Marmalade Boy has exceptional art for an old manga. In fact, it had quite a few beautiful panels.
The plot is quite typical for a forbidden romance manga, but it has a different turn. Instead of a regular step sibling, the two MCs families are living together under a same roof (and we can't forget the fact that their parents swapped spouses). The story had a good pace at the beginning where our female protagonist Miki couldn't accept her situation right away and had hard time settling in. Along the way, our main male protoganist Yuu is a bit mysterious who doesn't to express his feelings as much as Miki. Already, I liked the contrast and dynamic between the two characters, and it was a realistic, cute development between the two main characters. The love rivals in this manga also had good roles that successfully developed the relationship between Miki and Yuu, and I did enjoy their individual traits, especially Arimi.
Now here is where I start to be critical. While I really enjoyed the first half of the manga, I didn't enjoy the climax and falling action. I don't want to spoil, but I have to say that the drama was a bit far-fetched and could have been easily solved. The conflict/misunderstanding stretched too far to the point where I was almost laughing at how ridiculous they characters were behaving. I didn't even understand how the MCs reached to their "conclusion" and why they acted in such ways. Maybe I am bit too critical, but that is the only memory I have of this manga, which I finished only two weeks ago.
Overall, I did quite enjoy this manga. I just had several problems at the second half of the manga. The family situation was ridiculous but unique, and the forbidden romance was exciting to read. If you don't mind miscommunication and dramatic misunderstandings, then I would recommend Marmalade Boy. The love between Yuu and Miki is definitely strong no doubt, and their struggles were difficult to overcome... I guess.
