What really stirred my interest for this manga was its rating. 7.90 isn't actually that bad for a shoujo. That's exactly why I was so outraged initially! Just thought Kiss/Hug didn't really deserve it.
This manga has a bunch of problems, the way Ryuu, the male lead, suddenly just falls in love with Yukino, our protagonist, being one of them. Alright, I get the idea of "love at first sight" but the whole thing between them was totally rushed and out of nowhere.
The story itself was a little bit of a mess and it only managed to get a grip of itself towards the very end.
An another issue is Ryuu and his painfully one dimensional personality. He's being portrayed as the typical exchange student who excels in everything he does. (While also running a whole ass business.) So perfect, right? Nahh.
Yukino was a little more enjoyable, I daresay. Even though a little clueless and shares a lot of common traits with your usual heroine, she doesn't exactly fall into the category of a helpless crybaby. She isn't great, but not that terrible either.
The "romantic" scenes could have been done in a less cheesy way, I think, but hey, it's shoujo. It just felt a little cheap, not to mention the fact that Ryuu's way of showing affection seemed slightly forceful.
I have to admit that I found myself enjoying the last chapters since there was a nice little twist to their relationship. It made everything seem a little more realistic.
Also as a side note, here are some things I enjoyed about Kiss/Hug:
-the other guys that were in this story were quite interesting, at least three times more interesting that Ryuu, whoops
-at the beginning of Kiss/Hug the artwork wasn't exactly great but you can definitely see some improvement!!
-the little sketches of the side characters at the end of each chapter were great!
-the fact that each chapter has been named after a flower was a nice touch since Yukino's family owns a flower shop and all
