Even so, I decided to at least go through the rating and description, and it caught my eye. I assumed it wouldn't hurt to read a chapter or two. The story centers around two characters, Sakaki Sui, a slightly
eccentric high schooler who claims to be the proud member of the "going-home" club, and Hiwa Arina, the school's infamous venom tongued beauty.
As cliche or even borderline cringe the character introductions and descriptions may be at first, I genuinely found these characters to be well written. While at the beginning, the two barely could hold a meaningful conversation with another, much less aim towards the goal of improving Arina's behaviour, it is clear through their interactions that they both manage to influence each other. Sui no longer could rush home and laze around after school, as he now had to help Arina. And Arina too, although not initially welcoming of his assistance (which he was forced to do by a teacher), gradually began to open up more towards him (though if you're expecting her words to be any less harsh later on, you're going not going to be too pleased). Soon with his help, she manages to confront her darkest troubles. Their relationship gradually becomes something like a close friendship, and I think most people who enjoy coming of age stories and school-life stories would find it quite endearing. Of course, there are other characters besides these two who help them with that, and a lot more changes to add to the story, but I can't talk of that lest I wish to spoil a potential reader.
It's quite heart-warming to see how they shape each other's lives, the fun they had with their friends as they lead their ordinary school lives.Their experiences were a joy to watch, and I think the first 100 chapters or so of the manga are like this. Is the manga perfect? Well no, some chapters aren't quite as interesting as other chapters, but even so the story managed to consistently bring a grin to my face and I couldn't stop reading it. Also, I spoke of hundred chapters as if it were all the same, but of course the story too develops quite a bit. And that eventually leads to some major shifts in the plot a bit later, towards the end. This arc might seem abrupt to a lot of readers, and indeed it was, even for me as someone who genuinely loved the novel. The tone of the story changes significantly, and unfortunately for plot reasons I can't say much else about it, beside the fact that it becomes a bit melodramatic (though not necessarily in a bad sense). This change could probably be attributed to the fact that the author wanted this story to reach a more general audience, beside just the otaku community who might've only cared for the 'dere' aspect of the characters rather than anything deep or sentimental. And so in this respect we have a long arc that more or less takes up the last 15 chapters of the story, and then we are brought to the story's conclusion in final two chapters.
I would have never imagined myself tearing up to the story back when I first read it, as I thought it was just a light-hearted coming of age story. But, after reading through the last two chapters, particularly chapter 137- the final chapter (though that number probably depends on your website & the translator, dunno why MAL has it as 7) I couldn't help but cry. The tears flew down harder than when I read any novel before, even more than Clannad after story. **I'm not saying this to tell you that it's a sad story or a sad ending. In many ways, it's a great ending, one could certainly describe it as a happy one**, despite that I wasn't surprised to find that majority of readers found it to be quite melancholic too. It's up to the reader's interpretation though. Looking back on it, the ending was indeed pretty amazing a conclusion to this beautiful story. Probably what confirmed it to be a masterpiece in my mind. I am glad I read this novel because it is at its core a very heart-warming story, filled to the brim with great character development and interactions, and so overall, I don't really have much to complain.
I rate this novel 98/100
