Story - 7 (Good)
Art - 5 (Mediocre)
Character - 3 (Poor)
Enjoyment - 6 (Fair)
Overall - 6 (Fair)
I read this in one setting after midnight then decided to write this review so some of the things I say might turn out awkward. This manga initially caught my eye as it was tagged and described as a shoujo romance with horror elements in it. Within the first few chapters I was disappointed to find that the horror portion is barely there (they showed stuff like vampire teeth and blood splatters but no actual gore) but that's not why I rated it so poorly.
STORY & ART
I've merged these two sections as I believe the art really affected the story.
The manga started off pretty decent, pretty much whatever events that are mentioned in the manga's summary. It's one of those shoujo manga where the heroine HATES her love interest to the core at the beginning, but slowly becomes attached to them. The story itself is a pretty cool concept that touches on the supernatural and later on, makes statements about fate. I actually really enjoyed manga's take on fate and this is also why I didn't give it a lower score. However, the execution of the concept itself is pretty weak.
Another review pointed out that the execution is part of what makes it so good but I disagree. I could not sympathise with the characters as they don't look like they care that much about their own predicament either. Because of the art style, there were many times where I could not tell WHEN an event occurred. Is this happening right now or is this a flashback that the character is having? I don't know, the characters look the same, the backgrounds look the same, and this wouldn't be such a huge problem if not for the fact that often there are jumps between the present and the past without any indication.
A lot of the characters share similar hairstyles/facial features and at times I had to double-check who is who in the panels. I thought it was just me being silly but I've seen others complaining about the same thing so it's not just me. There were times where I could not tell what a panel was showing and all I can make out are lines and areas in between with different shades of grey. I also just find that the 2000s shoujo manga art-style has NOT aged well and has become a bit of a pain to look at. To sum up, the art isn't downright hideous but certainly affected the storytelling.
CHARACTER
Let me just say that there is no proper character development at all and most of the characters are simply one-dimensional. It could even be argued that some of the characters, including some main characters, actually became more bland during the cllimax of the story and just became plot devices to move the story towards its conclusion. I guess the more melodramatic you become, the more personality you lose. Even though horrible things happen to the characters, I just can't seem to feel bad for them since they have shown themselves to be selfish assholes, plus I can't see the intensity of their feelings since they don't look like they care that much either.
ENJOYMENT
Despite all the complaints I have about this manga, I still enjoyed it to a certain extent since I just like to binge on shoujo manga in general. As mentioned, I also enjoyed the manga's take on the concept of fate. The complaints I had did negatively affect the amount of enjoyment I could get out of it though.
OVERALL
The manga had an interesting premise and started off strong but the quality of the story gradually deteriorated, due to factors such as a confusing art style and lack of character development. I would say give it a shot if you enjoy melodramatic shoujo mangas (esp those from the 2000s) or if you have nothing else to do and don't mind wasting some time (it's not that long) skimming through one.
