Kageno datte Seishun Shitai

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Bought 8 volumes.

Story: 7
Nothing special. You can almost tell where the stories will go 'cause, yeah, it's a pretty generic shoujo.

Art: 7
Since I never really cared about art styles, for me the art is okay. But it may be kind of boring for people who expect to see something new & eye-catching.

Character: 7
As you may have read from the synopsis, Our mc Kageno is dull, gloomy, and awkward. Reading it so far (vol 8), I can definitely see a change in her character at certain times. what caught my interest is that even until now, the mc never really changed her tacky appearance (usually after ... meeting their "prince", they change their appearance, which is a good thing, but apparently, this route which is pretty new for me is something I can enjoy as well).
As for the "prince", Mitsunaga, he's as typical as any male lead in shoujo can ever be. But I also don't have a problem with that.

Enjoyment: 8
Though I'm a girl, I don't read shoujo often. I dislike many of them for all the cliches. But I'm somehow ok with this (hence i collected the tankoubon). I'm not very sure why, but probably because in spite of all the cliches, I think thisis a pretty straightforward manga.

Overall: 7
This manga is definitely not a must-read. However, it's also not something to be completely avoided. Do I recommend it? Yes, if you have a good amount of free time and just wanna have a bit of laugh, cringe, and sugar. But if you don't really have the time, and need something real good to entertain you and leave you captivated by, then it's not for you.

Thanks for reading this far. This is my first review and I'm not a native speaker, so please pardon my grammar.

This was really... unsatisfying.

Overall a pretty typical shoujo romance between a bishonen and a complete outsider, much like many other stories in that way (like Kimi ni Todoke for example). However, what makes this story so much worse than most others for me was the fact that the female lead basically did not change, at all. In her core, she is a likeable character, deeply caring about others and accepting basically any risk to help them. But at the same time, she has a self-esteem of absolute zero, to the point of that she constantly doubts her relationship and thus also the feelings her ... boyfriend has for her, and it just annoys the hell out of me. She misunderstands something, runs away, and our MrPerfect comes running after her. Repeat this 10 times and you got an overall idea what the plot feels like at times.

Before we get started, I want to say one thing: if you have low self-esteem or are struggling with depression, social anxiety, or anything similar: this is the worst manga to take lessons from.
Horribly cliche. LOTS of wish fulfillment. The only thing new is that the MC is much more pathetic than usual. Kageno is bullied unrealistically, and can't stand up for herself. At ALL.
She needs the cliche "handsome popular guy" to help her out, and takes things the wrong way. (People who read chapter 8 know what I'm talking about.)
The love interest is so cliche and perfect, and of course he falls ... for a pathetic wallflower (that really is how she's portrayed).
We don't even get a reason why the guy falls in love with her.
I could only recommend this to people who can't talk to other people but dream of being with the most popular guy.
I know that someone will accuse me of being rude towards people who are introverted/have social anxiety/shyness/low self-esteem/etc. I'm a person with all three (all four for a long time), and I have it pretty bad. The only (non-international) friends I had growing up were ones that took advantage of me, and that took a pretty big toll on my self-esteem. The thing is, even I had the courage to take matters into my own hands. I didn't think I was "unworthy" of handsome, popular guys. I didn't squeal about how my boyfriend (which I didn't have. Again, no social life) was sure to dump me because he was such a saint. Kageno did. She's continuously given encouragement by her boyfriend, but even then (which I didn't need) she couldn't do anything but think that she was unworthy and a pathetic seal.
Ugh, don't get me started on the relationship. As an outsider, Kageno seems like a leech. She's never contributed anything to their relationship, besides being the "girl who's not like the other [insert terrible word describing mean girls I can't use here]" and thus her boyfriend likes her. She has literally NO redeeming qualities. To be honest, this is the worst way to uplift people with low self-esteem. Why not teach them that they can find strength on their own?