Bye-bye Liberty

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Bye-bye Liberty is about Rina's gradual growing friendship and romance with school prince Hibiki. They start as a classic rivalry / bickering "enemies", somehow evolving into a "makeover" story, where the guy helps her be more attractive so she can chase after her crush.

At first, Rina has no interest in romance, and no attraction at all to the three hottest guys in the school, which of course include Hibiki. Though I've seen that done before in shoujo before, it's still a less common character type, and so I was disappointed when it turned out to all be a facade, and really Rina is as ... much a swooning shoujo heroine as the next girl. Hibiki, on the other hand comes off as that prince type that's convinced (along with almost everyone else) he's cooler than he actually is. I found their character dynamic most entertaining when they're bickering and knocking each other down a peg.

This manga is not terribly original, as it's basically built out of all old character archetypes, tropes, and familiar storylines. It bears a strong resemblance to High School Debut, a manga I think is superior for its humor and much more unique characters.

However, this manga does feel higher quality in writing (ignoring the unoriginality of the content) and art than many shoujo manga out there, so if you're looking for a little light, fluffy shoujo comfort-read, this one succeeds well enough.

This wasn't a masterpiece but I really, really enjoyed this manga. The mangaka took many classic shoujo tropes and gently, playfully inverted them. The heroine was pretty atypical, having no interest in love but also struggling with this aspect of herself. Her objections to love were valid ones and I really felt like the evolution of her feelings was so realistic.

I adored the pacing - there was no insta-love but rather the main couple begins by disliking each other, and this is handled very well - their arguing doesn't feel forced for the sake of a trope. From there, their friendship develops very ... naturally.