything we already know but to me Ge is like a fresh breeze of romance so passionate that i wish i was in the main characters role in real life .

I highly recommend you read this manga if you're into romance manga like me but warning if you like drama and romance get ready for some tears.

I GIVE IT A 9/10