Mikansei Lovers
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First of all I'm a guy and an ol'one so my rating for this manga may be unfair since
I'm not a target audience.

Story 3/10 (3=Poor by Mal)

The premise and story unraveling is quite poor in my opinion and the whole 5 year gap in that age is quite something unique considering that only the boy is the odd one (meaning having troublesome past which could deviate him from the norm) the girl is a standard ordinary girl and I presume with a full family and normal dreams (having an older guy friend who is dependable, kind ... and etc.). So the premise is already quite unlikely to happen in our world (there are unique cases I will not dispute it).
The flow of the story goes like that first chapter (chapter 0) tells us how they met 1 year ago, chapters from 1 to 11 tells us a short few weeks I guess and 11.5 tells us about the future. The problem is that author brushed away past and future and brought us quirky present telling us to go with the flow.
Basically speaking author stitched up some wild fantasy that she had in spur of the moment and if we had some questions told to "Deal with it".
So there are 2 ways you can go with this manga either discard logic and read (and if it hits your boyish or girlish fantasy you are in luck) or do not read it if you are prone to ask questions.
Basically think like that a child proposes to go out to a teenager who is one step un to adulthood and a child who took a step un to teenager life. Everything is a disaster from his behavior to his actions that scream "He is still a child" his prefrontal cortex started to develop just know, abstract thinking started to develop just know and still a girl who thinks of going to college somehow mingles with him.
Artificially made up fantasy, I would be okay if author would think it through enough and it at least believable for instance Male lead being somewhat like an adult (There are children like that) but making a fantasy without any logic is in the realm where you think of something before you go to sleep not sale it other people.

Art 6/10

Art is mediocre and typical of shoujo or josei, that being said characters were more or less detailed and pleasant to watch without any over "shoujo-ing". Background was bland and in most cases author used a lot cheap bland backgrounds (white and black backgrounds). Speech bubbles were okay-ish sometimes you could make mistakes and panel placement was up to standards.

Characters 7/10

Leads are normal for their age and feel real besides the point of attraction which gave of a feeling that author was siting somewhere in the park while looking at 12y boy playing with his mates and 17y old girl who was sitting with her friends talking and tried to stitch up those to in artificial love setting.
Supporting roles were somewhat weird like FL's friends rooting and supporting their relationship and a weird "ideal" man being a support and a guide for their relationship let's just say a convenient allies who I would find questionable in real life.

Enjoyment 3/10 (3 by mal = Poor)

This says shoujo but I would categorize it as shounen since it plays more in boys fantasy setting and if i were 12y old i would like this manga probably (Who wouldn't want a girlfriend who is older than you in school).
My point being at first I felt sorry for the girl, later on I was furious with this artificial setting and reminiscing about it all and trying to understand my enjoyment
I felt that I wasted time and questioned the story too many times and my enjoyment at the time was Poor.

Overall 5/10 (5 by Mal mediocre)

If you are a young girl or a boy or divergent adult you may like this absurd story but it is still mediocre. There wasn't anything to remember after reading it, I remember chapter 0;11 and chapter 11.5 what was in between I only remember
feeling of frustration of the whole setting.
Characters are life-like but they are nothing special at all while they themselves are in special circumstances and their behavior towards everything is nothing more than a fantasy of Midori-san (author btw).
I tried to be as objective as possible but am still biased towards 2 things shounen rom-coms (especially harems) and shoujo in general. Those 2 things are epitome of absurdity, authors think that they can make garbage and still leave without any reprimand well guess again targeted audience doesn't mean that only that audience will read or watch it!

The first time I read Mikansei Lovers, about 7 years ago, I remember that I found it to be a nice shoujo manga, even if not among the best of the school romance genre.
I reread it this evening, and I have to say that it doesn't deserve to be reread a second time at all.

STORY
5/10

The story itself is linear, and quite banal.
It could probably appeal to those who are still new to reading shoujo manga.
I don't really agree with the relationship between the two main protagonists, given that they have a big age difference and especially at the age they are in the manga this ... difference is very noticeable.
In fact, the male protagonist is practically still a child who has just started middle school, while the female protagonist is studying to enter university!
I find there is something definitely wrong with them being attracted to each other.
When in the last chapters they now appear as adults, however, I can easily see them as a couple because they have both reached maturity, so even if they have a difference in years I no longer feel as if I was seeing a somewhat pedophilic relationship.

CHARACTERS
5/10

The characters are nothing special.
Plus, apart from the two protagonists and the child girl in love with the male protagonist, they don't get much development.
Above all, the female protagonist's professor perhaps deserved to be developed better.

ART
7/10

The art style is nice, but don't stand out in quality.
It's the typical classic shoujo manga art style, with big eyes used in years 2000.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

In my opinion, Minkasei Lovers is a manga suitable for those who are new to shoujo manga.
It's not among the best shoujo manga you can find around but it's certainly a pleasant and light read (especially short) if you like romance age gap stories.
One thing is certain: it is not something worth reading a second time.