**Story**
This is arguably the weakest aspect of Video Girl Ai. For the first ~20 chapters it's a beautiful story of finding love in the most unlikely of places and overcoming one's weaknesses for that love. Later, however, the manga somehow loses focus and bounces around more episodically, until we reach the well-deserved conclusion. This decrease in focus and shifts in narrative kind of undermine the finale, because at least I wasn't 100% convinced by it. Past the end we have an extra, unrelated volume with a second story - equally heart-warming and beautiful.
**Art**
The most prominent point. The art is simply stunning. Great focus on character design, especially clothing (very nostalgic 80-90s vibes) and lots of zoom-ins on faces. Close-ups are used to portray slight changes in the emotions of characters. That, coupled with a brilliant use of illumination, just works. It's not only convincing, but also naturally evokes strong emotions.
**Characters**
Very human and relatable. The main protagonist is a teenager who honestly struggles with puberty, but also with the kindness of his heart. He's not a people\s pleaser, but genuinely kind. Unfortunately, this kindness often brings him sadness as it's not possible to give love to everyone. The main issue I find with him and partially the story is that as the narrative progresses, it's less and less clear what the main protagonist really wants from life. Who does he really care about the most? He professes love to girl A, but then he's equally in love with girl B and the entire narrative and the motivations of characters align with it.
The rest of the cast is equally believable. The girls are naive at times, but also strong-willed. Oddly, there is only 1 villain, who is less of a villain and more of a plot device, because his intentions aren't always clear.
**Enjoyment**
I struggled to put the manga away and often dreamt about it. I honestly enjoyed it.
**Overall**
Yes, it's a 9, despite my complaints. The manga is definitely worth a read :).
