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STORY
Impression after reading the description: a typical shoujo, unpopular girl gets noticed, falls in love with popular boy that gives her a lot of attention and then they live happily ever after like a fairy tale. Not to mention that the characters look extremely plain.

Impression after reading all available chapters: this is the story of an outcast.. and how she develops into a member of society and how she gains self insight through her relationships. It's a story about two people overcoming their lack of confidence by confronting someone that could possibly lead to a broken heart. In other words, it's a story about ... courage. Courage to speak one's mind, courage to stand up for your friends, courage to make a change.

ART
The art is quite different from other shoujo series which I found disappointing at first, but the realistic reactions also adds an effect to each scenery that is capable of affecting the reader emotionally.

CHARACTERS
The first volumes mainly focuses on Kuronuma Sawako, the outcast, her daily life, her thoughts after each new experienced feeling and her relationships. But the focus eventually gets divided between her, Yoshida Chizuru and Yano Ayane.

Kuronuma Sawako is a misunderstood, shy, awkward, kind and talented girl. Her motto is to do a good deed everyday and she lives up to it. Due to the misunderstandings involving her at her school, she lacks social skills and is therefore unable to interpret some statements correctly. Her dream is to clear those misunderstandings and become cheerful as Kazehaya Shouta who is her idol and get accepted by her classmates one day. Her logic is shown very clearly in her thinking process, and therefore it's convincing that she has the traits that makes her react the way she does.

Kazehaya Shouta is a refreshing, cheerful, considerate, confident and outgoing boy. He is known for being fair and equal to everyone, so when he starts to interact with Sawako, everyone automatically thinks it's out of kindness. However he shows hints of insecurity early on while being in Sawako's company which causes him to blush a lot.

Yoshida Chizuru is a straightforward, loud tomboy who isn't afraid of speaking her mind. She's very competitive as she grew up with baseball players and has a close relationship to her childhood friends, including Kazehaya.

Yano Ayane appears to be an indifferent and cold girl who rather keeps her thoughts to herself but in reality she's a very kind-hearted, caring and loving friend. She's the most mature one among these three girls and therefore very good at interpreting different situations which prevents further misunderstandings.

Other characters that are worth mentioning are Sanada Ryu (childhood friend of Chizuru and Kazehaya), Kurumizawa Ume (childhood friend of Kazehaya), Arai "Pin" Kazuichi (homeroom teacher and childhood friends of Kazehaya, Chizuru and Ryu), Miura Kento (classmate to Sawako, Kazehaya, Chizuru, Ayane and Ryu).

ENJOYMENT
This is without any doubt the best shoujo manga I've come across so far. The story might seem progressing really slow on the romance aspect which causes the reader frustration, but the overall concept shows how significant each and every scenery is. This couple is so pure that their struggles touches the reader's heart. It took me a while to realize that Kimi ni Todoke - "Reaching You" applies to all couples. The title literally describes the story and Kuronuma Sawako is the perfect example for the expression "Actions speak louder than words".