Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta

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7/10 - A Cliche romcom with great characters. It explores themes of friendship and belonging.
*Review as of 24 chapters, opinion might change upon completion.

I enjoyed this manga, with its very common premise of "Loser boy meets popular girl" I didn't expect much. Being a slice of life the overarching storyline and setting are nothing to write home about, but what really shines in this manga are the characters. The characters are multilayered, and flawed at times. Their situations are difficult and they don't get resolved instantly, it all aids to the sense of time. These characters don't seem to be the type of people that ... are "main characters" so its nice to see we get a more grounded viewpoint of their romance.

Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta is a manga which follows the good old, tried and tested, loner boy-pretty girl formula down to a T. But it is something more than just a cliched and tropey manga.

The story initially pans out as the aforementioned trope that it is extremely evident. I mean girl asking MC to be friends just because they both have similar preferences in some movies? I was like "This is some cliched shit alright". But as I read more, looking past the trope, removing those wrappers to reveal the inner contents that justify the ratings it has gotten, ... I realised that the ratings are well deserved to a point. It looks like any other manga in the market, but it explores on the theme of friendship, how everyone is dealing with theirs, not hesitating to show how they overcome the problems. This all gives it an underlying deep tone to a manga which just appears to be a happy-go-lucky manga on the outside. It was really refreshing to see other plot points being introduced rather than the linear plotline of romance. And I guess this is what makes it different from all those low effort mangas made solely for the purpose of money grabbing. It appears author really gave this a thought.

Art is fine. While the overall artstyle is fine on its own, the chibii-ish design at times makes the manga a bit more cutesy which is good and complements the type of manga.

Both character and their designs are good. MC's characters may not strike as the most realistic outlook on a loner, but he does have a huge amount of development than most of the characters with the same loner gimmick. Asanagi (lets call her "black hair girl") too had some great development. While someone can argue that she is unrealistic as to how she approached MC to being friends just on the basis of their similar preferences, if you can look past that, she is a good character. The blonde hair was a decent character if not good. She is dumb, oblivious, doesn't sense how to tackle a situation. She may strike as annoying to some but I liked her as a character

To wrap it all up it is an average looking manga with an above average plotline.