Kiss/Hug

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I'm going to be brutally honest - at first, after reading about 8 chapters I wanted to give it a very low score. Good thing I didn't drop this manga,hahah.
What really stirred my interest for this manga was its rating. 7.90 isn't actually that bad for a shoujo. That's exactly why I was so outraged initially! Just thought Kiss/Hug didn't really deserve it.

This manga has a bunch of problems, the way Ryuu, the male lead, suddenly just falls in love with Yukino, our protagonist, being one of them. Alright, I get the idea of "love at first sight" but the whole thing ... between them was totally rushed and out of nowhere.
The story itself was a little bit of a mess and it only managed to get a grip of itself towards the very end.

An another issue is Ryuu and his painfully one dimensional personality. He's being portrayed as the typical exchange student who excels in everything he does. (While also running a whole ass business.) So perfect, right? Nahh.

Yukino was a little more enjoyable, I daresay. Even though a little clueless and shares a lot of common traits with your usual heroine, she doesn't exactly fall into the category of a helpless crybaby. She isn't great, but not that terrible either.

The "romantic" scenes could have been done in a less cheesy way, I think, but hey, it's shoujo. It just felt a little cheap, not to mention the fact that Ryuu's way of showing affection seemed slightly forceful.

I have to admit that I found myself enjoying the last chapters since there was a nice little twist to their relationship. It made everything seem a little more realistic.

Also as a side note, here are some things I enjoyed about Kiss/Hug:
-the other guys that were in this story were quite interesting, at least three times more interesting that Ryuu, whoops
-at the beginning of Kiss/Hug the artwork wasn't exactly great but you can definitely see some improvement!!
-the little sketches of the side characters at the end of each chapter were great!
-the fact that each chapter has been named after a flower was a nice touch since Yukino's family owns a flower shop and all

After going through a shounen glut, a trashy shoujo is exactly what I needed, and Kiss/Hug did not disappoint. Kiss/Hug does it by the book, complete with forceful sexual advances and the main girl turning her inner thoughts into bad poetry. It was everything I hoped it would be. What I didn't expect was that I'd appreciate it.

I'll be honest, I don't read manga a lot, and when I do, this is generally what I try to avoid. I was actually pretty tempted to drop it after the first chapter, but what really pulled me through was Yukino. It feels weird that I liked her, ... because I generally don't like girls led along by sexual harassment. Yukino is different though. She's her own person and she doesn't just allow Ryuu to take advantage of her. If she does, it's because she wants to allow him to take advantage of her. Even when he's on top of her, grabbing her wrists so she can't struggle, I never really felt like she was being abused. More that this is what she wanted, but she couldn't express it. I understand entirely how utterly creepy what I just said was but there really isn't a better way to put it, but as the manga progresses, you come to understand that's what it was, as Yukino's experience makes it easier for her to tell Ryuu what she wants of him and what she doesn't; something she was too shy to do at the start.

Ryuu, the second part of the main couple, is a jerk. I'm sorry, any fangirls this series may have but I just don't like him. I admire he loves Yukino enough that he won't bang her right off the bat... but in the end, that's exactly his goal; to bang her! He doesn't even try to hide it, private or public. To me, he's the stereotypically "perfect bishounen" in every way, and my god the lengths this manga goes to beat into me how perfect he is. The manga tries way too hard to make him perfect, but as the story progressed, I began to think that was the point. When he's alone with Yukino, free of his perfection, there's something human there; selfish, but human. And really, Yukino's just as selfish as he is, so its clear to see how they gravitate to one another constantly despite how they clash.

As a story of Yukino learning to love Ryuu, it works. I can't explain it but it does. It has just the right amount of sincerity to both characters that I can believe they have chemistry rather than Yukino having Stockholm syndrome. The whole business aspect was boring and distracting, I thought, and I didn't much care for some parts near the end such as the cultural festival that felt more like padding in an otherwise well-paced short love story.

So I don't really have too strong feelings one way or another for characters or story, but the art definitely needs some work. The early chapters looked rather spotty and I never really got used to Ryuu's character design. Hell, those lips made me think he was always wearing lipstick. It's just too brash a style to work for guys. On the contrary, I thought it worked pretty well for Yukino's character design, but because it's from Yukino's perspective, and the manga constantly wants me to look at Ryuu, it has to be in the lower end of the spectrum. Learn to draw guys' lips, Mitsuki Kako!

On the whole though, I kind of liked this. It may be that I don't read stuff like this much, but there was a genuine enjoyment to be had to seeing Yukino grow in her romance. Don't get me wrong, this is still trashy shoujo, but it's decent, bordering on good trashy shoujo.

Overall, I give Kiss/Hug a 6 out of 10.

I dropped it after 5 chapters.
The story was, as far as I got, really bad. I rarely drop manga, because I dislike unfinished things, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Everything about it was very shoujo manga and unrealistic.

First of there was the art, which I gave a 3. I had very hard time getting used too it. The art was somehow very childish, after my opinion and it annoyed me alot! Usually, I don't think art is THAT importen in a manga, as all artists have their own style and I usually get used to it after a while, though this time ... that wasn't the case.

Second of there was the characters, which I gave a 4. The girl was annoying, though she did have some good points. She knew how to say "no" to the guy, which sometimes was pretty funny. But other then that, she was a typicial shoujo manga girl. She falled in love way too quickly, in fact the whole romance was rushed too the point of being unrealistic. The guy.. well, I might have liked the guy if it wasn't for the art. Though, him liking her doesn't make sense. Not because I think he's too good for her, but because he's supposed too be perfect and seems to have alot of experience, so there's no reason why he should decide, after just meeting her, that she was the one for him and then go throught so much trouble too be near her, and get her to open up for him. There was one character I did like though, the main girl's mom. She was funny and sorta lighted the mood.

The story... Well, I didn't really come that far in it :P. I gave it a 4. As everything else in the manga there was alot of thing that simply didn't make sense. I can't go into details though, as I would spoil it for you.

And obviously, I didn't enjoy it. I gave that a 3. :P

Little side note; this was my first review soo sorry if it's bad and I'm from Denmark, so I might have made some spelling mistake.. sorry :(