Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou, straight to the point, feels like an incomplete and unsatisfying slice-of-life romance manga. There are scenes that feel unreasonable to be had, overly extended in areas and lacking any length in others, and a poorly executed great premise. I really liked this at the start and it failed to deliver. Why?
((The above is completely spoiler free. From here, this review might contain light spoilers. If you would rather have an easily digestible reason why I would not recommend this to someone, a tl;dr will be at the very bottom.))
Story - 3: Izumi is our main character and has felt like a completely isolated person who lacks any ability of social skills or confidence when it comes to interaction. Atleast, he thinks so. His self-defeatist mentality keeps him from gaining any kind of friends in his school or participating overall in life entirely. It makes him feel like a background character. Background character. Please, keep in mind how important that aspect is because the rest of the story is about Izumi dealing with that criticism of himself and how he wants to handle it. The story of how someone grows to not feel like a background character.
So, most of the talking and perspective comes the very interesting mindset of Izumi as he comments and rants in his head of what life is like around him keeping the theme of being harsh on himself but an optimistic outlook on everything else. There is a group of friends near him and, because of the meddling of one girl, he is forced into a daily routine of talking to her and the rest of these people way more than he used to do. (Which was not at all.)
This, in itself, is a really cool concept. A self-narrating main character with a heavily flawed but detailed mindset makes for good writing. Early on, it was wonderful and there are handfuls of scenes that are completely unique and can't be achieved by other manga from this concept alone. So why a 4?
The story was wasted. The main issue of our main character always speaking to himself and seeming like a background character seems like the main obstacle of the manga. From how the chapters go till even how it ends, it doesn't really seem to change. Sure, he gets one special moment in the spotlight that boosts his self-confidence. However, it's like the entire story is working against trying to remedy this obstacle and not in a well-written way.
Izumi makes other friends but only has a single panel dedicated to even socializing with them which is little less of "hi" and "bye" almost making it seem like he has acquired acquaintances only. Even his regular friends are rarely shown to be interacted with. (Although the story would like to say this is not the case, even the main character questions this often.) For almost all sixteen chapters, it still seems like he is a background character with only a shred of hope to obtain his one goal: to capture the heart and confess to the girl he loves who brought him to be more sociable. In the end, the manga only leaves a feeling of empty hopefulness. Minor plot obstacles are ended by forgetting about them and not really dealing with the issue, personal character growth barely seems self-rewarding, and the ending has our MC REJECT his personal desires and feed his sense of being a background character.
--((Spoiler/Please skip this line if you don't want this ruined for you: In the last chapter, Izumi wants to confess to his love but would rather support her own crush instead. This is a nice sentiment, but one that is seen for more than half the manga. It ends this way, with a "Maybe some positive things happen in the future?" cut to the Summer vacation between all their friends. It's disappointing, because it honestly feels like this was suppose to be a much longer series. This is where the purpose of our character who is suppose to GROW seem to recluse back into his style of life before. The unhealthy personality traits he had. It doesn't seem like support or doing what is right for him to become more. It seems like cowardice and giving up. It seems like a lack of finding new aspiration to keep getting better.
It seems depressing.))--
Even if it was cut short, there were plenty of ways they could've cut down on unnecessary details and focused way more on the ones left out. Even more, they could've stuck with a path which is a happy story of a man growing into a person who is less of a crippled introvert or a sad story where someone reverts back into his ways from his lack of determination. It seems they wanted to play it safe and take a middle ground while keeping the overall atmosphere of the manga 'happy' and leave a poor aftertaste of an interesting climax that you'd have to imagine. Wasted Potential. Very disappointing. Our boy, Izumi, starts as a background character, ends as one. Least we have hope. <Insert lobotomizing eyeroll emoji>
Art - 7: Art is clean cut for a slice-of-life. It doesn't often have the feeling of acid-washed pencil sketching and makes sure to make the characters (especially their eyes) show a lot of personality. It isn't amazing and the backgrounds don't especially stand out, but what it does right is done well.
Character - 5: This is a tricky one. You have an amazing main character with so much versatility and character. Someone with SO many flawed personality traits to be made likable. Maybe out of pity, but the pity is spared is mostly for his short, pessimistic moments. The main heroine is quickly shown to also have a variety of personality and design. Her crush has some, but not enough to care about his backstory or why he acts the way he does. The authors thought so as well as their answer to explaining his actions and reasons is with almost a single line.
Even if the explanation were true, he's mostly a plot point. Most feeling and thoughts are, in the biggest moments, conveyed through expressions and actions which is a really nice touch for such a wordy manga. It just is ruined with a completely unused cast of background characters that can't even get both well-written lines or EVEN ART detail. Even the main group of friends is barely focused on to the point I can't even recall their names or even when the manga literally mentions them. Which is sad when you are trying to write a story about the great feeling and importance of strong personal relationships with others.
Enjoyment - 8: You know, it was a unique idea and I was really excited at the start of it. Almost completely invested and hooked at the first diatribe of our main character's notes. Through the chapters, although aggravating to see them cut short or lack some closure/conclusion time and time again, I still REALLY liked seeing this concept (along with the concepts they were doing right) play out. If it actually had more work, this could've been really solid.
Overall - 4: I don't think anyone could read this start to finish and feel satisfied from the execution and conclusion story wise. I feel like people will really enjoy the concept and regret reading when they see it go nowhere and be so underused. I think a lot of people that love romance will not like how the romantic progression is nonexistent and possibly, canonically, does not happen. I don't think people will appreciate a character who is set up for a story to grow as a person barely scratch the surface and, technically, regress in certain aspects and only strengthen his self-deprecation.
tl;dr - It is really easy to read this and, at the end, think "Half done and poorly done". If others disliked it even more than my leniency, I wouldn't blame them. It is hardly rewarding in many aspects and is more a flowery roughdraft that seems exceptionally rushed. Yet, it seems like someone had a really good idea and wanted to do something. I don't know who, but I hope they learn from this and get to make what they actually wanted to. I understand the magazine was cut short and what they WANTED to do was not done, but that fact doesn't change what this "finished" product is.
