Reviews

Apr 17, 2025
Mixed Feelings
Yeah, it's a bafflingly terrible ending, but I don't think the rest was perfect either.

I'm glad the many manga I started following in my love-starved times are ending. It began with the normal guy, being coupled with somebody excessively opposite to them. The trope, of course. Awesome, wholesome, interesting, coming from the development of cosplay and what it entails. How our hobbies define us in front of the people around us. The crunch, balancing life with hobbies, and how jealousy comes from limelights you participated in, but can't prove you did without self-imposed selfishness. It started to become mature, true to life, and true to the things we wish to be recognized in.

The romance worked, as both had a human chemistry which doesn't feel natural in many other manga, or anime for that matter. Away from forced conventions, this one had two people growing together while achieving dreams for one another.

Gojou became more than just the normal guy, he had goals, just like Marin, our co-protagonist. Both became a unit due to their goals, but as they differed, and met new people, life shaped who they were, and what they should focus in. Things got murky, and differences arrive. As both misunderstand, not their positive feelings, but the negative ones, something which doesn't usually happen. Both go through hardships which they wish not share with each other, and damn, it was becoming GOOD. And right as it picked up, it couldn't muster the great story on the other side, but a consistent meandering.

The story takes a pause, it explores other characters, go other places. People we don't care for, people who don't advance the story. It wasn't a side-story, but part of the main one, and as the monthly schedule went on, of course the audience wants the story to advance. Why should we wait if it doesn't lead anywhere? I held onto hope, the story could only get better with the current ideas, and there was some good conflict. The cousin arc, the final cosplay arc, it set up incredible new ideas. The story felt like it opened itself to a new, boundless potential. It could finally be a competitive, cosplay manga, filled with new conflicts.

The story gets so much better after, since the manga does what all romance manga strive to achieve, with many open routes to keep taking. It couldn't end there, it can't. There's so much in there.

It did. It fast-forwarded to the future, pretending all which was opened didn't exist. Oh… right, okay. Awesome. The potential, lost, plot lines, lost, redeemable characters, lost. The lesson in understanding, and tolerance, hobbies, and uniqueness in people. Everything, into dust.

I won't try to hammer and say the author should've ended it better. They had health issues, and had to cancel it. I'm judging the manga based on the quality of it, not on whatever happened to the author. The beginning was good, it got pretty bad, then it got AMAZING, pretty bad again, AWESOME, then… terrible ending. As it is, can't give it more than a 6.

What was good, was incredible, what was bad, bored me to death. A bunch that I love, a bit which I hate. It all boils down to it being a good manga, with big waves which change its quality. At least the art was great, and the feelings conveyed in expression, and the reactions of the characters were awesome.

6/10. Solid. I recommend it, at least for those who appreciate the trip, instead of the destination. Binging this would be way better than my monthly times with it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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