Sekirara ni Kiss
A Kiss, For Real

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Sekirara ni Kiss is a love story revolving around two characters and their relationship with one another (just like every romance) As someone who enjoys reading teen fiction, this is a cliche mess that I enjoyed. The story isn't a web of complex plot elements, nor is it something that a person would enjoy if he/she is into emotional romances, heavy dramas or interesting multi-dimensional characters. Instead, it is simply a romance where the side-characters aren't given a thought to. Granted, I haven't read all chapters (I'm waiting for them to be translated.) but for the 12 chapters that I have read, the story is ... generic and the characters are bland.

Yet, I liked it because sometimes you just want to read something that makes you want to smile at the dumbness of the characters or see two people gradually fall for one another.

Story: (6/10)

Fairly interesting, would be perfect for a comedy or romance if done right, but it hasn't progressed enough for me to want more of it.

Art: a close 7 to a light 8.
The character designs are not very attractive, fairly boring. Backgrounds don't really exist to be backgrounds, the characters are overall pretty bland in design but work well with the setting. Both main characters don't have anything particular design element that makes me notice them or remember them, the art if expanded upon could turn out to be very good and unique. The clothes don't match with the characters, as if it were something of a pattern which they would wear to make it feel interesting, but overall, it is pleasant to look at.

characters: (3/10)
The weakest element in the manga, characters don't have their own unique personalities that make me want them to exist in real life, nor do they have qualities to make them feel like they belong in this setting. This started out pretty good, Chitose seemed to have a persona that seemed really interesting if expanded upon at first, but basically boiled to down to a cookie-cutter shoujo female. The male does have some aura of mystery surrounding him, but never developed. The brother (love rival) serves to be a rival ,and that's what he exactly is if I were to describe him. Chitose would be described for her obsessive love towards the male lead character. The male lead sort of sucks, he rejects any male contact towards her, he makes me feel angry and irritated. Overall, I hate him for his shallow character, and his judgmental behavior.

Enjoyment and overall: 5/10 (mediocre)
The material could've been handled exceptionally well, but failed by every means. Overall, I'd recommend if you like romance, and are open-minded towards cliches.

UPDATE: Latest chapter sucked. My score has been updated from a 7 to a 5.

For someone who rates everything 7 and up, something really has to downright terrible to get such a low score.

List of things that were awful in this manga (I dropped it after 22 chpaters)-

1) The female MC bases her decisions around the other Mc(her love interest) which just shows how delusional and weak she is as a character.

2) This manga has drama which is typical to any shojo manga (love triangle, trauma, childhood friend resurafces, yk what i mean) but it does an awful job using these elements in pushing the story forward.

3) All the characters are annoying as hell. The manga ... also does not do any justice to the side characters and they are just used as props to the story without any real value.

On a positive note the art is great and a handful of scenes are cute.

I had to reread this manga before making a review because I couldn't remember if I finished it or not, haha! Let's get right into the basics.

Story; Nanjou Chitose, a young high-school girl who believes if you aren't loved by everyone then you must be hated by them. So to protect herself from being hated, she created a perfect "mask" that she began to use around everybody (even her own family) that way they wouldn't hate her. On her way to buy groceries for her parents, a young hunk of a man named Kinosuke Itsuke told her a man was trying to take pictures of ... underneath her skirt. Thankful, Chitose after him wanting to thank him for helping her out in the incident... but somehow, this boy doesn't seem to be as nice to her anymore. While talking, she realize's that he'll only respond energetically if she doesn't use her mask. Is this for real? Is there really someone who can figure out her mask? And like her for the way she is? Join the journey of going to an Art Prep School, discovering who you really are, learning to not be afraid of people's opinions (because they don't Fing matter) and that having people like the real you is one of the best feelings in the world. Art; I haven't read any other stories from the Author Fumie Akuta, but I SURE AS HELL will now! Characters; They obviously focused most of their intention of Chitose and Itsuki, but I didn't mind at all! We got to learn about their families, friends and interests which brought a lot of people around to help build them up throughout the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this manga... not gonna lie, the ending isn't exactly the most satisfying on the planet. IN FACT, I reread everything because I THOUGHT I didn't finish it, when I actually DID and just didn't think that was the ending...
Although the ending was lacking I still loved the build up, relationships (so many butterflies) and conclusion (Universities and stable relationships... what else can you ask for?)

37.5 chapters might not seem like a lot, but GOD DAMN every chapter was packed up full of information and story. I feel like most chapters now a days only have 25 pages per chapter... This bad boy had 40-60 pages PER CHAPTER!!!

Highly suggest this manga if you're interested in art, romance and a read that you'll want to savour after every chapter you read.

I wanted to write a review about this manga because of the lack of reviews it currently has. Before I get into the review, I'd like to give an update that this manga IS COMPLETED. Completely translated and scanned on Mangadex -- the page doesn't seem to update that this manga is finished. Anyway, to the review:

Story 6/10
The reason I give the story a 6/10 is because it's your typical overly fluffy shoujo romance manga, with a hint of jealousy. If you love fluff and smiling with little to no drama then this is the manga for you, but I'm a very angst-romance focused ... person and I 100% love drama, so to me this manga was quite bland in story. Otherwise, a cute quick read.

Art 10/10
Do I need to say more? The art is so fabulous and beautiful... I don't think anyone can change my mind on that. Probably one of my favorite visually-appealing mangas I have read.

Character 6/10
Same reason for story, the character personalities were very shoujo romance-cliche. Not that it's a bad thing, but they were a bit bland. The main reason it is above a 6 is because I'll give props that the FL isn't stupid and the ML and SML actually were decently fun to read, but regardless still generic personalities.

Enjoyment 8/10
Why did I rate this 8/10 when all the other ratings seemed a little low? Because this was a cute and quick read. I finished it in a day, and as an angst-romance lover I was living for the jealousy and struggles in the story (granted, there wasn't many of it but it was still there).

Overall 8/10
Would I recommend this to someone? Yes if they like fluff romance with not much drama.

Would I reread this? Probably not, it didn't give me much of an impact.

Should you read it? If you like the following then yes, read it:
- Fluff in Romance
- Fast Romance
- Just a TINY bit of jealousy
- The typical Shoujo Romance Cliches with predictable ending
- A manga to pass time and heal your heart with happiness and good vibes (would recommend to read if you just read some really sad manga that you need to recover from)
- Happy Endings.

I dropped this after 21 or 22 chapters.

Story: 3/10
The premise of the story is interesting. In any case, it has so much potential. But that went downhill with how Yui's character as the older brother in the story was used. I would rather he's not Kinosuke's brother but nope. Even Chitose and Kinosuke were both 1-dimensional in my opinion. Their actions and thought process were rather disturbing especially Yui and made me drop this story.
Art: 6/10
The art is good. But it isn't the kind that would leave a mark on my mind. If that makes sense? I can remember the story after some time but ... I won't be able to remember the art. I can literally associate it with any other shoujo I've seen.
Character: 2/10
The side characters were used as decoration for the main characters. If they are not necessary towards the “development” of the main characters then they won't show up. And as the story didn't show these characters much, it is hard to go on reading after 21 chapters as I don't particularly like anyone and there's no scene or characters I'm looking forward to.
Enjoyment: 2/10
I like the art concept of the story and how one can be troubled on which path to take. That's realistic, some people already figured it out young, some would realize it later, and some might never find out. This has so much wasted potential though.

Overall: 3/10
I would never recommend this to anyone. I won't even talk about this with my friends or my sister. It's something I would rather forget.

This manga was definitely a trip. So many concepts! In the span of 37 chapters, I am not sure that so many story arcs were needed, but ok.

The story is centred about an indecisive girl, who in just three chapters turns out to be highly motivated artist, and a firm decisive boy who turns out to be doubting every steps he makes and is kind of living in the shadow of his family. It is based in Art school prep.

The two main characters are cute, well drawn and have a huge chunk of development in their personality and confidence. Sadly, we cannot say the ... same thing about the supporting characters as they are always stuck in the same place, with same feelings and seems to be only serving the FL and ML to develop their story. They never move on with their lives. In fact we never get to know anything about their lives, except they have some sort of relationship with the leads. I think this is the main weakness of this manga since it had the great opportunity to show us different aspects of being an art student, how different each artist and their art (even art process) can be.

The art is definitely a strong point, all the characters were drawn beautifully, as well as their artwork.

Overall I actually did enjoy this manga, mainly because of its art school setting (as I studied art school as well), but I feel it did not utilize the topic as well as it could. I enjoyed and thought it was nice and sweet how the two main characters supported each other and grew together throughout the series.

The ending felt rushed and unrealistic and I think the story could have easily had another volume, that would close the series with all the grace it deserved, but we still recieved a satisfactory ending, so lets not be mad.

It was a good manga, I read it because it was available in my public library.
The story was ok, however, the summary was that Chitose wears a mask and is afraid to be herself, but the story was really about her and others going to art classes, becoming better or finding their calling and their journey to get accepted to art schools in Japan. I would've liked to know why she thought she couldn't be liked before, or how she changed when she put on or removed her mask?
The art was my favorite part, and not because it was beautiful, but because I liked the ... way the author portrayed the characters' emotions in a comedic way, the only issue was how similar all characters looked alike. However, if there was an anime adaptation, I don't think this would be an issue because of the colors.
The characters really could've been more developed, that's all I can say. They didn't have any distinct personalities and also unfinished arcs, like what is up with Yui's future?
I mostly read this series on my commute to school, so it was enough to keep me interested, but not something I would reach for outside of that.
I'm a university student, so maybe I was not the intended audience for this series. I think that if I was to read this while in high school... then I would've loved it a lot, so I do recommend it to teenagers.