Coffee & Vanilla

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

As a huge fan of the older guy/younger girl thing (in manga, not real life - in real life, run as fast as you can), this story inherently doesn't work. It dodges a lot of the traps that works in genre fall into - disrespectful, domineering boyfriends who don't acknowledge the fact that they need to treat their significant other with care especially because of the age difference - but it tosses those aside for a rarer, but huge and glaring flaw: complete unreality.

If you want to be generous, you can call this story fast-paced, but to be honest, it just doesn't make sense. I ... read oneshots and one-volume shoujo manga a lot, so I've read stories where they fall in love in the second chapter and it's fine, but this is absolutely not one of them. The main guy (a hot, rich corporation owner) falls in love with her (a pretty but ultimately average college student) for seemingly no reason, and I MEAN falls in love with her. First date on, it's immediately "everything that's mine is yours" and "I'll never let you down" and it's like... you've known each other how long? The author provides a backstory for him meeting her to try to rectify this, but it just makes their relationship make even less sense.

Like, I was waiting for him to fuck her over. Not because I don't like her, because this story goes beyond "too good to be true" all the way to "this story takes place on a different plane of existence where logic is reversed." Shoujo manga doesn't need tons of conflict, but it needs to have at least some semblance of realism. And I know that's a crazy claim to make, considering I read a ton of shoujo manga, and a lot of the plots are completely insane, but there needs to be SOMETHING, even if it's really small, tethering the story to the real world, and this story has absolutely nothing.

This doesn't mean there's no merit. If you can get past the beginning, and maybe find some way to imagine they had a realistic backstory, I'm sure you could find some value in their healthy relationship, though I did find it more boring than most healthy relationship shoujo (and did eventually drop it). I'm really not sure how far that'll take you, though; this story seemed right up my alley, from the older man/younger woman part, to the ingenue protagonist, to the cocky love interest, but... It didn't click for me, and I honestly do have low standards when it comes to finishing shoujo manga.

It might be a bit inappropriate for me to rewiev this manga, when I haven't finished it yet. But I just got to review this manga because I've never read such a bad beginning of a story.

Coffe and Vanilla is such a typical ecchi/smut story. The characters have no other meaning than to fulfill your desires and fantasies. And that's fine for some, afterall ecchi/smut is made for that. But I cannot find any enjoyment in this josei. Because I feel like Coffe & Vanilla start off very wrong.
Why? well just read the first chapters and by chapter two the characters ... are already in the bed after their first encounter. It was serously cringeworthy for me to read and I just wanted to stop reading. The characters and their actions kill the enyojment. The main character is always waging her tail and blushing and doesn't seem to have any pride or self reflective ability at all. So I don't recomend reading this manga. But if you like the older rich type of guy mabye you will like it.

This thing is one of the fastest if not the fastest romance comic. By that I mean like, the romance between the two leads develop so fast. Not that I have anything against it. It's just that you cannot avoid thinking like 'wow that was fast. Just like that.' It's not really a bad thing though. It's just that, like, yeah.... I guess it's something that you should read if you bored with slow pacing romance.

Nonetheless, I still enjoy it and like it so much. I await for an update desperately every time. One more thing, the leads looks good together. They are both supposed ... to look above average, so they suit one another even though there is an age gap, it doesn't matter.

This manga will not challenge your worldview, make you think or question the intricacies of relationships between an older male and a younger female.

Fukami is the ideal manga protagonist by all means, he is handsome, rich, smart, kind, loyal and extremely considerate of Risa's feelings, with just that hint of unhealthy obsession that I personally swoon over in manga and otome games but would get me running as far as I can in real life. His overprotectiveness is almost endearing and actually makes sense because Risa is the ultimate damsel in distress, with her being stalked by someone every 5 chapters.

Risa is not ... a great heroine, but one you can insert yourself into, with no discernible personality other than being in love with Fukami and trying not to screw things up, often making things worse for herself.

Ultimately, this is just an entertaining manga to scratch the itch for handsome business men who are madly in love with a protagonist but you're not all that sure why. Don't expect a life changing experience and just enjoy the ride.