Strobe Edge

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TL;DR An adorable, heartwarming read with some slight character issues.

REVIEW:

After completing Ao Haru Ride I dove right into this manga. I honestly expected something similar, but not to the same degree as the previous. But boy was I wrong.

Strobe Edge is more or less about the tides of having a crush. Waves of emotion coming and going, some stronger than others. I was blown away by how well Sakisaka is able to flesh out this story and its main characters so well with a seemingly simple premise.

One reason why I may have liked this manga SO MUCH is because I feel a bit too related ... to the main character. Ninako's feelings for Ren throughout the entire story are very grounded in reality for the most part, a bit overdramatized for story. In some scenes, I saw myself in them for how I have felt in the past with potential love interests, so there is a bias there.

The Good:
- Relatable, outgoing personalities make this manga a joy to read. I found myself liking every single character, despite some of their flaws. This makes it so you don't know who to root for, even if the story is very cliché.
- Much like other works, the art is very cute and has a very unique to the mangaka touch. I personally enjoy Sakisaka's style of drawing characters, even if it's a bit basic.
- Pacing for the story works extremely well. It's a relatively short read at 10 volumes but the story and character development is so well written that it doesn't feel like it was too short or too long.

The Bad:
- Some characters introduced in the beginning may seem to play a large part, but are basically written out by the third chapter or so. I feel like some of the side characters introduced later on made more of an impact than characters introduced in the beginning, which felt very odd.
- Side stories for other characters were a nice addition, but I wish I would've known about it DURING the story rather than after. Even if it made the manga longer, if characters aside from the main three were fleshed out just a bit more we could've gotten some great moments.

Overall, I loved this manga so much. It may become a top romance manga for me, just because of how simple and short the story is. I wish more could've been done with side characters but I am glad it didn't ruin the whole story for me.

*Review contains spoilers*

Story 5/10
So, I do not want to call the story boring, but...nothing really interesting happens. There are no "wow" moments or any storyline that keeps you interested for long. With that being said, there were a couple of things that prevented me from giving story a lower rating:
1-nice twist having the love interest of main character have a girlfriend and initially rejecting main character. This sort of thing usually happens near the end of the story for climax.
2-even though they tried, no love triangles really start! the main character's feelings remained loyal to her initial love interest and she never led on Andou, ... despite his many confessions to her. (I have to add though that I did find annoying and sometimes couldn't understand Ninako's fixation with Ren at first, when nothing had actually happened between them).
3-no characters were annoying or felt like extra.
4-love story develops gradually, which makes it believable.
5-The story doesn't only focus in romance, but it has a strong theme of friendship.
On the things I didn't like:
1-Total cliche of main character being wildly popular and seeming "unattainable", when he wasn't even that cool.
2-Again, why was Ninako so fixated with Ren when the guy barely talked to her at first?
3-The story doesn't really take off.

Art 7/10
The drawings were nice and I really liked how some scenes were played out through the drawings (for ex. Ren and Ninako's confession).

Characters 6/10
I am going start by saying that even though all characters were likeable, none of them really stand out...maybe Andou and Manabu (my favorites). I still don't understand why the entire school had this infatuation with Ren...I mean he was nice and all, but he wasn't "out of this world" for all the hype girls had about him. Even Andou was better drawn that he was. Ninako was very very clumsy and should really get her balance checked by a doctor!! That girl couldn't walk 2 steps without tripping and falling.
Andou was very funny since the start and I often found myself wishing Ninako would chose Andou instead. Even by the last chapter I kept my hopes up that she would take Andou instead. Andou was definitely more interesting and proactive than Ren. Andou's story was actually more developed than anyone in this manga, which sometimes made me feel he was the main character, not Ren. I also enjoyed how easygoing and straight forward Manabu was.

Enjoyment 5/10
This wasn't a pain in the butt, but I didn't drop it because I am that type of person that would only quit reading or watching something if it is too horrible. There were some good scenes (like Ren and Ninako's confession, Ren confronting Ninako about her feelings).

Overall 5/10
So, this manga is just OK. I think it is overrated. If you like reading, then do it for the sake of reading something. If you are looking for an interesting, good story, look somewhere else.

It is not because i am an odious or ridiculous girl
It's just that the story seemed like a total crap
The protagonist is a complete idiot and stupid, I had not seen such a repugnant character in my life
I Hate the female protagonist from start to finish
I also detested the male protagonist too because he was a pathetic boy and he was unfriendly and disgusting, totally disgusting
I only liked the girl named Maya, the development of her character was the best in all of history
That's why I didn't like the story at all
Because it was a complete shit from start to finish