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My problem with this manga is how much I expected from it and how it ended up to be a huge disappointment. I really enjoyed the first part of the manga (though there were some hard-to-believe situations, specially when it comes to the teacher's behaviour), but at some point it just started to make no sense. From now on there will me some mayor spoilers so pls stop reading if you don't want to see them. (The conclusion is free of spoilers.)

I think you can resume this story as "look, these people are going through difficult situations, look how they'll change and how they ... learn how to be better ppl" but failing in the way of doing this. I just don't understand how the mangaka was able to ruin her characters so much. I mean, at first we were presented to a girl who makes a really interesting protagonist, completely different from your typical-shoujo manga heroine, who is not afraid to speak her mind and clearly have a lot of issues that will develop throughout the story. But then, she falls in love, and all of that just goes away and instead we have ye again a super plain protagonist. I'm not saying that her stopping to be a cold-hearted bitch is a bad thing, I think that it'd have been a really good development only if it had been well-executed.
As of the male lead role -Megu-, at first I really liked how the character was written and the interactions they both had, but at some point -when that other girl from the music school appears- he just starts to make a lot of stupid decisions, and even though I can understand that everyone can do stupid things when they're put in a situation they've never been before, for me his way of doing things wasn't believable at all and it ended up being a big turn-off for me.

Also, I really don't understand how you can introduce this background story that it's so important for the plot and for the characters' development, just to resolve it in that simple way. I mean, are you trying to convince me that a teenage girl, after she remembers all of a sudden about her mom committing suicide in front of her and the reasons that led her to do that, got to find a way out of that pain in just one fucking chapter?
This was the most important part of the story and we deserved to see how Maria recovers with the help of everyone around her, and it's not something that you can resolve in just a few pannels.

But the thing that really messed up the story for me was how the father issue was dealt with. I mean, he raped your mother and caused all of this despair upon your family and just like that you're able to talk to him and it only takes you a few chapters to act as if it were normal for him to meet your family and be okay with him saying that he loved your mother??????? And you're also okay with him going to your grandparents house and you even support that, bitch whatttT????? Even your friend (the kouhai) has the balls to say "hey i would like if you and him get along " BITCH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ASKING YOUR FRIEND TO DO?????? But what pisses me off even more is her response to him, as if the things he's saying make a lot of sense.

The way this part of the story is written, how they don't give the importance that it needs to has, and how they just portrait this guy as if he's not that bad as a person, when he raped a 14 YEAR-OLD, RUINED HER LIFE and it just looks as it's not that great of a deal for anybody?
I mean, if you were to deal with this kind of serious topic and you were trying to make the readers empathize with that man you could have written it in so many different ways, but not this one, where the decisions and the way the characters act doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

SPOILERS FINISH HERE

Conclusion: Though the story and the characters weren't exactly my cup of tea (gosh, even the ending of the manga was a disappointment) I have to say that the art was beautiful and I really loved Maria and Megu's designs. Also, I think that if you're looking for a dramatic shoujo manga to read this wouldn't be me first recommendation, since there a lot mangas out there with better storytelling, BUT it was entertaining enough to keep me reading through 90 chapters just because I really wanted to know how it ended, so I have to give it some points for that.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this manga so much when I first saw it in a list of recommendations.

About the story, the main premise it's like any other shoujo: two people have to get married because some extremely weird circumstances. BUT, the way the author develops is the reason why I enjoyed it so much.
I loved Chiwa and Hokuto, and how they were always trying to manage their relationship, first by getting to understand each other and then their way to maintain it. I was moved by their love.
The one thing that I didn't like is the author's way to solve ... some problems between them, they're both really violent people and that's not very healthy even if they really love each other. Apart from some rape jokes that I didn't like at all. But of course, I really liked the dynamic between them, and their fights were very enjoyable too (and justified in most of the times, not like other mangas whose characters overreact a lot more).

I really enjoyed the trouble's that surrounded Hokuto's life, but I would have liked the author to get a little bit deeper in the Mamiya's family, I missed a bit more of interaction with Souta, for example.

Also, another thing that I didn't like was how much Chiwa's life was focusing on her husband, I mean, she barely had friends to hang out with and I missed that kind of interactions as comic relief, but well, it's nothing that important either, since the series is focused in their relation.

The art is awesome, I really liked the design of the characters, especially Hokuto's design. I mean, there are some frames that are just sooo nice to look at. The same goes for Chiwa.

To be honest, I didn't want to write a rant about this, but I then thought that I had to say a couple of things about this anime. (Excuse if there are any mistakes, English is not my first language).

At first, we can see a cute girl who makes a strange deal with some hot guy, and then they start a fake relationship... Yay! Now the girl is happy because she thinks that with that, she can fit in some group of classmates who also have boyfriends. (How fucked up is that?) Anyway, everyone's been scared of not fitting in, and even though she does ... a ridiculous thing, maybe we can just ignore this and continue to watch the series.

But, the thing is that this boy is nothing but a bully. He takes advantage of the situation (because she let him do that, okay, fine, let's continue) and does nothing but humilliate her over and over again, and well, this girl falls in love with him even though he is steping all over her (Seriously, she needs to love herself a little more).
I'm sorry, but I can't see a healthy relationship coming of this.

To be honest, the only reason I kept watching this anime was because I had high hopes for her. I wanted her to become a strong woman and to be able to ditch him or make things clear to him, to not be teased, and above all things, be respected.

Well, we can see a little development in the guy's attitude, and he's not THAT bad anymore (even though he's still a over-protective boyfriend, and has a serious jealousy problem. Ah, and he's a little bit selfish too.)

Well, in conclusion, I don't understand why is it that this anime has such a high rate, well, of course it may be addictive and you can see one episode after another, but when you stop and analyze it a little bit, you can see that the relationship is unhealthy, and the girl is a little bit dumb and the guy is an abusive prick.

PD. Sure enough, the art is good, and the characters' designs are beautiful.

In my case, this manga far exceeded my expectations.

The plot is original, of course it has a lot fiction in it, and it can be difficult at first to start to enjoy the story if you look for more believable shoujo mangas, but I'm sure it won't be a dissapointment.
I loved Teru, seriously, she is a fine main character, I found her actions and her way of confronting things very believable, and that's the thing that, in my case, makes the difference among other series. Of course there are some clichés, after all, it's a shoujo manga, but I'm the kind of person that ... isn't bothered by them if the story is well executed.

On the other hand, we have Kurosaki, a sweet cutie-pie too good for this world. I mean, he's not an innocent man or anything, he has commited some sinful things (as the author makes us understand throughout the story) but that doesn't make him a bad person. It just makes him human. And of course, how can we not forgive him for what he had done in the past? He's in so much pain that I was so glad that he found someone to help him to bear with it.

Now, I'm going to get into the relationship between those two. If you are looking for a nice couple worth of being shipped, this is the one. They are just so nice together, and it's such a healthy relationship. I know that I sound like a crazy fangirl, but I'm all about good romances. And luckily, they aren't cheesy at all, most of the time they interact with each other it's just as a comic relief, but when things turn serious, they become this amazing couple, where they support and protect one another.

In conclusion, this manga is well-worth of your time if you enjoy a good romance between two great characters that will make you laugh more than once, also, the art is very nice and I have to point out how the mangaka drew the eyes, because they are just beautiful and full of emotions (especially Teru's).

There's only one thing that made me rate this manga an 8 instead of a 10, and it is that the hacker thing and the huge plot that develops throughout the story wasn't my cup of tea. Sometimes it was well executed and interesting, but other times I just felt that they were extending it too much.

This is going to be a really short review, but I just wanted to say a couple of things about this manga. (Sorry if there are any mistakes, English is not my first language)

Koukou Debut is a enjoyable manga depending on what you look for in a shoujo manga, most of the people who read shoujo mangas (including myself) are just looking for a simple story that entertain us, and that's the reason why we usually ignore the sexist aspects that most of these mangas have, or the poorly way they are written sometimes.

I had to say it. Haruna, the main character (from my point ... of view) apart from not having the delicate figure that most of shoujo heroines have, is nothing but a stereotypical high school girl. Because of that, I couldn't relate to her, she just overreacted to every little thing that happened near her, and her boyfriend just had to make sure she was okay. It's not that I didn't like her because of her selfishness or how dense and innocent she was, it's just that even though she made mistakes, she didn't learn from them most of the time, and that attitude just stress me out a little bit. I mean, whereas Yoh went through a huge character development, she barely progressed.
Besides, sometimes it was difficult for me to find the logic in some character's actions, since there were just for the sake of the drama.

I can understand if you disagree with me at this, but you can't tell me that the main premise of this manga, where the proganist's main goal when she arrived to high school was just to find a boyfriend, isn't a little bit sexist. A girl is nothing without a boy by her side, huh? I understand that this is fiction, but in my case, I think it just made the story less believable.

But, don't get me wrong, overall I enjoyed the series, and I don't regret reading it. I even found myself laughing out loud at it a couple of times. It's a fine reading if you are looking for a light-hearted manga, but it's nothing memorable.

This is my first review, so please be easy on me...

Story: 8
At the beginning of the story, you'll find the stereotypical high school love story, where an ordinary girl starts to like the smoking-hot-and-also-ridiculously-popular boy of her school. Well, some people find these kind of stories boring since they look the same, but you know, even though at first sight you can just look at it and think it's jut the typical shojo manga, when you start reading it you realize that isnt the case.
In these kind of stories, where the plot tends to follow some cliches, the quality of the characters and the way ... the story is told are the key that states the difference between a good romance and a unrealistic romance.

In Strobe Edge, Io Sakisaka tells us a story about growing up and what is the meaning of it, while her characters go through their firsts loves and heartbreaks, a shojo manga where the life of its characters isn't always rainbows and glitter, but also rough situations where the characters are aware of their feelings and what they sould do, but are unable to do it.
The story has the perfect pace, the rythm never falls down and every chapter it's necessary to tell the story the way it should be told. It isn't too rushed and you can clearly see how its characters are developing, as the feelings they go through don't appear from one day to another (something I really hate to find when I read something, since it makes the story look less realistic).

Characters: 9
I believe that what made this romance story so enjoyable was its characters. I'm glad that I didn't end up stressing over the main character for being so pasive and not doing anything but complaint about how miserable her situation is (which happens really often in other shojo mangas). Rather than that, Ninako is, by all means, a cute girl, very kind to others, honest, and a good friend, but she also can be selfish and inmature, what makes her nothing but a human being. Sometimes you'll want to comfort her and other times you'll disagree with her decisions, but in a way that you understand them just because what she was feeling at that moment.

Ren. Oh my god, this guy. First of all, he is a nice guy. I know this may seem obvious, but if you think of all the times we've seen good girls losing themself over bad boys, it doesn't look so obvious. He is just a teenage boy with a nice sense of responsability and loyalty. (SPOILER - STOP READING). Okay, about this, I really liked how of a good boyfriend he was, because to be honest, I don't think the situation with his girlfriend was the best of all, and despite of that, he knew he had to be there for her, because he wanted her to be happy above all things, and then he decided to ignore her growing feelings for Ninako, because it didn't seem alright. (END OF SPOILER)

Andou. Well, you can see him as the guy who is always against the male character because he's in love with the girl, but while reading the manga I realized how complicated his personality was. Even though he knows he shouldn't be angry about something, he is, and he knows it's bad but he can't help but feeling what he feels. He fell in love with the wrong person, and then decided to close down his heart. He's hurt, but hides it with a smile. He has a purpose on the story, and not only does Andou develops throughout it, but makes the other two main characters develop as well. With this, I mean that he's not only the rival, the "bad guy" of the story.

All in all, the characters are profound, and none of them are in the story just because the sake of it. They all have a role in the story, some support the main characters and some others are an active part of the main plot. This characters realize the mistakes they've made in the past or the ones they're about to make, they learn from them, and then they fall down again. That's what being human is. Rather than being perfect characters, they are just good people in difficult situations, where they have to decide between what is right to do and what their heart wants them to do.

Art: 9
What can I say? The design of the characters is just gorgeous. The one thing that I didn't like was that the girls had the exact same face and that the only thing that made them different from each other was their hair. Seriously, sometimes I got really confused because of this, even though I should be used to it by now.

Enjoyment: 10
I personally loved this manga, when I started reading it I just couldn't put it down. I loved all of the characters and it was something that I read with pleasure, because even though it has some drama, it's not the kind of drama that stress you out and makes you want to punch some character right on the face. With this I don't mean that it's boring because nothing bad really happens, I'm just saying that it is a story about some teenagers who could easily be real, and because of that you can relate to it as well.