Strobe edge isn't very long, but there is a lot packed into one chapter. It's not a shoujo manga with filler development. Sometimes it's incredibly sad and other times it can be very funny. The contrast flows naturally out from the characters. Another thing I really like about strobe edge is that the main girl isn't just kind and bubbly without much behind her character. Another way to put it is, she feels both real and special. Other characters around her too feel real. I'm not usually into a playboy paired with a quiet lone wolf as possible love interest because it's a bit stereotypical for shoujo manga, and honestly, those types don't even go togethe as friends or enemies. They are usually created for the sake of the main girl, or just fan-serving, but strobe edge feels different. They are there and they are friends/enemies because they have to be. It's that sort of presence and relationship I sense, so I guess the only way to describe it is that the characters and their relationships are in the right place. Of course, I don't mean I like the situations they are in since I honestly dislike reading things like love triangles.
Overall, I enjoyed strobe edge a lot even though it's heartbreaking and simply sad at times. Even if you are not into complicated relationships or stereotypical high school love lives, I still would recommend you give it a try. Strobe edge is a superb example that even with subjects that have been reused and recycled billions of times, they can still be as good as they should be because, if we have been reusing them for so long already, it must mean that they have great potential to be something even more amazing.
