Dec 8, 2021
love is really complicated, isn't it? at least, that's what the first half of this manga tries to portray. i'll be honest... it's hard to stomach some of kyouya's behavior early on in the manga (it's a big drawback of the anime never getting a second season.) the whole premise of the story relies on the concept of sadomasochism which is.. a bit much for a school girl romance, but, in the first place, the manga showcases its complete disregard for the general demographic of these kinds of stories by making its literal FIRST CONVERSATION about sex. that being said, that attitude doesn't really last.
...
much like how kyouya's sadistic personality slowly unravels.
i should say, before i continue, that this is one of my absolute favorite manga of all time. it hits (almost) all the marks for ME, personally. i happen to adore complicated relationships and drama and dangerous stupidity so that makes erika and kyouya an A+ pairing to see develop, in my eyes. it's genuinely interesting to see how these two grow independently and together throughout the course of the story.
i think what i like the most about this story is the fact that kyouya and erika don't really change as people... moreso that their connection to each other makes them better and healthier people. i think stories that try to completely change characters like kyouya are disingenuous. it's not that kyouya has to change, just that he has to recognize that he can't go on without considering other people's feelings. erika, of course, is a silly and desperate girl, and she remains that way, but she has some really charming and wonderful sides to her character as well.
life, and manga, would probably be pretty boring if we weren't allowed to be mean or stupid sometimes, y'know?
on that note, the story never gets stale, either. there's always a new adventure for these goofy characters to partake in and it's so worthwhile to see how their relationships develop over time... the way they respond to certain situations and emotions and how you come to understand what everyone is thinking and WHY everyone is thinking the way they are. this story makes all of that pretty easy to understand.
the side characters are incredibly entertaining and down-to-earth, too. i think all of them are fairly realistic, for a shoujo manga anyways. i do think it's a bit sad that marin and tezuka take a back seat after the first couple chapters until near the end, but i'm not surprised that everything was wrapped up in a satisfactory way. sanda is always a stand-out for me everytime i read this. she's the most human of all of these characters and i think there's a great balance of her in the story. it's so easy in stories like these to not care about all of the characters, but every single one of them was entertaining and valuable.
it's your standard shoujo fair, i suppose, but this story means a lot to me. it has endless re-readability, in my opinion. some of the jokes are fairly dated nowadays but that's to be expected lmao. i like kyouya a lot. honestly think it's a bit pretentious to only be able to root for characters you deem as "good" and, while there's no shortage of stoic or sadistic male leads, kyouya is probably the most well-written of the bunch. erika is incredibly inspirational. she's not the brightest or kindest or prettiest (relatively speaking, i think she's adorable but. yknow) shoujo protagonist but she makes up for it by having a lot of heart and being (mostly) genuine. it helps that she's really entertaining to follow.
all-in-all... i'm writing this after my fourth (i think?) time re-reading this and i still feel the same, if not better, about this manga after all this time. it's not perfect, but shoujo manga so hardly is. it's enough to me that i have so much fun reading it everytime... because i always do!
btw: the chapter where kyouya tries to plan erika's birthday date and everything fails miserably is probably my favorite thing that i've ever read. i loveeee when shit like that happens.
9/10, what a gem of a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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