Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare
Love Me, Love Me Not

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[⋆̩] Shining Rain Review:

I have been a huge fan of Io Sakisaka since her first publications, and since the release of "Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare" I couldn't help but look forward to this project. As a big fan of shoujo for years, I was happily surprised by this new plot and characters.

Perhaps many think that this new story was a big cliché and just really simple, I think the opposite. Perhaps it was the most complex of all that Sakisaka launched until now. With a group of 4 friends, each with their own youthful problems, messy feelings, and differente background stories and family, the story developed slowly, showing that it had many layers besides incredible art and beautiful characters.

Through 12 volumes, Sakisaka developed (I wouldn't say that usually but) in a perfect way her 4 main characters, the stories between them intertwined so well, and although the end was something we expected, the path to reach there left me completely satisfied, because it was not run or poorly explained. Care was taken that each question was answered. I cried feeling the pain of something silly, I laughed several times with the 4 of them, I smiled with countless quotes that seemed to be simple but were completely serious and deep, I felt nostalgic remembering my own adolescence, and I created good memories by reading this manga. After buying even the physical manga, and having read and re-read it, I can say that it is MY second favorite story among Sakisaka's shoujos but I can easily say that it was her best manga. Something said at the beginning may seem incredibly silly, but towards the end you will realize that perhaps it has an even more important meaning. Give this manga a try, I'm sure you'll like it!

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I've been a big Sakisaka Io fan since I first found out about her, through her work Ao Haru Ride. I had watched the anime and then picked up the manga where the anime left off. I immediately became a big fan.

Being the fan that I am, I strongly believe that her work has evolved in what concerns the ideologies presented and character/emotional complexity. Omoi Omoware Furi Furare is an amazing story that discusses how love should be perceived and what is the "correct" way to achieve it.

First, let's talk about the characters: Yuna is the actual main character of this story, and she is your typical innocent girl who firmly believes that love plays out like a fairy tale. Her thesis is that, as something pure and spontaneous, love is something that pops up suddenly inside of you, and there's nothing you can do about it. That being said, she has never fallen in love with anyone.
Akari is quick to recover from past relationships and gives up her feelings quite easily. She tends to protect herself above everything else and thus she is not very transparent or honest. More importantly, she states that love can be built and developed with effort.
Rio is somewhat of a player to fill his broken heart with temporary and shallow relationships. He is a bit self-centred but becomes more altruistic as the story plays out.
Lastly, Kazuomi seems like a pretty average kid but is actually quite an over-thinker and constantly holds himself back for the sake of others. He is not very experienced with love but is aware of his feelings.

Art: 10/10 no discussion. It's up to personal taste really.

Story: I've seen a lot of people complain about how X or Y character should have gotten more "screen-time" or how the story was pretty boring and pointless. Not only do I strongly disagree with all that, but firmly believe that people who think like that must have not understood a thing about the story. Yuna and Akari are pretty different people and their very own visions of love lead them to believe that the other is wrong: Akari thinks that Yuna is just too naive and Yuna doesn't take Akari's relationships as serious, based on how fast she moves on. However, it's when they start shifting their perspective that their love life starts to progress. Yuna becomes more brave and proactive, and Akari lets her emotions take over more frequently. In the end, these changes help them get together with who they love, proving that love is complex and susceptible to various interpretations.
Then we have the whole Rio situation. He has loved Akari for some time, and was absorbed in those feelings: living under the same roof and trying to conceal such a burning passion ought to be a difficult task. Their family life is thus quite unstable. As he overcomes this feelings, he watches Yuna grow out of her shell and falls in love with her, the girl who was there through this whole journey to listen to his rants.
Lastly, there's Kazuomi, who lives in a toxic family dynamic: his brother decided to follow his dreams and quit college (against their parents' will) and so Kazuomi has to repress and keep quiet about his dream of becoming a movie director. His parents' constant fights make him seek some peace and comfort in movies and, later on, fuel his closeness with Akari.

Summing up: I feel like the character development in this story is really well done. Sure the finale was a bit too fast and random in my opinion - it was a bit unnecessary! Other than that, the story is amazing, the art style is great and there are a lot of cute and cheesy cliche moments that we all love. I highly recommend it.

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So this was one of my favorite mangas, I started reading it when it was publishing around chapter 10, I seriously loved the story and I waited for every chapter to drop like it was a drug.

I stopped following it during publishing because of my depression, and this month I picked it up again, and oh maaaan, I still loved it so much even years after reading the first chapters for the first time... and then, I got to chapters 30+

The frustration around Akari and Kazuomi had started building a lot of chapters earlier, but after chapter 30 I seriously was getting angry at how their relationship was being played out. No joke I almost threw away my phone because of the frustration. So many things felt completely unnecessary and it felt like the author was just dragging the story. I felt like most of the charm of this manga was being lost more and more with every chapter and I seriously started rooting for Kazuomi's "rival". I ended up really disliking Kazuomi (and he was my favorite character at the beginning!!) and I honestly didn't give a fuck about their (Akari & Kazuomi) ending.

At least Rio and Yuna's story was still interesting and it managed to keep me wanting to read till the end, but sadly, this is not one of my favorite mangas anymore. Sorry Io Sakisaka, I still love Ao Haru Ride tho, I do recommend that one.

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To put it simply, this is a cute romance story that you pick up for fun, not much more. The plot isn't the most original or extravagant, and Sakisaka tends to pull some nonsense along the way to keep chapters publishing, but it was still a fun little page-turner during the first two-thirds. Later in the story, the fun and joy of the romance starts to wear off big time.

This is the first time that I don't want to review this work in separate chunks (characters, plot, art, etc.) because I believe the main issues with this manga lie in the overall execution (and we all know Sakisaka's art and characters are consistently good). The main issue is that there is a severe lack of satisfying wrap-ups in this story. At some point, things start to just sort of work out, despite the focus of the entire story being change, evolution, and growth. While the characters do grow, and I did appreciate seeing them become closer, there isn't actually much in the story that makes the reader feel as though their interactions have evolved.

Additionally, the actual couples started losing all spark the second Sakisaka started dragging out the story. The 'main' couple of Yuna and Rio, who are great together when you get to see them, slowly get less and less page time as Akari and Kazuomi tip-toe around each other for the entire second half. Akari and Kazuomi were simply not fun to follow after a certain point - can't quite say when the switch happens, but you'll definitely feel it. Having that dragging love story brings the entire second half down, as Sakisaka also throws in a ton of extra family drama that really needed an entire separate arc to sift through, especially since it was brought up in the final three chapters no less. Every problem that the couples encountered after a certain point was quickly and oddly resolved without the reader FEELING like it was resolved and, personally, I'm here for romance - I want the couples interacting as the main focus while the drama shaking them up takes a back seat. By the end, it just feels like everything this story was trying to accomplish was rushed, and therefore it feels as though nothing was accomplished much at all.

Now that the missed execution was discussed, let me tell you what I loved about this story. This was a manga I could burn through in a single sitting if I had the time. For the first 9 volumes, these relationships hook you and keep you engaged with little effort - it's an incredibly easy and endearing read. Yuna and Rio were somehow the sane duo to follow through this (which I didn't expect when I started), and I appreciate their appearances above everything else this manga had to offer. If it wasn't for my enjoyment with them or my appreciation for the friendships Sakisaka portrayed, this story would have dropped to a 6 or 5 easily. Yuna and Rio as a couple have their problems, of course, but they were much more heartwarming to follow than Akari and Kazuomi by the end to say the least.

While I complained a bit here, as I am fresh off reading the frustrating end of this story, I do still recommend you give this a read if you're looking for some fulfilling and enjoyable romance. The characters are lovable, and it's a fun romp, it just has a few bumps along the way - a solid 7/10!

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