Tomodachi toshite Daisuki

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This manga has a description that, while accurate, will never be able to properly portray this story's strengths. Hopefully, this review will help.

There is no better word to describe this manga than just straight-up RAW. No holds barred. When a character is happy, they're elated. When a character is angry, they're fucking furious. No beating around the bush; just about every character wears their heart on their sleeve and it really makes for a compelling story.

It seems like a classic, albeit tiresome premise: promiscuous girl meets straightedge guy and hijinks ensue. I definitely almost dropped it after the first chapter. But something made me click ... the follow button instead of just closing out of the tab and losing it to the sands of time. Maybe it was the art, or maybe it was the art, it definitely was the art. I love the art.

Anyways, the plot quickly turns much more wholesome than anyone would have expected, and it plays into the strengths of the manga beautifully. You get so many amazing emotional moments built on the back of rooting for this hyperactive girl that you start to forget why she's an outcast in the first place. Hell, you may even forget that this was probably intended to be a slow-burn romance. Either way, I had quite a few moments where I found myself tearing up at this little gem.

You may notice this manga is only 17 chapters. Long story short, it got the bad end of the axe. But if you ask me, this manga did exactly what it wanted to do in the short runtime it had. Could it have gone for 50-60 chapters? Yeah. Did it need to? Fuck no, it explored its concept and built a beautiful little story with a satisfying conclusion. I'll miss it wholeheartedly, but I'll miss it with a smile and not a frown.

I love this manga. Please read it.

The "you shouldn't judge a manga by a first chapter" mentality really applies to this one. Many might be thrown off by the first chapter because of how the female lead is depicted as an annoying outgoing "slut", but in reality all those remarks are likely slander. To be honest, the first chapter feels out of place because of how fluffy and wholesome the manga is but it establishes the resolve of the main duo well.

Hase quickly changes for the better and is open to improvement, and on top of that her optimism encourages the growth and happiness of everyone around her. The male lead ... is also very considerate yet serious when it matters. 14 chapters in there is little romance development but an immense amount of character development.

Art is decent, and the visual depictions match personalities well. Side characters are alright but I would like to see more focus on the mains especially this early in.

Chapters are satisfying long even for a monthly(?) manga, and I look forward to reading this unexpectedly wholesome manga. With all this potential, this is well worth a read sooner or later.

What I expected: raunchy 'friends' with benefits comedy.

What I got: incredibly wholesome friendship comedy.

This manga is incredibly cute and sweet. Other than the first chapter, there's only a few minor sexual innuendos that get lost in chapters of incredibly supportive friendship antics. Each chapter the main character makes new friends, and you cheer her on the entire way.

The underlying premise is basically "someone who only knew how to get affection through physical intimacy is taught social skills", and it's written surprisingly kindly? This is executed with a delightful cast of characters and adorable and expressive art (there are some Really funny facial expressions).

Basically:
Writing: great
... Characters: great
Art: great
Enjoyment: great

The average manga reader will most probably turn away from this type of manga- the "omega slut trying to turn into a "proper" girl" type of manga, that is. TLDR second to last paragraph.

There has been an increase in releases of manga with this exact theme for some time now, with "Meguro-san wa Hajimete ja Nai" being a rather well known one.

These manga first of introduce the heroine- always being a female with a body count(number of sexual encounters) of about 100+. That is not an exaggeration. There is always huge emphasis on how these girls would have sex with anyone asking/they meet. This is ... one of the not few, big flaws of many of said manga. "Meguro-san" is also a huge offender and tried to push it way too hard, to the point that the whole school went through her once (again NOT an exaggeration). At this point the manga starts losing its appeal, as they try to take too much of the cake, ending up with shallow stories while seeming way too tryhard. The story is pretty much always said girl meeting a boy that they stop being promiscuous for. That's about it.

Now onto the next, huge problem. These themes and stories make place for huge amounts of character developments. But no manga really develops their cast. This one here is no exception. Our Male Lead gets developed splendidly. But the character enabling this whole story, our Female Lead, stays stagnant. And it is the same for Meguro. In all of them authors create the illusion that our main main characters grow. But they stop sleeping around- and that's it. They behave the same as before. Their feelings do not change. And it is over- the whole shtick is gone. The manga has turned into your average slice of life romance comedy. Meguro takes this a step further, again, and makes FL say that she still loves her groomer and showing signs of "relapsing" when using kissing as a way to deceive ML- after 35 chapters in. This manga here won't kick you in the face like this but after 16 chapters Hase still behaves like in the beginning. Gets too close to every male person. Is annoying in her pursuit of relationships. The only thing that developed- is that she follows Yuito's rules slightly. It is weird. Like watching gras grow. But it is by no means bad. There are many wholesome interactions but at some point you realize that all of them have no significance and don't bring forth any change.

TLDR;
It is a controversial topic. But the way it is handled could be so much better. The slut behaviour is pushed so much it always seems artificial and over the top. It makes this seem like a parody at times. The characters aren't nearly as fleshed out as necessary to tell a satisfying story. Giving them a 5 pages long "tragic" backstory and bragging about how much they fuck is not engaging (again Meguro being another huge offender). And finally, just showing so little development makes most of these stories look like some self insert hero stories a lot of the time. I honestly believe this is the second biggest cause of these manga having such low ratings/reader numbers, the biggest being people just being uncomfortable with lead characters sleeping around.

The manga deserves a read. Is it a good one? Not really. It is just okay. And that's okay, too. Introducing these topics is important. But as these are some of the first of their kind, they mostly fall flat.

Keep in mind that this will be my first review.

I came here expecting some clone of a clone of a clone, just another generic high school romance manga, but instead i got a really wholesome friendship manga. This manga failed at being a romance manga, but excelled at the slice-of-life friendship manga, so keep that in mind in case you are going to read this, don't expect romance too much.

It was very sad that this manga ended in such a short run, the ending came out of nowhere, but i still believe it is a proper ending, if this manga been going for almost 100 ... chapters, i will cry if that's the ending, so the ending is not bad per se, it's just don't have enough time to establish itself.

I really enjoyed the art, it's easy in the eyes and i think you will not be bored of the art. As for the side characters, they are fun, they have roughly the same screentime as the main characters after they are established, if only we get more chapters we might get some more personal connection to the side characters, but as they are now, they only act as the "friend group".

I really enjoyed it while it lasted, this manga is the definition of "I came searching for copper, but i found gold". Please give it a chance.

This is surprisingly wholesome and heart-warming. I had my doubts because of the introduction in chapter 1 but it was all misguided. Honestly, the way the FMC connects to people through sexual acts was a bit unnecessary for this manga to work, as it ends up being irrelevant for the most part, and takes away from the wholesomeness in general. However, it does make for a great contrast between what she was in chapter 1 and what she became in chapter 17, it's just that I think the author was a bit too "playful" and took it too far with the blowjob in the bathroom ... at school and then the french kiss with the MC right after. That was honestly disgusting... She rinsed her mouth but didn't wash her teeth.

Anyways, if you can get past the "playfulness" of the first chapter then you'll find a short and enjoyable manga that will remind you of "Komi-san can't communicate", where the MC will try to fix a gyaru's social awkwardness, help her make friends, and turn her into a functioning member of society. He'll also find happiness in bonding with their friends so it's not like he's getting nothing in return.