This is NOT a romance despite the premise, this is a comedy with hints of coming-of-age for our female MC. And it's a pretty funny comedy. The character growth is subtle but it's there. A very underrated comedy, would recommend.
Story: 7/10
A chronicle of the high-school life of two kids, one fairly normal girl and a strange boy. Fairly mundane but no less charming. It's was a blast watching these characters grow up.
You might expect this to be a high school slice-of-life with the expected story beats come out like clockwork, e.g. the cultural festival etc, and that is true but this is actually a stealth baseball sports manga too. To the better of the characters and plot in my opinion, adds a bit of adversity and goals to work towards. Don't worry though, sports is never the focus so if you're not a fan of that, you won't be put off by it.
This isn't a romance, there are hints of it towards the end but this is never explicit and everything is up to interpretation. Don't come into this expecting a sappy romance. Honestly, I would have enjoyed it if the mangaka went fully one way, no romance or a proper relationship. The way it is now feels like the author was too afraid to commit and it hurts the ending.
Speaking of, the ending was pretty good. This is a slice of life, so the ending consists of the characters going to university but it showcases the growth of the characters and leads to the sweetest not-really-but-kind-of-romantic-move I've seen in a manga.
Art: too subjective to give a score
Good, I don't know what it is but I really like the character designs. Maybe it's the hair? Anyway, it's not breath-taking but it's not generic.
Characters: 9/10
The story primarily revolves around Watanuki and Yugami. Watanuki grows as a person throughout this manga, making friends and getting over fears, all of which is some way is helped along by Yugami. Their relationship isn't exactly a friendship (well, Yugami doesn't consider her a friend anyway) but it is endearing.
Yugami's characterisation is fairly consistent the entire run of the manga. It's not that he changes, our understanding of him does. This consistency is the manga's greatest strength, where a lesser manga would have him change into a "normal" person to be more appealing, Yugami maintains the same ideals and idiosyncrasies he started with. With our improved understanding of him, his actions, though no less enigmatic or bizarre, can be seen in a different light. That's not to say he's totally static, I think he does grow in his own way, being more social and making an actual friend but his core personality isn't forgotten.
Watanuki is equally well written, being in some ways the polar opposite of Yugami. She's the female MC and she's relatively normal. She's thoughtful and self-conscious where Yugami is kind but independent.
There is also the side characters, the MCs are obviously the main focus and get the bulk of the progression but the others also get their times to shine.
Overall: 8/10
A great comedy, with great characters. I recommend this for any fan of SOL comedies. Romantics will be severely blue-balled if that's what you're here for.
