Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku
The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

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Just by looking at the cover picture, you can tell it is another "Romeo and Juliet", "Delinquent and smart girl" cliche slapped together. However, the mangaka is able to turn these overused tropes into something amazing and wholesome that other mangas with the same plot simply could not accomplish.

The plot is simple: we start of from the perspective of a delinquent guy, our male lead Tsumugi Rintaro from a low-ranked public high school, coincidentally meeting with a petite girl, our female lead Kaoruko Waguri from a prestigious all-girls high school, at a cake shop owned by Rintaro's mom. Both schools are also coincidentally next to ... each other with a unfathomable hatred of each other. It is without a doubt both leads would need to navigate their relationship within the web of animosity between their schools and friends.

What changes the progression and pacing of this plot lies entirely with the characters, and the mangaka sure does know how to write good characters. Tsumugi, who is portrayed as a scary person on the outside, is soft and kind on the inside. He is able to learn quickly from and correct mistakes he made, intentionally or unintentionally progressing the relationship between him and Kaoruko. Kaoruko, who saw past Tsumugi's scary appearance and a love of cake, naturally opened up to him at his family's cake shop (for reasons that would probably be explained in the future). What is truly refreshing is that these two main leads are not shy of expressing their feelings and are able to face the obstacles head on whether it be from objections of their social standing or their classmates. The main leads and side character's honesty and respect for their values makes this manga enjoyable to read as they develop.

The art is nothing to be scoffed at considering the mangaka's first published work. Every character's facial expressions are extremely detailed and can invoke heavy emotions, whether they be upset, crying, blushing, or joyful. Every character is also unique and as a reader can easily distinguish who is who. In addition, the backgrounds of each scene are meticulously drawn to give an adequate sense of the setting of each event.

Within the first 10 chapters, there has been more meaningful progression between the relationship of Tsumugi and Kaoruko than other mainstream romance mangas. Although it is easy to see the general gist to what the ending is, I am excited to see how the mangaka will lead the plot to that ending as every chapter has been full of twists and turns, and heavy emotions that is hard to replicate after reading hundreds of the same genre.

If you are a fan of this type of romance genre, I highly suggest you give it a try. Even if you are tired of other mangas overusing these cliches, I would still recommend you try the first two chapters as it sets a solid foundation of what the rest of the manga will be like.

This is your typical melodramatic romance manga where nobody seems to act like human beings, but rather like actors in some larger than life play. Something as commonplace as going to the beach with friends is turned into an absurdly cathartic, life-changing event, with hearty and sobbing speeches about friendship and how much life has changed and how much they've been through in just those few chapters. And everyone is constantly on edge about something or other, and then nothing can be solved in a subtle or simple manner, everything should and will be aggrandised for dramatic effect. People are constantly walking on eggshells, blushing, ... looking away, overthinking. A smile is never just a smile, it's a grand display of happiness. A sad face is never just a sad face, it's a tragedy.

And I get it, that's the appeal, and I'm sure it will ressonate with fans of melodramatic stories. Personally, I don't think there's anything here that sets it apart, except from the art, which is really good. But the story and characters are just fine, and the romance aspect quite weak and dull, and as soon as I put it down I forgot about it completely after a while.

This manga has to be the most boring read. Absolutely nothing about this manga is special or interesting whatsoever. I can't even begin to fathom how anyone could think this is good when there are not only better romances in general, but romances exactly like this that hold cultural value except not a snooze fest. Anyone who likes this needs to be put on to actual peak so that they can see what real peak is.

The only redeeming quality of this is the art. This mangaka is talented at drawing, but dookie booty at writing. Especially the characters. Not one character is interesting at ... all. The character writing is one of the worst out there.

The plot to this abomination is generic and repetitive. This pile of garbage is going in circles, following these steps:
- Something bad happens
- The love interest/friend comes in and reassures them
- They cry
- Yap session about friendship and love
- Everything is fine again
- Repeat
Anybody who says this plot is deep/interesting has zero reading comprehension. I mean ZERO reading comprehension. This is the most flat, boring, sleep inducing manga ever. It only gets a 2/10 because of the art, and if I need to fall asleep I can just read the newest chapter.