Kimi ni Todoke, when you look at its cover, seems like generic Shoujo romance manga with obvious development and obvious characters. Even some of actual fans of this manga seem to think that is a case. However, not much people notices how much shoujo cliche that Kimi ni Todoke broke in order to become one of the current most popular shoujo manga in Japan. It has so many appeal points for anyone who is not experienced with female-targetting series and it also hooked me up instantly. This review will be mostly about why Kimi ni Todoke is successful, why Kimi ni Todoke is one of the best shoujo manga to the date.
The story starts with a single girl called Kuronuma Sawako. One key point about this character is that she is 'not normal'. Most of shoujo story deals with 'ordinary girl' with 'ordinary appearances' who experiences 'unusual situation' and 'unusual love', and later ends with becoming 'special person'. In this way, target population, 'ORDINARY female readers' can fantasize the events relation to themselves, and that's how shoujo story worked.
In Kimi ni Todoke, Sawako is 'unusual girl' with 'unusual appearance' who experiences 'ordinary situation' and 'ordinary love'. If you look at chapter 1 and the most recent chapters, you will find that Sawako's appearance never ever changed from the start. The only thing changed was her attitude and way to express her emotion. Thus, she was 'SPECIAL' and 'BEAUTIFUL' from the start of this series. Not just that, she is extremely good at studying, good at sports, good at teaching, only flaw point that she has seems to be her lack of personality, shyness and hikikomori-ness. This is complete antithesis of general shoujo heroine, and this constructs most of refreshing point that Kimi ni Todoke uses to appear viewers.
Let's go more deep inside Sawako's character development. Even though she is beauty who is basically good at everything, she is extremely shy and always with various rumours involving exorcism (...). She does not know how to communicate. She is way too pure and naive, definitely lacks some general social skills and way to express her feelings, which is already apparent in the various start of the series. As series develops, we find these hindering properties starts to be minimized, 'WITHOUT' diminishing some of appeal points comes from those elements. Sawako's appealing personality hasn't changed, but her 'attitude' is the major thing that changed. It adds a layer of realism and to herione and we can easily sympathise and adore her, unlike other major heroines in shoujo series who are mostly like Harem leads in shonen manga; indecisive and thoughtless.
However, if there is a reason why Kimi ni Todoke also appeals to Male viewers, Kazehaya Shouta is much definite reason for it. Situation that character confronts are... just unbearably cute and honest. It is 'VERY REAL', except Sawako's introvert personality. He is, compare to Kuronoma, very ordinary. If we exclude the fact that he is the most popular guy in the school, his reaction to ongoing romance and situation is extremely realistic, ordinary and even cute for male-standard. The way he blushes and react to Sawako is as if seeing ourselves in love there. Unlike most of shoujo male leads who always seems to be in rivalry or usual indecisiveness, Kazehaya Shouta's love interest is a single person from the start to the end, Sawako. It is also true for vice versa, Sawako's love interest was never a person other than Shouta. This makes things clear why Kimi ni Todoke is appealing. This is a manga about 'pure love', which was pretty rare in recent shoujo. And author is constructing this pure love in most interesting, effective and enjoyable way by creating characters that breaks the cliche and situations where characters react 'differently' compare to other manga.
Another key point is, that 'pure romance' is NOT the only enjoyable plot point it has. In has relatively few sub characters and all of them represents one of the key themes that act as strong point of Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako's relationship with her new friends, Chizuru, Yano and Sanada is never set aside from the plot. She is not only reaching to Shouta, but also her friends. It is interesting how Sawako, Chizuru and Yano is very different from each other, yet became best friends to each other. Even though they all have different personality, one thing they share is that they are all kind. They respect each other and they share each others thought. There has never been a serious fight between each other other than misunderstandings. Thus, viewers can enjoy this manga really relaxed, without worrying about some crazy development or accidents we normally see in other shoujo manga. Whenever I read Kimi ni Todoke, always have smile on my face, never annoyed by character what-so-ever.
It is true that Kimi ni Todoke has relatively slow story development compare to other shoujo series. It 'does' seem a bit too slow sometimes, which I can't really describe in this review due to spoiler issues. However, the way to negate that issue was already established from the start, it's Sawako's personality. The story is about pure romance and friends ship, but ultimately about Sawako's character development. Even though it is slow, we can see how Sawako is changing, compare to the start of the series, how she is more active, how she can express her thoughts and feelings more AND, how her personality has always been positive, kind and pure.
Art, is brilliant. Honestly, art was one of the major reason why I started this series. Compare to usual Shoujo manga with huuuuuge eyes, long eyelids, male character with triangle shaped head, extremely cold and tall and, most of all, never ever showing any realistic expression on their face. Art style of Kimi ni Todoke is acceptable for any readers, due to its sense of realism in terms of character's expressions. It is also beautifully drawn without those usual shoujo-style exaggeration I mentioned above, too; it has its own charm and uniqueness.
It is apparent that many people, including me, enjoys this series. Others, who don't, ask us 'Why?'. I can easily answer it. It has a pure story of realistic love. We were tired of reading stories like those from White Album or Strawberry 100%. When other shoujo series puts unrealistic fantasies into the story makes intresting, Kimi ni Todoke tells story of 'ordinary love' between friends, classmates and family and does its best attempt of it.
Kimi ni Todoke, is about unusual but naive girl who faces ordinary situation and ordinary love. That enough is already reason why it is, and will be one of the most unique and well-written shoujo I've seen.
