Koi no Hajimari
The Start of My Story

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If you're looking for a slice-of-life with an enjoyable, stupid, yet hilarious couple doing couply things, you've come to the right place.

With amazing chemistry and wholesome banter, our two MCs are followed through a coming-of-age shoujo high school romance that makes your heart pound yet simultaneously slow down. I'm at peace reading this manga. It's just so wholesome and fluffy where literally ALL characters are likeable, even the jealous 2nd leads. So healthy, so much communication.

I absolutely LOVE the art style. There's so much love put into the drawings, and there are soooo many unique expressions.

I think if there's anything I dislike it's ... the wishy-washiness of the ML at first. I love his development tho. Both characters develop so nicely while still maintaining their personalities from the beginning.

Everything about this manga is just... perfection~!

At first the story was quite interesting; nothing new, let’s be clear, but it was a pleasant pastime. After the two protagonists started dating, however, the plot lost a lot and all the interest I had in the beginning began to wane. The female lead in particular (her name is Hachiya Nanami), at one point (especially during volumes 5 and 6) became too cringe. The only words that came out of her mouth were: "I really like you", "I love you", "I’m happy", "I wish we were together forever". The conversations between the two have rarely gone beyond this. Anyway, in general, every time Hachiya ... opened her mouth, she said things that were either stupid or embarrassing. It’s a shame because, although even at the beginning she wasn't very smart, at least she was not entirely cringe. Fortunately, during the seventh and last volume it recovered a bit. As for the male protagonist, instead, after he began dating Hachiya, he started to give me the annoying feeling of being a too perfect guy... in general, he is a character without any particular feature; he is the classic "prince" of the school present in half the shoujo manga, beautiful, kind, popular and desired by all. The female lead is definitely more original than him.

There are "rivals", as in every shoujo manga, but fortunately they are not annoying, intrusive and insistent as it happens in most cases (except when in a chapter they start stalking the protagonists in an attempt to ruin their date, but fortunately it is a scene that lasts little and has no consequences).

In conclusion, the thing that bothered me the most was the excessive sweetness present inside the last volumes. The couple was so cute that they were almost unrealistic and irritating. Anyway, it’s a very subjective opinion, so you might find this nice. The part that I most appreciated was therefore the first, when the two protagonists fall in love; or rather, when the male lead falls in love with Hachiya (because she falls in love at first sight in half a second without even talking to him🙄).

If you are looking for a cute love story to spend time without expecting too much from the plot and characters, this manga is for you!

Great Shoujo. Filled to the brim with cringe and overdone tropes and cliché but it works pretty well. Nothing is overbearingly annoying to a degree that actually hurts the reading experience. I have only one but quite huge nitpick and that was Hachi from chapter 25 onwards, more on that below. But there are 5 other great things to talk about for that one thing.

Making this one quick. All characters are enjoyable. The annoying other guy, everyone's friends and even randoms/tools that are one and done. You never have too feel too strong about a character and that is a refreshing approach (apart from Hachi ... at times from ch25+).
The story is the usual shallow school experience. Nothing too innovative but it is fully believeable and fun. The events and flags themselves are enjoyable and you never feel like reading is a drag and that you just want to get to a good part. Everything is just plain solid.

Now, as for Hachi from ch25 and onwards.
The author tried to forcefully give her fake depth which greatly hurt her character. A huge part of this manga was characters asking "what is love to me" and "how do I want my love life to play out".
It did go in a weird direction at times with how open she was but that part was amplified x100 from one second to another after ch24. It came out of nowhere and there was no real development that could cause that change in her.
Ch25 somehow pushed her having this idea of "love is free and everyone has to love" -> "I will just enjoy many men loving me". It goes pretty hard and fast and she does, says and thinks many questionable things in a short amount of time. Ch25 heavily leaned into them having some pseudo open relationship- I hated this chapter. Not because of what happens or the open relationship part, but because how it all is forced out of thin air and everyone but one character is just okay with it.
That was not them. It was a spineless MC that was clearly hurt and the average emotionally cheating FL from every cheap shoujo ever. It was honest to god cuck-play.
The next 2 chapters were able to defuse that idea and the tension it randomly brought but the damage was done.. I was honestly incredibly weirded out. The long distance relationship in these chapters is well done, as is the timeskip. Idk why the author couldn't just stay consistent until the end.
To finish things off, the last part of the last chapter has to, for no apparent reason, go back to that open relationship feeling, which she seemingly wants?... and she imagines kissing another guy after her group had a talk about cheating and when cheating actually becomes cheating. It is played off in a "comedic" way involving multiple parties but I honestly felt actual disgust reading this part. Welp. I still just act as if that didn't happen and moved on already. I did love how the author had Mizuno call her out for that in a little extra page.
Also, Mizuno was fully forced by the author to play along with her being a bit too open with other guys- which was not true to his established character at all. He was visibly distressed at times and we as reader knew he isn't fully on board but he did let it all happen for some unexplained reason. Must have been the wind.

Again, this is 100% just the author trying to add some fake depth to her otherwise pretty shallow and one-dimensional character. She was incredibly naive for a long time and even her liking to flirt/be flirted with (which already was a random escalation of her character in ch25) is okay... I guess? But this went beyond just that into "hey, why don't we try with one more person. Maybe this guy I know? ;)" territory. It was uncomfortable and, as mentioned before, not them.
I am happy that it didn't go quite as far as Haru x Kiyo with the "long distance relationship = mind weak and absolutely has to cheat" or Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun with how her relationship with the 2nd guy was treated (says she also loves him romantically but stays with ML, puke). Some saving grace, indeed.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this manga to people liking actual shoujo that doesn't follow the terrible formula so many others have been using. It has that one HUGELY MASSIVE glaring problem but others might be able to see past that part. It didn't break the manga as a whole for me personally but it did tank the enjoyment towards the end.