Kimi no Iru Machi
A Town Where You Live

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Kimi no Iru Machi's another masterpiece by the ingenious Kouji Seo. He knows how to create and convey the exact emotions he wants to. He can entangle the audience with simple bittersweet romantic plots like no other. And that's precisely what got me to cling to this manga waiting for the next chapters desperately.
The manga's beautiful, enchanting and awe-inspiring despite of keeping an extremely close relation to reality.
The story line is intoxicating. Both deep and unpredictable.
The lead character "Haruto Kirishima" starts out very annoying according to my personal opinion but as the story progresses and the character develops he can be very amiable. ... The female lead "Yuzuki Eba" is my one of my all time favorite characters. A mysterious and kind person. The character development in this is certainly something one can talk about hours for.
The art's just as gorgeous. Really good for the eyes.
All in all if you're looking for a manga in the romance genre just go and read this. But if you hate waiting I'd advice you to start out after the whole thing is published.
(The ending may completely change my opinion on it though)

This MANGA.

It's so good and, at the same time, so bad.

What makes it so bad? Well, let's go straight to the point─the story got too good too early. Yes, what makes it good is also what makes it bad (there's some Yin-Yang shit for ya).

Kimi no Iru Machi (or A Town Where You Live) is good drama. No denying. But the part where the writing was at it's prime happened too early in the story so I understand that to follow up an act like that is difficult. But Seo Kouji had the option of ending the series right there instead of prolonging this shit. ... So what happens is the experience, the praise, and the respect that you have with this manga are now replaced with meaningless fillers and fan services. If you're okay with that, then fine. That's your business. But that's not okay with me.

I was close to dropping this manga because the story got too boring in some parts.

I mean, sure, yeah, there are some arcs after "that particular arc" that talks about the ACTUAL STORY but when you realize that this happened after "that arc", it'll just feel inferior and that's a damn shame.

I'm sure right now you feel I'm over hyping you about this '"arc" and how it is superior among other arcs. I'm sorry. Results may vary.
(Edited: For those of you who are wondering, I'm talking about the "Tokyo Arc" here; the one the anime was focused on. And of course, the "better" part is everything before Volume 16.)

But let's talk about the good stuff now. KNIM is packed with a lot of plot twists. Some mild and some heavy which will leave you in the edge of your seats. I also like the amount of realism this manga has. It's one of the few things the didn't waver even after the series went downhill.

And the art. MAN, the art.

The amount of details in the eyes of these characters (especially the girls) is insane. Even to the point that it's..... creepy. I don't know if that's a standard to Shoujo mangas (even though it's not a Shoujo manga). I don't read them.

And the BGs are aces. Kudos to you, Seo-san.

It's kinda sad how this manga could have been better of what it is right now had it not been stretched out. But even though that it's been through shit, I still acknowledge this as one of the best that I've read. The emotional roller coaster this series has makes it seem worth it even though at times, you wish you were reading another manga. But regardless, I do recommend you checking this one out.

Let me just say I've never felt so compelled to share my opinion on something before. This has been an insane roller coaster ride of emotions through my time reading this. And I know that phrasing is cliched or whatever but I really really mean that literally. When you're on a roller coaster you have a sense of both enjoyment and absolute fright. That is exactly how this was for me.

But before I get down into the nitty gritty let me just clarify one thing first. This isn't to toot my horn or whatever but I think it's worth mentioning ... that I read the raws of manga and not the english scans. The story is in japan the characters are japanese - it's meant to be read and ultimately more enjoyably read in japanese. Any positive feelings I may have about a manga are compounded by reading it the way it was meant to be... so bear that in mind as I give my thoughts on this.

So let's first talk about the...

--ART--

If there's one thing I'm grateful for in a manga is one where I don't have to guess at what might be happening in a scene. And this does everything the right way. Excellent clear cut designs on everything from the furniture the to the country side/city scenery. And more importantly of course the character designs. And that's one point where this manga really really shines is in it's character design. Some really talented people worked on this making sure everyone had very distinct/clean cut features. All in all very easy on the eyes. Everyone and everything is just drawn beautifully. ten outta ten :D


Next up the...

--Characters--

Another thing that happens all the time in shows or manga is when characters are introduced but eventually are more or less forgotten. I can think of more examples in shounen manga in such classics like DBZ, bleach or maybe Naruto whatever.. Right now I'm pretty sure you could name some characters from those series that you just didn't/couldn't bring yourself to care about over time. I think that's always just kind of been the accepted/expected thing to happen with any long running series. At least that's how I've always felt. So it really came as a surprise to me with this one in that every major character that is introduced throughout the series I developed some kind of a feeling for them. Every character is brimming with a unique personality that just jumps out and demands your attention. You feel as if you're the main character haruto or at least somehow or another connected directly with everyone. I can honestly say that I developed personal feelings towards all the characters. That's something that's very rare I think. Not since the anime NHK ni youkoso have I connected on such a high level. So yes, excellent work 10/10 ^^

And finally let's get to the main course the..

--STORY--

As I'm sure you're already aware this is a Comedy/Drama/Romance/Slice of Life story. Going into the plot details I think is kind of pointless. You kind of get the gist from the summary up there and I don't want to spoil anything so let me just describe to you my emotional response throughout my time reading this. I had said this was literally like being on a roller coaster ride. But maybe it would be more appropriate to describe it as a roller coaster that may or may not break during the course of the ride. I can honestly tell you that I experienced very real feeling emotions throughout the course of reading this -- Happiness, Depression, Anger, Sympathy, Hope, Despair,Attraction, Desperation, Fear, Relief, Grief etc etc. It just tosses and turns you in every direction and you just hope that the ride will just end safely.

One thing that you see unfortuantely posted on the forums is people complaining about the the latest happenings. You'll see someone say "I'm changing my score to a 4 because blah blah blah" And y'know I think it goes without saying that it's unfair and childish for someone to rate this based on how they wanted the story to turn out. Being that it tries to be realistic for the most part (at least in terms of character reactions/dialogue/choices) I think we should judge it based on that. Did the author create believable characters? The answer is absolutely yes. All the while having a plot that continues to keep surprising you. It's twists and turns are very much like the possibly breaking roller coaster that you've never ridden before.

But y'know I can't emphasize enough the amount of connection I felt with the characters. As lame as this is going to sound I almost felt like I was in love with the character(s) that Haruto falls for. And that is something that I've never had happen before. To be so incredibly lost in a story that you forget that it's a story. It might even be for this reason alone that I'm writing this review. I was just so taken aback by it. I've never been so emotionally involved in a manga or book to the point where I would break into tears at the story's climax. Just a really, really excellent job. No matter how this show winds up ending I can't deny the emotional rush this has put me through this past week or so. I look forward to the ending and yes, I most certainly recommend this to anyone out there with a pulse. Big thanks to my friend Lee for recommending it -- you sir are the man.

overall 10/10 please check it out

Kimi no iru machi is a manga that will pass to history not because of its beauty, but cause of the original yet weird ideas from its mangaka. First one third of the manga was really enjoyable, quite a nice story between the two main characters developing a relationship while struggling with some typical high school problems and family issues. Romance on this part of the manga was really good, quite a cute story. After that is when the story took a very twisted turn. Perhaps as an attempt to make it more dramatic and interesting, the mangaka came up with a very interesting ... and original new love triangle. This might be the very first manga where the main character, Haruto a guy, gets stolen by his love rival; yeah, you heard me right, he, not his girlfriend, gets stolen by the other guy. I guess love lost against friendship on this part of the manga. If you have ever heard the phrase "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer," well, this manga took that phrase to a new level. Later on, after those events, the manga became a slice of life centered on what Haruto wanted to do in the future. I do enjoy slice of life mangas, but the problem with KNIM was that it was only in the perspective of Haruto, who was never such an interesting character to follow, and not to mention that the romance part was barely present and lost its quality. Haruto struggles for about half of the manga about what to do for a living, even did weird things that went completely against his character, like breaking up with his girlfriend for a random job he got, only to end up becoming, what was really clear since the very beginning of the manga, a chef.

Art was really good, perhaps the only talent and strength of its mangaka, but even the art also lost a bit of quality towards the end. Towards the end, the heads of the characters had a weird shape at the top, they look a bit like the Coneheads but with hair.
Charaters of KMIN, what can I said about them, they lack development. They fail to show any maturity at the end of the manga. I would even venture to say they were more mature at the beginning than at the end. Sure the mangaka came up with the really great idea to just make other characters say "yeah, you have grown" as prove of their development, but their actions still showed otherwise. Something very funny is how most people did not like the main characters at the end of the manga. The choices taken by the main characters were never that popular nor understood by the readers.

Anyway, If somebody decides to venture and read Kimi no Iru Machi, I would suggest read just the first one third of the manga, when they become an official couple, and then drop it and just read the final chapter. And if you do that just ignore the helmet at the end.

I loved Suzuka but I cannot enjoy Kimi no Iru Machi at all despite that both seem to have the same common complaints by readers.

The author seems to enjoy crafting thoroughly unlikeable heroines and gutless main characters who act in ways that no decent human being could sympatize with. Such is the case with Haruto and Eba, the main "couple" of this manga.

To make a long story short, Eba is basically responsible for Haruto losing his chance with his first love, and then as he falls for her, he grows obsessive to the point that even after she vanishes, he tries to track her down ... - only to find that she had a boyfriend already the entire time. Needless to say, after a certain event, the two break it off, and then finally when things start looking up - Haruto grows up a bit, goes to college, and starts dating a much better girl than Eba, Eba returns yet again and now it has become obvious that the author cannot shake the dreadful "first girl wins" trope and despite how rotten Eba is, Haruto likely will do stupid things to be with her again.

I am a big fan of romance stories. Maison Ikkoku was the manga that got me into manga as a young teen. Many of my all time favorites are romances of either shoujo or shounen persuasion, with series such as Hana Yori Dango and even Suzuka topping my list.

These stories were successful because we actually rooted and sympatized with the main couple. Seo has written Kimi no Iru Machi in a way that unless you're just a zombie, you cannot possibly see anything redeeming in the main couple. And not to mention the ridiculousness of a guy who is now already in a new relationship, dumping her just because the main girl came back into the scene. Seriously, what kind of crap is that? Would you support that sort of garbage in real life?

I have never hated a manga as much as I have hated Kimi no Iru Machi.

Once upon a time, there was a man called Kouji Seo. He was an absolutely terrible writer, with no idea how to write quality romance. He decided to win the Holy Grail, and make it grant one wish, that the next series he writes would be so bad that it would make swear words fly out from saints, a dentist's teeth break, and make soccer players kick their feet against the wall so hard that they broke their feet.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I wrote my Suzuka review, I was wrong. I thought that nothing, NOTHING I tell you, could be worse than that humongous pile ... of garbage. Kimi No Iru Machi is just as absolutely horrendous as Suzuka if not more, and led to me yelling, screaming and cursing the author from the deepest pits of my dark heart.

Story (1/10):

Story. Hmmm. Kimi No Iru Machi follows the same bloody logic as it's predecessor, taking it's melodrama out to the maximum possible level, characters contradicting every last action they do, and I can just put my Suzuka review in here and almost all of the points there would still apply. The series is just as bloody sexist as I remember the author's last work to be, making this series a nightmare for anyone who has any, ANY KIND OF IDEA, about what quality romance is. Suzuka was at least bearable in the beginning, Kimi No Iru Machi isn't even that, with some of the lowest quality script-writing I've seen in anything remotely related to anime and manga. Scrap that, it has some of the lowest quality script-writing I've seen in anything, with ecchi scenes galore all over the place and turning the already unlikable female characters into nothing more than a pack of sluts. The themes...actually, I'm not entirely sure if this series has anything to offer, sure, Suzuka was complete crap, but at least it had some kind of message to offer, even if it contradicted each and every single one of them. Here though, there is literally nothing to offer for the normal reader, I find absolutely nothing pleasant about the story here.

Art (3/10):
The author doesn't seem to grasp the concept of not shoving boobs and vaginas down my throat. Low-quality art, low quality character design, poorly drawn everything. I don't care enough about art to write much, but generally, really below par.

Character (1/10):
Characters are absolutely horrendous, Haruto has to be one of the least likable characters I've seen in any form of media. I mean seriously, just so that you can grasp absolutely terrible of a character he is, he literally tells you this inspirational quote, "No matter where you go, panties are panties" within 5 BLOODY CHAPTERS OF THE BEGINNING. The female characters are hyper-sexualized, unlikable sluts, who really need to get their hormones in order. I don't think I liked a single character in this series, but you know the side-characters? Yeaaah, forget they ever existed, because there's hardly any focus on them, and whatever we see of them is unlikable due to the over the top, unlikable nature of the series, so yeah. Easily some of the least likable characters I've seen in years, no joke here.

Enjoyment (1/10):
Somewhere along the line, I gave up and decided to take this series sadistically instead of trying to care about the characters. I honestly hate the series, hate the author, hate the fan base for making this abomination sound like anything good. I remember in my Suzuka review mentioning how I'm going to avoid anything Kouji Seo writes in the future, but at this rate, I may decide to follow him just because I still can't believe how utterly terrible and repugnant his works have been so far.

Overall, I grant this series a 1.5 out of 10.

Before I read this manga, I wasn't into manga. Oh sure, I sporadically watched some anime, such as Fate Stay Night, Honey and Clover, but manga, not so muchl.

A friend of mine introduced me to Kimi No Iru Machi by chance. It was in the middle of exam week, I was borrowing his usb to pass on my work when I came upon the first volume of this manga. I decided to copy it into my laptop, thinking I would read it later that night.

Looking back, I didn't think I slept at all that night, and I had an exam at 7 a.m.

There's something about ... the story, that makes it impossible for you to put down before you finish it. By the end of the night, I had read al 166 chapter of Kimi No Iru Machi, and I couldn't wait for the next chapter to come out.

I guess the reason for that is the female protagonist(which is somewhat debatable), Yuzuki Eba, who I felt really came alive in the story. Her characterization was so strong, so fantastic, it sucks you up into the story where you are taken on an emotional roller coaster with her, at first by falling in love with her, then by hating her, and at last, by accepting her for who she is (at least, at this point in time). The way Kouji Seo manages to portray her emotions throughout the chapters are amazing, and the artwork is very, very good. After reading this, she's definitely my favorite female character (though I haven't read that much manga to be such a good judge).

A special mention should also go out to Haruto Kirishima, who I feel is a character that many guys can relate to. He experienced it all, unrequited love, long distance relationship, rejections, heartbreaks, cheating, the works. But he does it all with such finesse that in the end, you can't help cheering him on throughout the story, even though you sometimes don't really feel comfortable with his actions. What a guy.

Still, this manga wouldn't be that great without the assortments of characters around Yuzuki and Haruto, and they too, managed to inject different colors into the subplots that makes it all the more interesting. Still, I feel that because of Yuzuki and her strong characterization, over time, the others kind of fade into the background. But that is to be expected.

All of the above was the recipe for an awesome, realistic story about love, thought it's not as straightforward as that, as you'll see when you read the manga. It portrays love in all of it's sides, the good, the bad, and the cold, harsh, reality. It's definitely one of those story that are just impossible to put down, so be prepared when you want to read it. And for me personally, Kimi No Iru Machi was what got me really interested in manga.

There's probably one question that you'll continue to ask yourself in this series. How is this guy so popular with the ladies?

Story

This is a manga about the relationship between our central characters Haruto, a country bumpkin from hiroshima, and Yuzuki, a city girl from tokyo. Basically the story is about how Yuzuki comes into Haruto's life and causes a bunch of problems for him. Say for example, Haruto has a crush on a girl, she will clumsily get in the way of that in a rather silly fashion. However despite the interference, Haruto can't help but not leave her alone.

Overall the first ... part of the story is relatively decent I must say in terms of shounen romance plots. Nothing is terribly original, but it's paced well and the setting helps keep the story a little fresh. However this only occurs for the first part.

Without spoiling anything the story is branched into 4 seperate arcs. While the first is relatively strong, the remaining 3 are where the series heads down hill. The second arc for example introduces some very illogical drama. Now to be fair, the characters are young and inexperienced so this kind of behavior can be expected. However the problem is, none of the characters ever explain their actions, and none of them ever seem to grow from them. It makes the characters lack layers and makes it difficult to sympathize with them.

The following 2 arcs are mainly filler as the core story is done after the second arc. Mostly filled with fanservice and plot threads that seem like they might build up to something good, but never really go anywhere. This part of the manga is obviously for people who really like to see a couple be together. As fanservice, it is passable at times. But it's dragged out far too long, making the series become rather static and boring. I wouldn't mind it being a straight slice of life if it had been that way since the beginning. The final arc even proceeds to have a very cop out ending which I am very much against in story telling. So all in all, it started out decent and then tinkered off and became rather lifeless.

Characters

The characters are fairly decent at first. Not that they are terribly interesting, but still semi-believable. The main problem is how their growth is handled. It's never apparent to the audience that the main characters are growing up in any fashion, but other characters might have to point it out for you. This is against the "show but don't tell" aspect of storytelling and it makes it seem like the manga is trying too hard to prove that it actually developed it's characters. It will also use time skips liberally to tell you that characters have developed off screen, which would be ok as long as we got to see some of the development.

The biggest problem is of course the handling of the side characters. Not only are most pointless, but there are far too many, and little respect is given to them. Keep in mind that everything in this manga takes place from Haruto's perspective. So we never get to see any of the characters outside of their time interacting with him. This can be done well, if you limit the amount of characters and focus the time well on the main lead. But here it just feels like an excuse not to develop any of them properly. Funny enough, most of them develop far more than our main leads technically. However it's all done offscreen and we never get to see any of it. Also some characters just blatantly get written out of the story, which shows that the author hardly even cares about most of them.

Most of the women are introduced as just harem fodder unfortunately. It seems that no matter what, whenever Haruto goes to something new in his life (new college group, job hunting, part time job, etc) a new girl will be waiting. Unfortunately with the combination of the first person perspective and the fact that they are given very limited chapters, it just begs the question on why they are introduced at all. Especially when Haruto is already in a relationship at these points so introducing further women to be distractions is all but pointless (as you can bet, every single one of them falls in love with Haruto). Now it's a common trait in harem manga to have a lot of girls. But that's most effective "before" the relationship starts, rather than after.

Enjoyment

Like said before. At first it was enjoyable, but then it just got downright boring for me. Though I can understand some people like couple chapters, but I still think it was done in supreme excess. Also not a big fan of cop out endings like said before, so the drama eventually just felt forced and pointless with no real meaning attached to it. Which would be ok if it was entertaining, but I can't really say I feel that way about KNIM.

Honesly there are better romance/ecchi manga's to waste your time on then this if you ask me.

To begin with, I usually never read manga. Only when an anime has stopped and I want to know the further story.

I got this manga recommended by a friend so I started to read it without any expectations. But after the first few pages I started to get in the story and I couldn't stop reading.

It's because the manga starts rapidly at a good pace so you'll continue to read. You'll get questions and hope to get the answers while you read and at the same time, you'll enjoy it to the fullest.

The characters are good drawn which makes it extra fun to read.

There'll ... happen many things you don't expect and that's why it's very exciting till the very last chapter.

The manga is still airing, and I hope they'll continue to make the manga even better.

Until now, Kimi no Iru Machi taught me one certain thing: "If you were a boy in a manga, you should absolutely pray for the genre (not) to be harem." Oh... well, seems like it is actually not that certain.

~

* Haruto, our lucky protagonist of Kimi no Iru Machi, has to fight himself through several hardships; which - and that's for sure - are always somehow connected to at least one female. And that's pretty much it.
Haruto. Females. Problems.
This rough draft cotinues until the point I currently stopped reading, but I guess this will go on forever, or at least until Haruto finally finds his ... true love and thus gets rid of his problems.

This rough draft - Haruto. Females. Problems. - is like the dry bone of Kimi no Iru Machi's story, luckily enough there's sufficient meat at that bone for it to be tasty.

But, to get away from all the meat and bones and for all the veggies: the concept of KnIM's story is easy to see through, yet the stuff that is wrapped around this rough concept (-> great portions of drama, humor and ecchi!) makes everything interesting. If you don't pay close attention and just go with the flow of the story you might not even realize that easy concept, ha.

* The art is at the very least good. And that goes for just this manga itself, not comparing it to any other artists style. Beautiful, clear lines, also, the grey shading makes everything livelier. I think the art pretty much fits both the characters and the theme of the manga.

* Now comes the point where my newly absorbed knowledge gets into action: the characters = the females (if you really want to, you can count the few males into the cast too)!
Like I said at the very start, this manga has taught me that it must be paradise for a boy to live within a harem - but ONLY if that boy gives all that 'love hurts' stuff a wide berth. Surprisingly, and really no one saw it coming, steering clear of Love isn't quite possible in a harem manga. And that's most likely because, well, it happens that at least one of those pretty harem-girls developes/has a crush on the boy in charge.

In KnIM now we have almost a dozen of those cute and pretty (I'm serious, the female characters are mostly beautiful ones, IMO) girls that like Haruto-kun or begin to develop a crush on him. I hate that. But just because I hate that I won't get biased. After all, that's what I get for reading harem, huh? xD

I guess I have to at least bring up her name once; Eba, the allegedly main characters (major?) love interest is only ALLEGEDLY Haruto's major love interest with justification, because things happen with her that no one sees coming but on the other hand everyone wants to happen -- which put Haruto (and me) into deep sufferings of cunfusion.
I don't really get what's going on there anymore, and while Haruto seems to move on I stay put and Eba is... I don't know.
I really liked her character, though. She is, by far, my favourite of the female characters.

So, while the female characters in KnIM change quasi every fifth chapter, our little, ever-so-blushing main protagonist Haruto doesn't seem to change at all. Well, he did change, but I kind of get the feeling that he's stuck at some point now.

However, all in all the characters are nice and the different female's personalities vary!

~

Enjoyable reading, nice art, a good story and a lot of girls - I have high hopes for this manga to get even better in the next time -, you should really give it a try if you like/love harem, romance and humor!

tl;dr: A very well illustrated and very well written story about a relationship that gets really messy but becomes incredibly strong, and that does have some major rough edges but has a strong enough core to outshine them completely.

Kimi no Iru Machi is a story that changes quite a bit, but at it's core its about the relationship between the two main characters, Haruto and Yuzuki as it goes through a lot of twists and turns over a pretty long period of time.

It starts off as a pretty standard high school romance set in the country. There's some drama as there are some complexities to ... the main characters relationships, but it's pretty lighthearted overall. The biggest problem the protagonist faces is their own lack of maturity and ability to understand and deal with their own feelings, as is standard for such manga. Still, while it's not particularly unique, it does do a solid job of developing the start of the relationship of the main couple. This lasts for about the first third of the manga.

After that it changes quite a bit, with what is known as oft called the Tokyo arc. The best way to describe it is that it becomes a storm where things get incredibly intense and things change tremendously. This change is painful due to how the relationship in the main couple was already built up, especially as the manga does a good job at conveying Haruto's and Yuzuki's pain and how it influences their actions. It's well written with major twists and good pacing. Still, it does intentionally make a mess of things, which filled me with a sense of frustration strong enough that I actually dropped the manga here at one point before rereading it all again from the beginning later on after having watched the anime.

And then the storm is suddenly over to the point it feels abrupt how quickly it ended, though how it ends certainly isn't happy ending. Still, while its done a lot of damage to the relationship between the main couple, it leaves things outside that very stable so the manga actually returns to being peaceful and pretty lighthearted. At this point the manga has introduced essentially all the main characters so it just casually develops the bonds between all of them as friends and sets the foundation for their circumstances which persists for the rest of the manga. It's decent at what it is, but while I was reading it it felt pointless due to the lack of the main relationship and heroine of the manga.

But it turns out that was just the eye of the storm and things return to being chaotic once more, though its a bit strange in that you don't realize it's actually returned to being a storm until pretty much the end of this phase when it reaches it's climax. This arc is messy, even messier than the first part of the storm. Still, it felt like the messiness of it actually added to its value and helped further establish the value of the main relationship. I liked what it was doing here a lot more than I liked the first part or eye of the storm so to speak and in hindsight the direction that this takes the story and how it uses what was built up over the rest of the storm makes it feel like those parts had a lot of value in what they built up, even if I really didn't like them when I was reading them. The core of this part isn't really developing the relationship of the main couple, but rather going over it and reaffirming it by bringing a lot of what was built up before together and also showing how the two of them had grown. It's written incredibly well with by far the most powerful moments in the series with chapter 137, which as expected is critically important as one would expect considering it's named after the title of the manga itself, and chapter 141 also being incredibly memorable.

This time things don't just completely drop on the intensity scale as in the opposite case of where things were left after the first half of the storm, now the main relationship is strong but everything else is in shambles. So while things aren't as intense as they were, there's a decent level of drama that persists for a while as things are rebuilt. Intermixed with that though, is just a couple doing couple things with a decent amount of fluff. Eventually it does reach a state of pretty peaceful equilibrium though.

However, that occurs about 2/3s of the way into the manga. The majority of the rest of the manga is mostly just lighthearted fluff and comedic moments in a series of short episodes, with some parts even going to the level of ecchi gag manga. Still, it's good fluff, and with everything that had been built up up to this point I was heavily invested in these two's relationship, so even that fluff was really enjoyable with a lot of the simple happy moments or simple reminiscence to earlier events managing to be quite impactful. There's light drama here and there, but it's usually really short and quickly resolves, just feeling like minor squabbles than anywhere near the intensity of earlier events. The old characters are all still there and it adds a few new ones as well which ends up adding a decent variety to the short stories that keep things amusing even if it is mainly focusing on Haruto and Yuzuki.

And though there's not a lot of major plot events for the main couple, quite a lot happens to the rest of the cast of characters with a lot of character and relationship development that also manages to be quite impactful, though that's somewhat of a double edged sword in that it results in feeling like some characters don't get enough time. It is also somewhat strange that while all this development is happening with everyone else, Haruto and Yuzuki feel like they're staying pretty static. Over the course of the manga Yuzuki already grew a lot and it becomes very evident during this part. Haruto seems to have already grown in aspects related to how he deals with relationships, which is very strong growth, don't get me wrong, and which leads to some cool moments during this portion. However, in matters outside of that it doesn't seem like he's grown at all, rather it even feels like he's regressed a bit, in that he simply goes with the flow and isn't very decisive regarding where he wants to go in life, which leaves him looking kind of lame.

Then the manga reaches it's final arc, which to be quite frank it tremendously rushed. I feel the author was simply in a rush to start their next work, which literally began the same time the last chapter of this one was released. Still, this may have had it's advantages. It starts off immediately being kind of painful due to how strongly it had built up the main relationship, then proceeds into reaching a heart rending level of painful, and then suddenly reaches a happy ending. It was abrupt yes, but at the same time, I don't think I would have wanted it to remain painful and especially not heartrendingly painful for long, and I think I really would have hated it if it was dragged out.

Still, it feels like we ended up missing a lot, including a lot of important events. The ending very much emphasizes Haruto's lame aspects of simply being dragged along by the flow and not willing to fight it, with the happy ending ultimately being achieved due to not his actions but things outside of his control rather than him fighting for it. However after that, in the time skip epilogue, he suddenly seems to be a very different character capable of doing what's necessary to achieve what he wants even if it results in things getting messy in that he does what he should have done long ago when he was heading towards a bad ending. How he got there is skipped over entirely and thus it feels like we missed the climax of his character arc. How rushed the ending was also results in it feeling like some side characters stories were pretty much left dangling without any closure. Still, despite it being rushed, I found the ending satisfying even if it isn't completely clear how it got to where it was because it did a good job of showing the most important things, and thus I I felt happy with it but I really felt like I wanted more of it as well, fluff and all.

Lastly, the art is exceptionally good and used really well. In general the quality is high but certain panels and things like chapter and title covers are often amazing. It is kind of funny though that even though the level of quality is so high, the author can't seem to decide on various character's hair colors and they seem to be pretty inconsistent across different color pages and covers.

After having read Suzuka and really enjoying it, I went ahead and read A Town Where You Live, and Seo Kouji delivered something different but great again.

To those who read Suzuka, it can seem very similar. For example; Suzuka is about a someone from Hiroshima that goes and explores Tokyo while ATWYL is someone from Tokyo coming to Hiroshima. Although they are the same in that aspect, it still tells an enjoyable story

The characters in ATWYL are just great. The MC meets new people who are likeable and have different personalities. The characters who grew up with the MC are really great as well and ... have very good synergy with not just the MC but with each other in a group. I really cared for the characters and felt invested with them because they all have their own goals and those who don't, push themselves to find their goals.

Suzuka's themes and messages change throughout the story but ATWYL takes this to another level. This manga is romance story but it's also a coming of age story about the MC and his friends who try to figure out who they are as they do different things in the story which is something great. Just like Suzuka, this manga is not static and character motivations, struggles and relationships change quite often, probably more than Suzuka but it does not feel rushed in any matter and makes you become more attached to the characters since it feels really realistic.

Although I don't think it's a problem, ATWYL has slightly less tension and suspense than Suzuka but when something negative or tense happens here, it does affect the story.

I gave this a high score because this coming of age story really resonated with me and I enjoyed everything about it. Also for the Suzuka readers, there might be little moments that will grab your attention.

In the end, if you liked Suzuka and enjoy a good romance manga and want to read a coming of age story that could perhaps resonate with you and leave you satisfied and with a smile, then A Town Where You Live is a definite must read for you, although I would read Suzuka first then ATWYL since the story takes place after it.

This manga is really depressing. But it doesn't have any drama or tragic story. It's depressing, because of how boring those characters life are.

I was reading from start to the end of this manga just in case that something interesting might be happened at near the end of story. And that was worthless, because nothing happens, nothing remotely interesting. This manga is about "real" life, so real, that everything in it is average at best. The story is average and characters are so "real" they got zero personality. And all those jokes, that author trying to pull, are useless, they just bad and uninspired. ... I think that if author trying to tell us "real" story, that the story itself should more "serious" and should have less silly humor and nudity which is plenty of here.

I personally don't think its a bad manga. I think that it is trying to be serious love story and comedy harem-manga in one time. But problem, is it fails in both categories.

If you want to read good love story manga, I would recommend comics like I"s or Bitter Virgin. This one - over-hyped.

Kimi no Iru Machi AKA A Town Where You Live. I actually read this amnga as it was first coming out, but the young me just didn't appreciate a love story, so I put it down for a year or so and then got back to reading it. I can say that I absolutely love this manga. This manga is very similar in terms of story and of course art to the artist's former work Suzuka (But i will get to that later). To sum up this story in a nutshell, you will be in for one hell of a ride when you read this ... manga. I would definitely recommend this manga to anyone looking for a good love story. Now that my thoughts on the manga as a whole are out of the way time to get down to the individuL topics.

Story:

The beginning of the story starts off fairly slowly like in most romances. The main character(s) Haruto and Yuzuki are introduced as well as Haruto's friends and family. The romance part of the story doesn't really start until Haruto confesses to Kanzaki and he realizes that Yuzuki was actually a girl from his childhood and that she came all the way to Hiroshima just to see him. From there the story picks up the pace and things start to get complicated. And just when you think everything is good and that Haruto will now be with the one he lovez the author drops a bomb and throws you into another loop wondering what happens next. As I mentioned before this manga is very similar to the author's former work Suzuka. The parts that really stood out to me were the fact that the main character will fall in love and date more than 1 girl throughout the story, the girl that the protagonist trully loves will be together with him as well as break up with him but in the end they are together because they really love each other. I especially like references to suzuka put into the manga; it made me feel like I was reading a sequel to Suzuka except with new characfers and is a couple years after the events in Suzuka. Anyways I digress, the plot really conveys the characters' emotions clearly to the reader and made me laugh and cry. This plot is similar to Suzuka's but the author really increased the quality of it which sets it apart from its predesscor. All in all this is a most enjoyable story that will make you cry your eyes dry, laugh until it hurts and cringe your teeth to see what happens next. Definitely a good read.

Characters:

As with all good mangas the right type of characters can differentiate a good manga from a bad one. As for Kimi no Iru Machi, the characters are realistic and easy to relate to. The main character(s) also grows throught the story by being more truthful to him/herself. The story also shows the lengths the main character(s) will go to to ve with the one they love. For example Yuzuki going all the way to Hiroshima just to see Haruto and when Haruto went all the way to Tokyo because he was worried about Yuzuki. The supporting characters also show some growth but not too much. They are used for many comedic scenes as well as scenes that imply sexual actions (I'm looking at you Rin). The characters may not be the most unique in the world but they are realistic enough for people to relate with and have empathy for them.

Art:

As I mentioned before the art is very similar to Suzuka's except it looks more clean and crisp. I don't need to struggle to figure out what the artist is drawing and to me that is whats important. The expressions ont he characters add to the climax of a scene and irs easy to tell the emotions the characters are feeling. The backgrounds are nicely drawn and don't take away from the characters or stand out in major scenes. It is to be noted that this manga is ecchi and will have a couple nude scenes but most of the ecchi scenes are either implied through the text or just drawings of female underwear. To sum up the art is nice and easy to see.

Once again I must say that this manga is amazing to be able to convey so many emotions with just words and pictures. Do I think this manga deserves an anime? Hell yeah. I know that there are 2 OVA's for it but I have watched the first one and I say it does a poor job of representing the manga. I feel that the colour and drawings were off and tye voice actors didn't sound right. That why I want it to have an actual anime. Well thats all I have to say about this manga. Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on it and thanks for reading!

A town where you live(Kimi no iru machi) is a masterpiece created by mangaka Seo Kouji. It is a romance manga, filled with a lot of dramas and tearjerking moments, with a little bit of comedic piece. If you can withstand the drama, or maybe even like it, then it is the right manga for you. Anyway, here is KNIM scores for me:

- Story (9/10), a lot of people saying KNIM story is very good, especially at first half of the serie. KNIM story can bring the reader's mood, it is sometimes depressing, and bring me to tears(The only manga where I cried are only ... KNIM, Half & Half and Clannad). The story felt so real, it sometimes hit too close to home, and that is why people loved KNIM, they can relate to the story. The story second half is a bit dragged off, filled with filler and other character developments. If not for that, I would give KNIM a 10/10 for story. Definitely one of the best romance story in mangas.

- Art (10/10), this is KNIM main charm. MY GOD, it is very beautiful, the best of its kind back then, and I still think it is still the best, comparable with nowadays works, even better than most of them. Almost every page are drawn in detail, you can see how hard the author works. The story's mood looked very clear, and characters expression are drawn beautifully, you can feel the characters feelings. Heck, I started reading KNIM after I look at the cover page art, and now I still fall in love with this artstyle. You can also find this artstyle in the author's other mangas, like Fuuka and Hitman(His current work), but I liked KNIM better.

- Character (10/10), the characters are not perfect. They have flaws, they make mistakes they have problems and complexities, and sometimes they do unreasonable things, and that is why I give 10 scores for characters. They felt so real, it often hits too close to home. There are moments where you can feel the characters alive. The characters make realistic decision based on their problems and circumstances. Sometimes it is not a realistic action, but if you potrayed yourself as the character, you will understand why they did something absurd. They are not perfect. They are humans, just like you and me.

- Overall (9.7/10), it is definitely a must read for romance and drama lover.

TL;DR: A town where you live is definitely a romance manga masterpiece. It felt so real, sometimes it hits too close to home. Definitely a must read if you love dramas, and tearjerking moments. Not really reccomended if you look only for something fluffy and cute.

Been awhile since i did any reviews but for this manga i just had to do one. Actually i'm not good with reviews but here's my opinion.

First off let me say i loved this manga. I couldn't put it down.What's so great about it you might ask. Maybe the story perhaps? Maybe the Art? or maybe something something else?

Well let's start with the art. I can't tell you much about it to be honest. I mean in deciding to read any manga the art is an important factor. If you don't like the art, it becomes a pain to read sometimes even if the ... story is enjoyable. Fortunately i love art in this manga. There are a lot of beautifully drawn scenes and beautifully drawn characters. There was one depiction of Yuzuki Eba that just had me stop and say "wow she really is beautiful". But was that what made the manga so good?It helped but it wasn't what sold me

So how about the story?Well in my limited experience with romance stories, well maybe not so limited but this is the longest romance manga I've read so far. Most of my experience is with shorter romance manga's so that may have contributed to those times when sometimes the story would feel like it's starting to drag, then something happens and immediately i'm hooked again. Without giving too much away, this manga does show you the characters relationship over a number of years and I i really enjoyed that. Showing you both the up's and down's of the characters' relationships.

Then of course we come to the characters who as you've probably already realised are my favourite part of the manga. I simply fell in love with the characters, to the point of not being able to sleep properly for 2 days and hence resulting in me binge reading the rest of the manga. The author really does a good job of portraying the characters emotions and experiences til i felt my chest started to tighten and me shedding a tear or 2 at certain points . There are quite a few characters and most are quite unique from each other. Overall though the characters development over the course of the manga is well written.

In all i really do love this manga and I'm pretty glad i found it when it was already finish so i could binge read and i would gladly recommend it. As a side note i just want to add that my favourite characters in this manga are Yuzuki Eba(big surprise i know) and Aoshina.

This story is, for me, divided in 3 distinct parts.

1. Countryside part. Basically it's good. It's the introduction with the main characters, the context of the story and everything else. It becomes gradually more "drama" and it was quite frustrating to read at the end of this part (before yuzuki leaves to Tokyo). Story was interesting and characters were goods. What pissed me off was the behaviour of yuzuki right before she finally decides to date with MC (dont tell me it's a spoil everyone would have guessed that she is fated to date him). Her behaviour was just stupid and frustrating...

2. Tokyo part (after ... Yuzuki goes to Tokyo). Basically this part is horrendous to read. Drama, drama, drama and drama. That's all. Illogical actions, stupid actions and it's SLOOOOW. It's not like in any drama where everything is solved in 5 chapters. It's a hell for 100 fucking chapters. A hell where you will learn to hate Yuzuki and the author. You will read the whole part part being frustrated and in the incomprehension of everything, especially of Yuzuki, a character that you previously believed that you knew her and her behaviour. The part is very well finished but it will make a poor collateral victim that didnt deserve that and that act has raised the hate of many readers...

3. The "couple" life. This part is very good if you do not hate Yuzuki (basically if you forgive her naivety and her stupidity from the second part). It is filled with fillers where MC does cute things with Yuzuki. I think what made me love that part was the fact that I just blindly like Yuzuki even knowing what she has done and the fact that you can finally relax with drama and romance with Yuzuki. It's like if you were MC, you have the feeling you have won a competition and now you relax with the price. It does not only consist of fillers based with MC and Yuzuki. It will be a great part to develop friendship and the other interesting characters that you know since a long time. Their relation, their lives and more. This part was for me the perfect slice of life possible, it's mainly because of that part that I give a 8.5 for the manga.

The end of the story will bring out a little bit of unecessary drama but it's a feather next to a barett 50 compared to the second part. It's also very short, only a few chapters so it's not troublesome.

The art is good especially to enhance girls's emotions and their cuteness.

To conclude, it's a love story where you will see the best part of love and the WORST fucking part of love. It covers everything from the good to the bad unfortunately. At least second part will make you a drama warrior. If you do not like overwhelming drama and frustration do not read, believe me it's better for you.

THIS A REVIEW SO IT CONTAINS SPOILERS BEWARE !!!!!!

1st of all fucking god damn a salute of a bazillion crying emoji's to this manga I mean god daaaamn even though the art was somewhat meh in some bits but boy oh boy the fucking emotion bro my heart stretched to it's limit when I saw them break up after all that when they went through to finally get together . I swore man I would fucking hunt the author down if he didn't give them a god damn happy ending . I feel the way the author left misaki's situation is a ... bit not to my liking he should've wrapped it all up neatly but hey in I guess that's life huh . Anyways I loved it I re read it and I couldn't stop coming back to this . oh and I actually got introduced through the anime . again it's a must watch for slow burn romance otaku's and slice of life otaku's . May god bless yuzuki and haruto's children and also may misaki get together with her love of her life .

As probably the greatest hater of mushy crap romance and annoying bitchiness, I wasn't exactly too thrilled to dive into the unknown pages of Kimi no Iru Machi, a romance manga. But what I ended up experiencing was something far beyond what I expected. I sincerely believe that from the plethora of vocabulary words I know, only one can truly describe this manga- EPIC. The author really knows how to make this story epic. He has twisted the plot in every single way to make the story exciting and to keep the readers on their toes. This deep story mixed with outstanding art comes out ... as a unique masterpiece.

Story (10/10)
The story is one of the most intricate plots you'll ever find in romance manga. It centers around Haruto Kirishima, a sensitive boy living in the rural Hiroshima region, and his school/ romantic life. Unexpectedly one day, a girl called Yuzuki Eba appears at his doorway and begins living with him. His long-termed unrequited love for fellow classmate Nanami Kanzaki isn't helped either by Eba's arrival since Nanami constantly misunderstands Haruto and Yuzuki's relationship. At first, Haruto is baffled and annoyed by Yuzuki's cheery and idiotic personality, but he soon begins to realize the feelings for Yuzuki. The story doesn't just end with a happy ending or a sadface rejection, it thrives. Unimaginable things happen that boldly twist the future for these characters. It's this deep understanding of what keeps readers reading that makes Kimi no Iru Machi so addictive and so different from the rest of the mundane romance mangas that only seek to build pointless suspense solely from staged confessions and illogical rejections.

Art (10/10)
The art is a mix between reality and chibi, yielding the ultimate manga art. It's the kind of art that induces the readers to see the characters and setting right besides them in real life (without the horribly ugly details or, on the other hand, the "my eyes are 3/4 of my head" scariness). In addition, countless new girls are introduced and each of them have a distinct visual feature. This keeps the organization of the plot in perfect order... all while enjoying the cuteness of Eba.

Characters (10/10)
The first thing that struck me was how real the characters are. When I was reading this, my mind could imagine such a person in existence. The things they do, they thoughts they think, and their views of problems- it's all just too real. The characters are certainly very unique. Haruto, although completely dense and illogical sometimes, is suddenly very assertive and justified other times. Eba, although very happy, cute, and nice sometimes, is suddenly whorish, selfish and annoying in the next page. One second I'm cheering Eba on and the next I'm cussing at her for her bitchiness. It's that kind of emotional power that the characters impose. I can never guess what's on the next page, and I really do want to know. This professional development of characters that draw readers into the world highlights many of the reasons that make Kimi no Iru Machi such an outstanding manga.

Enjoyment (10/10)
As soon as I read into the 10th page, it had me. I usually avoid romance manga at all costs but here I was reading one non-stop. It has that kind of power. Humor from Eba's idiocy, anxiety from confessions, support from Haruto's resolution, and happiness from good events are only a few emotions that I felt in the massive emotional purge present. It was almost like the author could control how you felt in each situation and made you feel different to the extreme in each coming page. This was something I really enjoyed to take my mind of pointless real life things.

Overall (10/10)
If I have ever read a romance manga, this would be the best. No questions asked. From suddenly joy to bitter disparage, I felt like I was in the story- I felt like I was there. I was always in there, cheering on Haruto silently, thinking how cute Eba was or how tragic (reference) situations had to turn out. The author's masterful comprehension of suspense and the deep roots of love/ romance is reflected onto Kimi no Iru Machi. I highly suggest that if even if you don't read romance novels, give this a try. If you do read romance novels, then this should be on the very top of your list.

There are very few words that can describe this manga and even more so most of the work done by Seo Kouji. Kimi No Iru machi is a masterpiece that really does a fantastic job at tugging at the emotions of the reader emphasized by excellent artwork and a dynamic and hard to stop reading storyline. However this is not the first time Kouji has created such a masterpiece as his work on Suzuka was incredible as well.

Lets talk about the characters for a little bit. I will start with what was probably what held this manga from getting a perfect score on my personal ... list (word processing not on MAL) which was Haruto Kirishima. Haruto all in all was an excellent character but being a large Suzuka fan previously to reading this manga, I had to say there were points in the story where he was a stronger protagonist. There were just moments where he did not act as strongly as Yamato did in the Suzuka manga (although he had to because suzuka was a total ass sometimes). His caring and learning throughout the manga however was extremely well portrayed throughout.
The second character I want to speak to was Akari because to be honest she was probably one of my favourite characters. Akari was what everyone always wishes for in a childhood friend in being caring, compassionate and funny at times. Her unrequited love for haruto really was a point which I believed could have been emphasized a little more throughout the plot and her exit from the series was lackluster and disappointing in a lot of ways. I really think an arc in this series with her and Haruto dating would have been interesting but shes also my favorite so of course I'll cheer for her.
Finally any discussion of this manga cannot end without speaking to what was the most important character although not the protagonist being Eba. Eba is a lot of ways a character that you hate to love but also one that you love to hate at times. In the earlier chapters there were times you really hated her guts, I mean like you wanna slap her across the face but there are so many more times where the emotion in her character really overcomes you and makes you feel feeble and in love (in a good way). Eba is by far the greatest character in this series, her artwork was amazing, she was very pretty (but not too pretty) and soo soo lovable many times. Her interactions with other characters be it Haruto or, Rin or even Kyousuke are spectacular and awe inspiring throughout the series.

The artwork in general in this series was fantastic, I cannot say it is the best artwork by any mangaka ever but it is definitely in the upper echelons of the minor amount of series' ive read to date (about 130). The mangaka is also one of the best in the business, I mean the story, the art, the dialogue is all top notch and even touching at moments. This is the 3rd manga i have ever read which really pulled at my heartstrings and made me really come out with emotion (suzuka also by Seo Kouji was the 1st and I rather not disclose the 2nd) and i so look forward to his future work.

The worst part of this manga was simply waiting for chapters to come out.

Hope this response is helpful, IM me for questions