The story's set up is fantastical and gives impression of something made up for the sake of erotic fiction (well, this is a story about and for adults, so sex scenes are not exactly uncommon), which definitely is enough to make it stand out among other works in the genre, but it's the characters who are the true stars that make Sakuranbo Syndrome such an interesting (and free of frustration typical for love stories) read. First of all, they're reasonable - not just archetypes cruising from one misunderstanding to another in order to stretch out the story. While the story is no stranger to awkward situations, they're mostly resolved in a realistic manner, just like real people would handle them (most of the time, at least). The drama that does ensue results from natural human emotions like jealousy, naivete, desperation and grief - they're not overused and usually the first step towards resolving the issue at hand comes from a character understanding their own feelings. For a little while the author continues to set up classic misunderstanding scenarios (often used as cliff hangers), which then proceed to be maturely handled and moved on from within a page or two. Once the readers are used to them the story gets on the track of fleshing out the characters, which makes Sakuranbo Syndrome a slow burner: by the time we finally get to fully understand dramatis personae and their motivations, more than two thirds of almost one hundred chapters is already gone. It's really fascinating how a manga with such a ridiculous premise ends up having so complex and believable characters. Only Agawa's personality seems to be a bit underdeveloped, but I'm willing to accept that he was mostly molded by the events of the story, rather than his past experiences.
The art style is very expressive without being exaggerated and remains consistent throughout the manga's run. It fits the story told and manages to convey dynamism in scenes where different emotions and points of view clash with each other. Just as the plot touches upon the human tendency to have multiple facets, we get to see a wide array of expressions from our cast - it's not particularly spectacular, but works very well. If I had any complaint, it would be odd at times choice for cover illustrations. Due to the nature of the magazine in which the manga was published, a certain "quota" of smuttiness had to be filled, which would sometimes result in dissonance between very erotic first page and actually modest contents of the chapter. At some point we even get a series of "closer looks" at all the female characters with no other purpose than being fanservice. It's a minor nitpick, especially considering how the story does not shy away from portraying acts of physical love, but I suppose that some may feel annoyed with the inconsistent tone.
Sakuranbo Syndrome was already finished for ten years once I've found it and I'm pleased to say that the story still holds very well (it's not often that I complete an eleven volume series in less than a week) and it should be an interesting read for anyone looking for a unique love story. Once you get past the initial chapters, which are basically a prologue and may not make a good first impression, it's very easy to get hooked, even though the author doesn't employ any cheap tricks to keep the readers invested. The last arc seems a little bit rushed, but I think a few chapters more wouldn't change the story's conclusion and everything was neatly resolved, with no loose ends or unnecessary ambiguity. The final chapter took me a little bit by surprise, but the touching finale made me confident that there isn't much that could be improved in Sakuranbo Syndrome and I'm hoping to come across more unconventional love stories like this manga in the future.
