Hibino is a pretty straitlaced, straight A's kind of girl who got into a bad school. The high school wasn't her first choice at all and she actually hates where's she's at, on top of having to share her name with Tsubaki-kun. Hibino goes and cuts Tsubaki's long hair because she's good at cutting hair. What I loved about the first half was that it wasn't just about the side characters falling for the lead couple. It was about Tsubaki learning to assert herself and confront even her little sister Sakura, who she believes is cuter than her. She starts wearing her hair the way she actually wants to. When Sakura steals her dress that Tsubaki-kun bought for her, she actually confronts her. Through meeting Tsubaki-kun, she gains friends for the first time. She was actually timid, and aloof before she met him. Before she got into her high school, she did what her mom wanted her to do, which had always been to study hard, attend cram schools after school, get into the best college, regardless of her self-interests. Because that's the right thing to do.
What I liked was seeing that the families are actually there for our lead couple. You don't even see them in shoujo mangas. You hardly ever see the parents of our main leads. Even the way Tsubaki-kun's father, steps in for him when he most needed the support at the end. We can glean that his father steps out of their apartment, now that Tsubaki-kun is old enough to work at part-time and attend cram school and work.
There was character growth. There's Tsubaki having to overcome his feelings of neglect and abandonment from his mother who abandoned not only him, but his family when he was little. Hibino buts into their family drama, through Tsubaki's mom who is desperate to see her son. But they work things out for the better. Then there's Hibino herself. Tsubaki watches her and knows her passion is cutting hair, being a hairstylist. He actually confronts her about future and wants to hear what she wants for her future. Because he's seen her do her work, and work her magic. That was how she got integrated into her class. She cut her classmates' hair during school festivals and everyone praised her for it. She confronts her future, even questioning the goal her mom had set out for her, which was to study hard and get into the good university. I actually saw myself in Hibino's shoes as an Asian American who grew up exactly like Hibino.
Hibino asks, "In ten years from now, would you regret not going to college versus going for your dreams?" "No. I got to do what I wanted to do," her hairstylist sempai responds. For Hibino to actually confront her mom and her mom to come see her at their school festivals, where she got to cut hair, those stand out.
It did drag in the second half, in spite of the excellent character development. I got frustrated by the number of side characters falling for our main couple. Any new side character is a potential love rival and thus Hibino grows insecure, they make up, rinse and repeat. I didn't like the forced drama and the second half had plenty of it. Not enough breathing room. There was too much drama all the time.
This was a smorgasbord of everything you wanted into a shoujo: smut, steamy love scenes, love rivals, jealousy, the kdrama traffic accident, the breakups. There was also a family and heart and love mixed in as well. The parents did the best they could, even Tsubaki's father, who seemed like the bad guy. There was reasoning, a backstory behind him.
Tsubaki-kun is flawed. He's no Kazehaya. He isn't the perfect nice guy. He is actually good to Hibino. Hibino, who's lived the straight-laced life her whole life, who's wanted to please her mother, is actually timid, not good at expressing her feelings or confronting other people from the way she has lived. Tsubaki is straightforward and blunt and always goes out of his way to talk with her. He doesn't want her avoiding him or her having to subdue her feelings. He even stops when she's uncomfortable when they become a couple and get intimate. They balance each other. If it weren't for Tsubaki, Hibino would never have even gone for her dreams. If she dated a Kazehaya, she would've stayed in cram school and gone onto the good university and stayed on the path her mom wanted for her.
