Haru yo, Koi

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This manga seems to try to go for multiple arcs with only the main character as a common character between them, and each combination of characters having their own set of melodrama. The thing though, is that melodrama only works if you have well developed characters the reader is invested and interested in. Hence, this works pretty well for the first arc. Though to be honest, most of the characters weren't all that interesting here either, with Mariko feeling pretty flat, Mafuyu feeling fickle, and Takashi seemingly only being taken along for a ride. However, Sae was a pretty amazing character, going through quite a bit and bouncing back in various ways. The ... way the arc ended was fair enough and hit a strong emotional note in me. However, the way things carried on after that was kind of weak. None of the new characters in the second arc, or what seemed to be another arc starting after that were all that interesting, or at least were a part of relationships that felt interesting. It was interesting to see Takashi apply wisdom he learned from the first arc and show that he had grown, but beyond that the new arcs never felt that interesting. Still, the author manages to pull things together for the ending, where while it did feel kind of forced, it managed to pull things back to focusing on the only thing that really was a strength in this manga, and present an ending that I was completely happy and satisfied with. Still, everything from the end of the first arc up to that felt pointless. The art was okay. 

tl;dr: A manga about relationships that has a good first arc but doesn't do well past that though it still does manage to end things well.

Despite the somewhat lighthearted tone, I consider this work a serious coming-of-age seinen romance manga, particularly exploring adolescent sexuality.

With these premises, you shouldn't be reading it as a romantic romance drama, but a story focusing on the troubles coming along with sex and love, and how do people grow with these problems.

The plot revolves around several adolescents who are not so experienced with love and sex encounter various situations relating to these themes. They are frequently stumbled by the difficulties caused by their immaturity; in the end, although they are heavily scarred, they learn from the pain and step towards the happy future.

My problem with ... it, is that I feel the ending is a bit rushed; the main heroine deserves more plot.

A dramatic seinen manga about the twists and turns of an emotionally immature college student's love life that isn't quite as good as the sum of its parts.

For most of the manga, the focus is on four main characters:

- Takashi: The aforementioned student, who is living alone until the start of the story, until his sister (and his sister's female lover) move in with him.

- Mafuyu: Takashi's sister, a high school student experimenting with sex and love for the first time.

- Sae: Mafuyu's bisexual girlfriend, who has dropped out of high school and is chasing her lover.

- Mariko: A girl with a crush on ... Takashi who is about to make her move on him.

Then over the last third of the manga, it evolves to focusing mostly on Takashi and his troubles--although none of the other characters are completely dropped, they fade a bit into the background.

Most of the manga is about infidelity and maturity. I appreciated that the characters make choices about love, and aren't simply blown around by their feelings. They choose to get close to people (often when they shouldn't), and then choose who they want to be with (sometimes wisely, sometimes not so much). And over the course of the manga, you can see Takashi's choices improving.

I also liked the artwork. The characters and backgrounds are well drawn and consistent. There is a LOT of sex, but the sex usually is drawn in ways that tell you something about the two people having sex, and isn't only there for titillation.

I did have two problems with the manga, however. First, I didn't find the actions of the characters always very believable--particularly the girls. Sometimes it felt like they were acting in some way because that's how the plot needed them to act in order to prolong the melodrama, and didn't feel natural or seem like it flowed out of that character's personality.

In part as a result of this, the middle third of the manga dragged. One storyline in particular had a very predictable outcome, and yet the author drug it out for almost two volumes. That section of the manga was, frankly, a bit hard to read; twice I almost dropped it.

Finally, the ending of the manga was fine, but felt very rushed--especially compared to how methodical the rest of the story had been. I liked the ending, in terms of the pairings happened that I wanted to happen... but at least one of them felt poorly developed.

The end result is that Haru yo, Koi is a pretty good manga that could have (should have?) been much better than it is. It's certainly a solid Seinen Romantic Drama, and if you like that genre then you should certainly read this one. But I felt like it had the opportunity to become a truly great romance... it just couldn't quite pull it off.