(Please only read this review if you have read the whole manga as this little essay of mine is full of spoilers.)
I am aware that is an extremely abrupt and harsh beginning, but that's how Junai Tokkou Taichou! made me feel.
To begin with, the story is simply just all over the place. A story that could have had SO much potential ended up being a total chaos because it was taken to the wrong, perhaps worst, direction. I mean, a story about two deliquents falling in love? Sounds good, right? Nahh.
The pacing was rather quick, especially at the beginning when Hirata's confession occured in the very first chapter. There could have been so much room for developing an actual, good base for their "love" - I hesitate calling what is between these two love; it's almost like they completely lack chemistry. I think this is an excellent case of two people who like/love each other but aren't supposed to be together. That's why when [spoiler] Akifumi Hirata broke up with Chiemi Yusa [/spoiler] during the whole Tachibana "arc", I actually felt relieved and fully agreed with poor Akifumi - they just aren't suited for each other. Unfortunately the author kept forcefully pushing these two back together.
In addition, instead of focusing on Hirata's and Chiemi's relationship, everything just became a foolish chase of a final sex scene (there were at least 3 cockblock scenes by the way, which became super annoying). Is being intimate everything there is to a relationship? Well, for Chiemi Yusa in particular I guess it is - throughout the whole manga that's everything she thinks about, "being intimate with Hirata, kyaa", while pretty much ignoring her boyfriend's actual feelings for her.
Now I understand that they are young and horny, but that doesn't exactly justify all the mistakes Chiemi has made.
Chiemi is a problematic character to begin with, because she falls under the idiotic cathegory of poorly executed shoujo protagonists who just wAnt tO sEe ThE beSt in OtHeR peopLe uwu, she's so kind and thoughtful! Yet Hirata's problems are always the ones that get ignored while Chiemi just happily hangs on to all toxic people who have ruined her relationship *cough* Tachibana.
I have no problem with flawed chatacters, quite the opposite. However, when Chiemi's actions are portrayed as being right and Hirata's wrong, when Chiemi blames him for the crap she did (and poor Hirata believes her), well, then I do have a problem.
Akifumi Hirata on the other hand, is literally the embodiment of the ideal boyfriend - handsome, strong, sincere and hardworking. It just sort of feels like Hirata put much more effort into keeping the relationship alive than Chiemi, which is sad. Truthfully, Hirata deserves someone better.
An another thing that really made me mad was how the whole manga was pretty much just a continuous circle of "OH LOOK a new love rival" even though many of these characters wouldn't even have been necessary/relevant to the story, especially [spoiler]the trap dude who miraculously fell in love with Chiemi at the end[/spoiler].
So was there anything good about Junai Tokkou Taichou? Yeah. I found myself hooked on this manga mainly because of it's humour. The comedy in manga is actually good and not dry like in the majority of shoujos and some panels made me laugh out loud (especially some of Chiemi's faces hahah).
An another thing I enjoyed was Yukari's and Ohno's little love story (it was more enjoyable than Hirata's and Chiemi's to be honest). It was cute.
And as much as I have given Chiemi and her personality some cruel critique, she actually has a less naive part to her as well, which was absolutely amazing to see. I mean, some of her actions and words were unexpected in a good way, so kudos for that.
Perhaps the biggest plus of this manga was Hirata Akifumi himself. If it weren't for him, I would give this manga a 5, but he's an incredibly good character, at least on the shoujo manga scale.
All in all, Junai Tokkou Taichou! failed to make use of the potential it had and only remains as a fun little manga with a bad storyline.
