Countrouble

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Countrouble is is a good casual manga. It stands out from the other mangas of the genre with the "help" of Sasara and her magic which creates unique romance and comedy situations. Also, the manga is slightly Ecchi, if you are into that.

The characters are what you would expect from a school romance, the easy going wishy-washy protagonist, the beautiful and shy best-student-in-the-class and the... childhood friend.

The art got my attention, it has a distinctive style. Some pages have nice detailed art.

I enjoyed reading it, it left me wanting to read more, which is always a good sign.

Story - 7/10
Art - 7/10
Character - 6/10
Enjoyment - 2/10
Overall (using a very complicated formula) - 6.4/10 rounded down to 6.

Story: Some cliches here and there, but the overarching plot concept leaves room for originality at certain points. Not your standard everyone-loves-MC kind of harem. Side stories feel forced, and makes little impact to MC's or plot.

Art: So-so for a harem-romcom. Nothing decidedly beautiful, but not hard on the eyes. Standard run-of-the-mill designs.

Character: Unremarkable. Could be because it's short compared to one with 70+ chapters, but there's not an overwhelming sense of attachment. Decidedly cliche personalities. MC isn't a total wimp, but not super awesome. ... Some character growth, but nothing groundbreaking.

Enjoyment: Not for me. Incredibly frustrating to read due to a LOT of expectable plot-teasing. Makes you want to skip to the end. Ending feels forced and downright unnecessary, but pretty realistic.

Okay to read through once but would not re-read.

- - - S T O R Y - - -
This manga starts out pretty decently. The first chapter is actually quite good. It makes it seem like this is gonna be a story about a foolish boy who demands shortcuts, but unwittingly learns that his own effort and hard work will pay off more than any shortcut ever could. It's cool since it tells you a fun and romantic story while still having that meaning to it.

The chapters each progress with a new gimmick, each involving some silly magic and some absurd consequence. Things are good for a while, but then the story ... sorta loses its focus with the introduction of new characters and opponents. The romance dies away and the story turns into an ecchi harem. In one scene, a girl is extremely horny, drooling, and basically trying to force herself upon the main character. There are some other stupid things like panty flashing and the main character having really shallow wishes, such as trying to force Yoshizawa to kiss him with magic, or trying to force her to show her breasts to him with magic. I thought the story was good when it actually seemed like it was gonna be about romance, not some little pervert with a rapist's mindset.

Overall, it still wasn't bad, but things went over the top near the end of the manga. There was straight up nudity out of nowhere. When I first heard about this manga, I heard it was a romance story, not ecchi, not harem, and not porn. Needless to say, the porn was uncalled for and added nothing to the story - it was merely fan service. The ending feels out of character and unsatisfying.

- - - A R T - - -
The characters don't look too interesting. Girls blush a lot to try and look sexy or something. Yoshizawa's hair looks detailed and cool, though.

- - - C H A R A C T E R S - - -
They start out decently, but they don't develop much and end up feeling pretty bland and repetitive. Yoshizawa's character changes significantly for the worse. Whenever the main character does something offensive or inexcusable, he basically just tells her "I can't tell you why I just cheated on you, but I swear there's a good reason for it", and she stupidly just agrees with it and forgives him. She becomes a total ditz; she doesn't question anything he does, which just makes this feel like some loser's fantasy instead of a romance story. He never bothers to tell her the truth about the magic when a lover should be honest about important stuff like that. Yoshizawa becomes even worse later on, though, turning into someone with no self-esteem, just desperate to please him in any way, even when the magic makes him verbally abuse her and make her feel like shit. She lets herself be walked all over completely. It's as if the author thinks we're morons and that we'll accept any half-assed plot like that, too.


Overall, it's decent, but the hentai, anti-romance, poorly executed ending, and Yoshizawa being a retard have caused me to give this a low score.