Suzuka

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I wasn’t going to bother writing a review with six other reviews for this manga written; however, after seeing that all the other reviews are a total lovefest without actually attempting to get to the heart of it, I had to do something about it.

Essentially, this entire series is a slice-of-life “love story” about one guy and one girl revolving around track and field in high school. Yamato lives in a womens’ bathhouse with his aunt, who owns it. Suzuka, a star high-jumper, also lives there, right next door. She’s a perfectionist, he’s clumsy, but hard-working. Yada, yada, you see how it goes.

It’s actually a ... simple singular issue that defines this manga. The creator of this manga, Seo, is a very good story-teller. The artwork is above standard, the issues are complex and hardly betraying of its goals and the characters are sublime if not too badly clichéd. (Although sometimes a few of them look way too alike.) The world around them is magnificently established – once you get 50 chapters in, you feel like your know Tokyo by heart and you feel like you know every room of the bathhouse and the school. Seo turns the clock fantastically and from great angles to always give you a new experience. Plus he has a solid grip of the human body and watching the characters in action almost makes them move to the readers’ eyes. However, there is one matter that every reader should know about before starting this manga and it was something that I wish I had been told before I started it myself

Suzuka is a total bitch.

Now, for some people, maybe even most, that’s ok. They find it appealing or cute in some way, especially when she drops her barriers and seems cute. But for the majority of the time, she treats Yamato like dirt. And I’m not talking in a normal tsundere way. There are many times when she’s outright cruel and vindictive, stubborn beyond belief and hardly appreciative of what Yamato goes through just to win her affections. It got to the point where I was literally pissed at her, but there was nothing I could do because I was already so far and I wanted to know how it ended. But the readers must know this going in and hopefully I at least warn some people so they know what they’re getting in to. I didn’t end up hating Suzuka in the end, but I was close, because I knew… I absolutely knew… that Suzuka didn’t deserve Yamato, not by a mile. Yet, he remained blind, even when she treated him so horribly. She had no excuse and the author never gave us one.

All in all, this is a good manga, especially if you’re in the mood to find someone to despise. And while it could be spoiling, the romance is still quite good with several original moments. This is a recommendation… but a recommendation with a warning.

I was not realy going to write a review because i am not really good at this and my grammer is not the greatest, but this manga left me with kind of a strange feeling afterwards so here it is. I tried my best hope you find it helpful.

Short version.

The good:
- The art is nice
- The girls are al really wel drawn and cute
- The emotional moments really hit you and pay off.
- I really enjoyed the later part of the series and the ending.

... The Bad:
- The characters can be really annoying and do stupid stuff.
- The reason for conflict gets repetive after a while.
- The first half of the series is slow and pissed me of at times.

The summary and longer version wil be down below.

The story
When i first started reading this manga i got pissed off at the way characters where acting and treating the main character. I honestly felt bad for him. The jokes felt forced and cliché. This is a manga from 2007 so maybe it was the norm back then, but now they don ’t really hold up.
Later on in the story it gets much better.
The story felt like it did not have many ideas because the reason for conflict always felt the same. If you are not bothered by such a thing then there is no problem.
I did not enjoy this manga in the beginning the main character/girl was a b*tch, but the emotional moments where really nice and that is what kept me going in the end. I gues i have weird tastes sometimes.
But all of that is gone by the later half of the story. I got really sucked in and invested in the characters.

The art
There is not much to say about the art other than it is nice. It has plenty fanservice moments if you are in to that kind of thing.
The character design is easy to look at and aside from 2 characters it was easy to distinguish them from each other.

Enjoyment
In the beginning i did not enjoy this manga at all. But later on that changed, I really started enjoying this manga and kept on reading. And before i knew it it was over.
There is a sequel to this manga, but honestly i don’t know if i wanna read it.
Right now i’m talking pretty highly of this manga, but the only reason for that is because i liked the ending so much. If i take the early parts into account for my scoring it is not that great honestly.
So to summarize. A manga that takes some time to get into but is worth it in the end. If you don’t have patience i recomend you stay away from this manga as far as possible.
But if you don’t mind then go ahead and enjoy, just be warned.

The drama in this series isn't well-done in the slightest, characters instantly end up contradicting themselves instantly after saying or doing something. Anyway, onto the review:

Story (1/10):
There's something I must get out of the way before criticizing the story aspect of the show; I understand that writing a quality, well-written romance is difficult. I mean, a good portion of authors working with the romance aspect of any series tend to believe that melodrama = realistic, well written romance. Anyway, the problem I faced with the series is that...it has absolutely no idea what it wants. The series on one hand introduces various concepts and themes ... it wants to drive forward, including moving forward, competition and the aim to succeed...the list goes on and on. Yet what if I tell you that by the end of the series, it ENDS UP CONTRADICTING EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE CONCEPTS. Not only that, but the series has what I consider to this day, the single worst ending I've ever seen to any romance manga. It was sexist, ugly, and absolutely pathetic; I'm no feminist, but God did it tick me off. The story also suffers from major pacing problems, due to the fact that the author has no idea what the heck he wanted to do with the story. I mean, seriously, in the middle of a character arc, somehow they end up going to the beach (ecchi scenes galore) and there's still time for the author to place melodrama! There's nothing good about the story; I was relieved when it was over.

Art (5/10):
The art is another aspect that needs to be commented on; I don't really mind art, I mean, if other aspects were enough to compensate, who cares what it looks like?
Yet the art, despite being this series strong point, wasn't even average; it was mediocre at best, and just bearable to look at. Over the course of the series, the manga's artwork steadily declines in appearance, making the series look worse and worse as the series continued. One would expect, being a comparatively long romance manga with sport aspects all over it, that the races would at least be well drawn; unfortunately, the artist seems to have thought otherwise, placing all his focus on cheap ecchi scenes that contributed nothing to the experience unless you're actually into that kind of stuff.

Character (1/10): The worst aspect of this show. The characters are annoying, weak and completely melodramatic and over the top. This shouldn't be a problem if the manga didn't take itself seriously. Problem? It was one hundred percent dead serious when it was being melodramatic, especially in the later half of the series. The characters are poorly written, badly developed, and completely unlikable to the extent of hating. The love "triangle" that forms in the series turned out to be completely annoying to the point where on numerous occasions I felt like screaming at the characters due to them completely changing personalities off the drop of a hat and them not speaking to each other for long periods of the series, an alarm bell when it comes to romance series. The characters never learn from their mistakes, repeating the same bloody mistakes again and again to the point that on one occasion I almost ended flipping the desk my computer was on. An um, really painful experience I don't want to do again (I hurt my leg real bad because of it). So yeah, really, REALLY unlikable characters.

Enjoyment (1/10):
I was raging really, REALLY hard over the course of the series. I was annoyed at the characters, annoyed at the melodrama, and really, REALLY, annoyed at the ending.

Overall (2/10):
There is almost nothing pleasant about this abomination. I'm going to stay away from anything else this writer is going to write, they clearly have no idea what they're doing.