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Jan 30, 2025
Reading this manga I expected to read something like to Welcome to the Ballroom or similar, but instead I was super disappointed.
STORY
The story concerns a boy with family problems (a sailor who is struggling to support the family and avoids his children, a dead mother and a little sister who takes her mother's place...) who falls in love with rhythmic gymnastics.
The chapters are all self-contained, aimed at reminding us that the father does not want his son to do rhythmic gymnastics because it is a waste of time and the boy who wants to do rhythmic gymnastics even if he is a boy, seeking his
...
father's approval. The ending is completely disjointed with a Billie Elliot-style time skip that leaves a lot to be desired.
ART
The drawings are beautiful but not enough to support the story alone which is leaking on all sides.
CHARACTERS
The characters in this manga are mostly silhouettes of what they should have been.
The characterization is poor and they are quite stereotypical, including the protagonist.
The dynamics between them are also boring to read and therefore, at least for me, I struggled to read the various chapters even if there are only 16!
I couldn't care less about what happened to them given how flat they were.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 6, 2024
I discovered Devil & Love song when I was in high school.
At the time I was very impressed by the character design of the protagonist.
I remember that I found her extremely beautiful and fascinating, so much so that I even wanted to cosplay her.
Almost ten years later I admit that I remembered absolutely nothing about the plot except that it had a protagonist with a difficult attitude and with the habit of sing sacred hymns with the voice of an angel.
Despite this, I remember that this manga had impressed me a lot and that, if it hadn't been for the prohibitive price of the entire
...
series, I would have liked to be able to read the volumes following the first.
Well, here we are a decade later.
I'm glad to have read this manga via scanlations and not by buying the physical volumes because, as much as I hate to admit it, this manga is mediocre in every aspect.
My experience reading this shoujo fits perfectly into the situation: if you remember something fondly you would be better off not picking it up again years later.
STORY
The story of this manga is terribly inconsistent.
Just as happens in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and in To Your Eternity, reading this manga you will have the impression that the mangaka did not have a clear idea of the story she had in mind to tell.
Many times it will seem like you are reading a completely different manga from the one you were reading previously, both in terms of a continuous sudden change in tone of the events narrated (including extreme changes in the setting or in the main cast of characters), and in terms of the change in drawing style or even in some cases of the character design itself of some characters, first of all Kurosu Shintarou.
In fact, he is drawn in three completely different ways throughout the course of the story, so much so that he is unrecognizable if it weren't for the fact that the other characters call him by his name.
The arc of school bullying
The story of Devil & Love Song is leaking from all sides.
In the first volumes we will have our protagonist, Maria Kawai, who after being expelled from a prestigious girls' high school run by the church will have to settle into a common japanese high school, which will not be easy at all given the difficult personality of the protagonist: she is extremely (TOO) sincere and therefore tends to often say uncomfortable truths to people.
Ah! Finally a protagonist different from the others! You will say...
In the first volumes this characteristic of her could fascinate and could be interesting to see, but as the story progresses, trust me, this way of acting and reasoning becomes boring, repetitive and even unbearable.
Not to mention the fact that from a certain point onwards in the story... poof... very little of this marked peculiarity of her (which is fundamental in the first chapters of the story) will remain.
As would be expected from such a premise, at the beginning Maria Kawai will struggle to win the hearts of her classmates and numerous misunderstandings will arise between them... predictable, right?
Well, yes, but this situation will be developed in a slightly excessive and surreal way.
I don't know how widespread the problem of school bullying is in Japan (both by students and teachers), but in this manga this reaches such high peaks and is so normalized that it is not very credible and at times unnerving.
The characters all seem to be extremely idiotic, especially the girls in the protagonists' classroom, who continue to call Maria "devil" for... very trivial reasons.
Even the class teacher, an inept who is bad only because he likes to be bad for no particular reason, never misses an opportunity to treat our protagonist badly... so... randomly.
The personality and attitude of the protagonist doesn't help but... come on... it doesn't make sense for them to define her as a devil!
She's not bad, she doesn't do anything bad or against the rules... well... it makes no sense!
Over the course of about thirty chapters this whole situation is broadly resolved.
The protagonist integrates into the class, the professor continues to be such an asshole, but hey!
We're only on the fourth/fifth volume!
The plot must move forward!
The telenovela begins!
From this point on, what seemed to be a manga about school bullying turns into a sort of soap opera adapted in a japanese comic.
An important note is that, due to the absurdity of the events that will follow from here on out, the personalities of the already inconsistent characters of this manga will end up becoming more and more distorted as the chapters continue.
At first we have a faint love triangle between Maria, the typical fake "rebel" boy of her classroom, and her now mute "friend" from when she attended the prestigious religious high school.
In this narrative arc you will only have unnecessary dramas and the already anonymous, due to the terrible character design reserved for them, classmates of the protagonists, poof... will disappear.
In particular, Hana Ibuki, the "main villain" of the previous arc, who is initially sold to us as a fundamental character in the classroom of the three main protagonists, disappears and never reappears again.
Even some anonymous supporting secondary classmates will make some brief cameos, when the mangaka remembers that our protagonists attend a high school, but she, who was very important and who also has a slightly more refined character design, is instead completely eliminated from the plot without us being provided with any information regarding his sudden disappearance.
A similar situation will also happen with the "main villain" of the arc of this faint love triangle, given that even Anna Soma, the mute "friend" of the protagonist, once this narrative arc is concluded, will leave the scene with a really absurd motivation, only to be mentioned sporadically and appear in a rather idiotic way in the following chapters (especially towards the end).
Just to lengthen the plot, for at least one volume, after having had chapters with so much innecesary drama, the character of Kurosu Shintarou will be introduced.
He is nothing more than a first year boy who enrolled in the same high school as our protagonists only because he fell in love with the protagonist after seeing her sing in the television program mentioned in the first chapters of the manga.
His function?
Making jealous the male lead of this story (poor Kanda Yuusuke, he is so deep in the friendzone that the mangaka felt the need to forcefully insert a new rival), who at the end of the previous narrative arc had stupidly rejected the love declaration of the protagonist due to a reason so idiotic and not very credible that it seems to be 100% the result of the script of a low-quality soap opera.
Therefore, for a few chapters we will go from hyperdramatic soap opera tones to something light-hearted perfectly in line with the shoujo mangas set in high school, with also a beach episode!
Oh, the beach episode couldn't be missed!
Probably due to the immense boringness of these banal chapters in perfect line with the more conventional shoujo mangas, we will end up returning to immerse ourselves in reading a succession of needlessly hyperdramatic twists, which will accompany us almost until the last volume of this manga.
If you think I'm exaggerating, I'll list some of the craziest things that will happen:
- The protagonist will lose her voice for a certain number of chapters. The way to get her voice back will be investigate her hyperdramatic past.
- The protagonist will discover that she was born due to her mother's rape
- The protagonist's mother, who is surprisingly identical to her unbearable mute "friend" (tell me how many chances there were for such a thing to happen), committed suicide. At the moment of her suicide she had tried to take Maria with her too, but in the end she was unable to kill her.
- The male lead of the story hesitates to start a romantic relationship with our heroine because he fears that by hugging her she might remember the moment of her mother's suicide, and thus end up wanting to commit suicide herself (the most absurd thing is that this bullshit... REALLY HAPPENS!)
- Maria's grandparents feel terribly guilty for having accepted a large sum of money to cover up what happened to their daughter, and refuse to have anything to do with Maria, saying that she only came to visit them because she wants their inheritance (WTF?!).
- The mother's rapist became a priest and after what they call "the accident" (SRLLY?!) he fell madly in love with his victim (that's right, in this really poor written story rape is romanticized too). Ah, as if that wasn't enough, he is in a certain sense also Kurosu's adoptive father since he has become so good that he even manages an orphanage.
- The name of the orphanage is ANNAMARIA, Anna like the protagonist's mother (which is also conveniently the same name of her "friend" who has become mute, who, let's remember, is IDENTICAL to her mother) and Maria, our soap opera heroine. This is obviously because he loves both, the girl he raped in the past and the little girl born from that rape.
- In the midst of a hyperdramatic moment Maria will try to slap this wretched priest but since he was a former soldier he will instinctively dodge her every slap, creating an embarrassing failed comic gag.
- The protagonist's grandparents, the ex-rapist priest and the protagonist will begin to consider each other family and love each other (definitely absurd stuff).
- The protagonist's romantic interest, given that he no longer has any excuse to not be happily with her... will decide to leave her to have surgery on his hand in the USA.
All this will be overdramaticized because his dream is to become a pianist like his father (a very famous world-famous pianist) but due to an accident caused by Maria he was seriously injured in his hand and it is probable that he will never be able to play the piano again. In the past soap opera chapters he has instinctively protected his hand instead of mindlessly using it to literally SAVE her LIFE on a couple of occasions, so he doesn't believe he's worthy of being her boyfriend anymore.
After having made us experience all these rollercoasters of emotions bordering on the absurd, the manga will calm things down again, giving us some very boring slice of life chapters in a certain sense also with a musical theme (apparently the mangaka wanted the music to be important in this manga but for the entire duration of the story this insistence only felt useless and forced) with the few theoretically main characters of this story as protagonists.
The intent of these chapters would seem to be to close the narrative arcs of the main supporting characters, but, given that these characters did not have the slightest relevance for the entire story, these chapters dedicated to them in a certain sense appear to be useless and tedious to read.
The only one of these characters who deserves to have one or more chapters focused on him before the end of the manga is Kanda Yuusuke, the protagonist's ONLY TRUE FRIEND, who has always been by her side since the first chapters (except when the mangaka suddenly forgot about his existence), regardless of the fact that he never managed to take even half a step out of the friendzone.
Very few insipid and embarrassing panels of the final chapter of this absolutely forgettable manga will take care of the "closure" of his storyline.
As you may have guessed, this unnecessarily long manga also has the courage to end with an unsatisfying open ending which, once you reach the last panel, will immediately make you regret all the time you spent reading it.
In short, if you want to immerse yourself in reading a senseless hyperdramatic soap opera, you can skip the first thirty chapters and start immediately after the final chapter of the high school singing event.
DRAWINGS
When I was a teenager I remember that I found them very beautiful, above all I was in love with how the protagonist was drawn.
Now, after about ten years, I have to confess that the drawings in this manga don't convince me at all (in the last chapters they even get worse, becoming even more anonymous!).
Even Maria Kawaii no longer fascinates me as she once did.
The enormous eyes full of exaggerated eyelashes of the protagonist irritate me rather than fascinate me, and I'm not much of a fan of her chibi caricature with her big duck lips.
One of her characteristic elements was the redness of her lips, a fundamental element of her character design which will disappear almost completely in the last chapters.
I don't even like the two male protagonists very much, and above all I find the way they wear their uniform trousers quite ridiculous (probably in the 90s or early 2000s it was fashionable to wear them that way but damn, that aesthetic choice has aged very badly! More than looking cool, now they make you laugh!).
I found both Meguro and Yuusuke to be somewhat anonymous, although they were deliberately designed to be the most attractive male characters in the manga along with Kurosu.
And when I say this I am not exaggerating.
Meguro, Yuusuke and Maria (and very few other secondary characters such as Kurosu and Anna) stand out in beauty, especially our protagonist, who is continually described as an extremely attractive girl by the secondary characters of this story; this, however, is not because they have an actually memorable character design, but rather because all the rest of the cast of characters is deliberately drawn ugly and/or with obvious "aesthetic defects".
This will avoid the disturbing effect of the "same face syndrome" typical of many shoujo manga, but at the same time it will lower the general aesthetic quality of the manga panels.
Be careful, I'm not against the choice of include characters who are not "conventionally beautiful".
Indeed, I often find it ridiculous to see when characters drawn in such a way as to appear to the reader as actually "beautiful" make observations about the "extremely fascinating" appearance of another character who however is not aesthetically too different from them, however I find that in Devil & Love Song this aesthetic device is used so poorly that it renders most of the story's characters anonymous, including many of the main ones.
It is possible draw "unconventionally beautiful" characters without making them aesthetically boring and easily forgettable!
CHARACTERS
As you may have already understood, the characters in this manga are not memorable at all.
Their character designs are bland and even their personality are quite empty.
First of all: Kousaka Tomoyo.
She is presented to us as an insecure girl, who always smiles and who always does what others tell her to do even if she doesn't agree with them.
As the chapters continue she suddenly becomes the supporting character "friend" of the protagonist.
By the way, "friend" not because she's actually a bitch with double ends (cough, cough, like practically ALL the somewhat important female characters in this manga), but because she's so anonymous and useless that she's only put there as a friend of the protagonist to increase the number ot the main cast characters and to make some senseless jokes in the background as a really poor written comic relief.
The only thing that could in certain way define her as a character is her passion for dark, punk or similar aesthetics, such as the fact that she loves black, objects with skulls and in theory everything that is associated with this type of subcultures.
The problem is that this characteristic of her is handled so poorly that it falls right into the "show, don't tell!" problem.
Sometimes she makes silly jokes like say something like "oh, we could dress like punk idols!" in the background, or she appears in the illustrations at the beginning of the chapter, or in some pages wearing vaguely alternative clothes, but nothing more.
In short, we know this characteristic of her but it is never fully exploited to develop her character.
Plus, I personally can't stand her. She always smiles in a silly way and aesthetically I find her so anonymous that I can't like her in any way.
Despite this, unlike the other characters in the main cast, the anonymous Kousaka Tomoyo remains somewhat herself from beginning to end.
Even the protagonist turns out to be terribly inconsistent as a character.
In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Maria Kawai of the first chapters turns out to be a totally different character from the Maria Kawai that appears in the last volumes of the manga.
This change is not due to the maturation of the character but rather to a complete distortion of her personality, which occurred over time as the plot became more and more senselessly dramatic.
Another character who I noticed have a depersonalization similar to our protagonist is Kanda Yuusuke, the only noteworthy supporting character in this story, who in addition to undergoing a continuous terrible redesign goes from having a hint of personality to becomes the typical blonde frienzoned and pure-hearted friend of the shoujo manga heroine.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The only nice thing about this manga is the high quality of the Italian edition.
Flashbook never disappoints. It has a double cover and the pages are pleasant to the touch.
Unfortunately, however, this manga lacks in substance.
Honestly, I don't even recommend it to those who are still beginners with shoujos because, at least in my opinion, in addition to having anonymous characters and an inconsistent story that is nothing special, this manga doesn't even know how to entertain.
I don't even think that Akuma & Love Song is one of those mangas that I would recommend just to collect the drawings because even those are nothing noteworthy.
The only way to maybe enjoy reading this absurd shoujo manga in some way is to read it in scanlations, just to be able to read at the end of each chapter the hilarious opinions of those who have read it before you.
I hated reading this manga so much that I felt it was the least necessary to do a super detailed review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 3, 2024
I decided to read Strobe Edge since I had read two other mangas by Io Sakisaka, and I was positively impressed by this author's way of writing the characters and developing their stories.
Unfortunately, however, I have to say that, probably due to a lower maturity as a mangaka at the time she wrote Strobe Edge, this manga did not live up to my expectations.
STORY
The plot is really simple: a simple and naive high school girl falls in love for the first time, and the object of her interest is none other than the most popular boy in high school!
And guess what?!
He has a girlfriend...a beautiful
...
model a little older than him!
WOW WHAT AN ORIGINAL STORY
And do you want to know something even more surprising?
Our protagonist, who don't have an interesting personality, will end up making falling in love of her not only the most popular boy in high school , but also two other male characters throughout the entire story.
I mean, do I have to keep saying more?
The plot isn't the best, the two main characters are so stereotyped that they make you want to stop reading this manga after very few pages that it almost makes you want to cry.
For the entire duration of the story the two main characters don't mature much, so if you want to read this manga, go ahead, but you won't find anything special in it.
Furthermore, in the first chapters there is also a clear abuse of comic gags and rather poor humour, a little typical of mangas from the early 2000s.
Nostalgic people might probably like it but I don't think it has aged very well.
Luckily, as the story progresses, this humour disappears, giving way to a slightly more serious plot centered on the resolution of the main love triangle (if we can say so given that it is clear from the start that the protagonist has no never once considered the second male lead as a love interest).
CHARACTERS
The most surprising thing about this manga is that the secondary and supporting characters are often more interesting and better developed than the two protagonists.
Andou for example, in my opinion, is the most interesting and best developed character in the entire story.
The only flaw of this character is that he was sold to us from the first chapters as the main rival of the male lead.
Unfortunately, although he is an amazing character, he is wasted in his role as a rival as the protagonist of the story has never considered him even a little bit as a possible romantic interest.
The love triangle between the main couple and Andou isn't the only love triangle that was poorly constructed.
In the very first chapters there is the character of Daiki, the protagonist's childhood friend, who acts as a rival in love.
Unfortunately, however, within very few chapters he is downgraded from second male lead to comic relief.
Therefore I ask myself, was it really necessary to sell him to us at first as the typical childhood friend in love with the protagonist?
Another thing that bothered me is that he immediately leaves aside his feelings for the protagonist to dedicate himself completely to another girl.
For goodness sake, I'm happy for him since Sayuri is not only more beautiful than the protagonist but also she has a more interesting personality!
But this sudden change is really not credible and sad.
Among the many noteworthy characters we also have Mayuka, the model who at the beginning of the story is the girlfriend of the male protagonist.
Despite what you might imagine, she is not hateful or manipulative as often happens in shoujo mangas (isn't that right Namida Usagi and Ao Haru Ride?).
But she is a nice character, mature, with his own interests and with a sensible emotional background.
Sadly she is better constructed than the protagonist and will be forgotten towards the middle of the story.
At the end we have Yuutarou.
He will be relegated to a mere supporting character too for almost the entire manga.
He will only have some importance when the mangaka will try to create some sort of love triangle between Daiki, Sayuri and Yuutarou.
If I can be honest, as much as I feel sorry for the way Daiki's character was treated, I find that there is more chemistry between Yuutarou and Sayuri than between Daiki and his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, even in this case it will be a fake love triangle.
In short, in this manga there are various love triangles, even among the secondary ones without involving the main couple (which almost never happens!) but they are written so badly that they are all rather useless.
Well, why not also talk about the love story of another important supporting character.
Manabu.
Throughout the manga we don't know at all if he has a romantic interest (even in the character sheets this data is cleverly hidden from us).
And in the end there it is, the special chapter dedicated to his short love story.
The only thing I will tell you is that: his love story only lasts one chapter and is more interesting and better structured than the main love story of this manga.
Tell me if this isn't sad.
I don't know if I should laugh or cry!
ART
Honestly, I didn't like them much, especially in the first chapters.
Maybe because I know Io Sakisaka's recent works. I found them a bit ugly, especially those of the male characters.
I think they have slightly strange faces and are often too long. Plus I'm not much of a fan of the protagonist's duck faces.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
I don't think it's a completely bad manga.
It doesn't stand out for its originality and its main characters are not memorable, however it is a read that is entertaining in its own way.
If you have other shoujo mangas to read, read those, but if you don't know what else to read and if you don't despise light and slightly banal stories, this could be for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 28, 2024
Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare is one of the sweetest, most innocent and best written romance manga I have ever read.
WEAKNESSES
The story takes a while to make you care about what happens to the characters.
Initially they may seem silly, too crybaby, unpleasant, intolerable or even indifferent to you.
However, trust me, don't drop this manga in the first few chapters.
You have to give the characters time to evolve and you won't regret it!
Only one negative note: from the first chapters we are told that Inui and Yuna are childhood friends, but for the entire duration of the manga this relationship is not perceived at all.
They hardly seem
...
to care about each other or even be remotely close on a personal level.
CHARACTERS
7/10
There are four main characters, two females and two males.
One of them in particular has a very childish mentality, for that she doesn't seem like a high school student, but rather a student in her early middle school years.
Each of the four of them has a different idea of love so I think you will be able to identify with at least one of them.
Personally I loved the characters of Yuna and Rio, and especially the evolution of their relationship.
Akari and Inui are very well written, but I admit that I didn't manage to completely like them for the entire duration of the story.
The supporting characters are also well developed, in particular Rio's classmates (although unfortunately they later disappear almost completely after the first half of the story).
ART
9/10
The drawings are really beautiful.
Many times the characters are drawn with incredible expressions.
Also in this case the manga artist managed to avoid the same-face syndrome effect, which is very present in most shoujo manga.
ANIMATED ADAPTATION
5/10
If you've seen the anime... forget about it!
The animated adaptation doesn't do justice to this manga!
The story in the manga is much better written and above all it is more interesting.
They changed a lot of things in the anime, deleted the presence of important characters to show the evolution of some characters, and changed many exciting key points of the story in a silly way.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
I recommend reading this manga to anyone who wants to read a troubled but sweet romantic story between high schoolers.
You will find various love triangles, family problems, insecurities of first loves, characters who try to chase their dreams (in the sense of professions to follow in the future).
You will not follow the story from the point of view of just one character but each of the four main characters will make you discover what lies deep in their hearts.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 25, 2024
In summary Ao haru ride is an improved version of Namida Usagi.
As I already said in my review of Namida Usagi, Ao Haru Ride is kind of a better written (both the story and the characters) and drawn Namida Usagi.
In a certain sense Ao Haru Ride is what the reader would have expected to read in Namida Usagi.
The two mangas are very similar both in terms of the dynamics of the main couple and the basic premise of the story.
SPOILER SIMILARITIES
In both stories the main characters meet and fall in love in middle school, but their romance doesn't begin because the male protagonist suddenly
...
moves away.
The two protagonists meet again in the same high school but something is changed in the male protagonist and for this reason they are unable to start their relationship.
Despite it's clear that they both are still in love, they will have to overcome numerous obstacles before getting together.
One of the obstacles they have in common is that the male protagonist at first rejects the female protagonist's confession because, even if he loves her, at that moment of her confession he is chained in a toxic relationship with a childhood friend of his.
STORY
The story of this manga captivates you from the first to the last chapter.
It never gets boring and the characters' actions are always well-reasoned (even if not always easy to agree with).
It retraces the tropes of school shoujo mangas but retraces them in a natural way without making them seem forced.
The evolution in the relationships between ALL the characters, even the secondary ones, is notable.
Every supporting character, even the supporting characters' friends, are so well characterized that they seem real and not just stereotypes thrown in there just to move the plot forward.
CHARACTERS
The male protagonist may have somewhat toxic behaviors, which is why this manga may not appeal to some readers.
A special mention to the fact that the female protagonist of this manga is very different from the stereotype of the shoujo manga set in high school heroine.
She has flaws, she doesn't just define herself by being good, nice and kind, which makes her real.
Sometimes she can seem a little bit unfeminine and quite rude and this makes her much more charismatic than the heroines we are used to finding in this kind of readings.
ART STYLE
The drawings are great too.
They clearly stand out from the majority of shoujo mangas.
They are original and aesthetically beautiful to look at.
Furthermore, it is notable that the somatic traits of each character are quite differentiated.
Here you will not find the same face syndrome, typical of many shoujo manga.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
I recommend Ao Haru Ride to anyone looking for a well-written shoujo manga, with love triangles, misunderstandings, real relationships (not always healthy, but also grey, as happens in reality) a bit of drama and romance.
Above all, I recommend it for how well written ALL the characters were, even the most secondary ones.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 25, 2024
If you like parody stories this manga might be for you.
As you will have understood from the synopsis of this manga, the story is nothing more than a parody of Handersen's little mermaid fairy tale.
We have a woman reincarnated in the character of Handersen's little mermaid, who loves to sing enka.
The protagonist is a completely dumb and has the goal of having sex at least once with the prince to avoid becoming sea foam.
CHARACTERS
Since it is a really short story (it is only two chapters long!) the characters in this manga are not very developed.
They are more of narrative archetypes revisited so as to
...
be a hilarious parody of the characters from Handersen's original fairy tale.
Aesthetically they are very nice.
The female protagonist is a complete idiot but you will love her for this reason.
A special mention goes to the protagonist's sisters, who are nothing other than an exact copy of the others (and even the protagonist herself points this out to us in a dialogue hahaha).
STORY
Nothing special.
It retells the original story of Handersen's little mermaid with just a few comic sketches here and there.
ART
I found the drawings in this comic very nice but nothing special.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Tensei Ningyohime wa Awa ni Natte Kietakunai it's just two chapters of pure hilarity.
It's not something that deserves to be read a second time but I definitely think it's something so absurd that it deserves to be read at least once in a lifetime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 24, 2024
The first time I read Mikansei Lovers, about 7 years ago, I remember that I found it to be a nice shoujo manga, even if not among the best of the school romance genre.
I reread it this evening, and I have to say that it doesn't deserve to be reread a second time at all.
STORY
5/10
The story itself is linear, and quite banal.
It could probably appeal to those who are still new to reading shoujo manga.
I don't really agree with the relationship between the two main protagonists, given that they have a big age difference and especially at the age they are in the manga this
...
difference is very noticeable.
In fact, the male protagonist is practically still a child who has just started middle school, while the female protagonist is studying to enter university!
I find there is something definitely wrong with them being attracted to each other.
When in the last chapters they now appear as adults, however, I can easily see them as a couple because they have both reached maturity, so even if they have a difference in years I no longer feel as if I was seeing a somewhat pedophilic relationship.
CHARACTERS
5/10
The characters are nothing special.
Plus, apart from the two protagonists and the child girl in love with the male protagonist, they don't get much development.
Above all, the female protagonist's professor perhaps deserved to be developed better.
ART
7/10
The art style is nice, but don't stand out in quality.
It's the typical classic shoujo manga art style, with big eyes used in years 2000.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
In my opinion, Minkasei Lovers is a manga suitable for those who are new to shoujo manga.
It's not among the best shoujo manga you can find around but it's certainly a pleasant and light read (especially short) if you like romance age gap stories.
One thing is certain: it is not something worth reading a second time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 24, 2024
I honestly don't know if I recommend read this shoujo manga.
Personally I didn't like it much, although I must admit that it kept me entertained for the entire duration of the story without boring me too much.
The protagonist is a little better than the average shoujo manga protagonist, but she still didn't manage to make me attach to her.
The male lead didn't stand out much either, and he's not my type physically either.
I was also a little disgusted by the fact that some characters in this manga transformed from animals to humans (and vice versa) if someone kiss them.
I don't know, maybe someone might find
...
this idea original and cute but it disgusted me a bit.
I don't find anything cute or romantic about kissing a cat, even if it were my boyfriend.
I wouldn't find it something lovely to do!
The drawings are nice but not the best, in particular I don't really like how the mangaka draws the male protagonist's mouth.
I recommend it to cat lovers and anyone looking for a light romance read.
Ah, if sex scenes bother you (even if they're soft) this manga is not for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 24, 2024
Namida Usagi in short you could say is a kind of bad copy of Ao Haru Ride.
SIMILARITIES WITH SPOILERS
In both stories the main characters meet and fall in love in middle school, but their romance doesn't begin because the male protagonist suddenly moves away.
The two protagonists meet again in the same high school but something is changed in the male protagonist and for this reason they are unable to start their relationship.
Despite it's clear that they both are still in love, they will have to overcome numerous obstacles before getting together.
One of the obstacles they have in common is that the male protagonist
...
at first rejects the female protagonist's confession because, even if he loves her, at that moment of her confession he is chained in a toxic relationship with a childhood friend of his.
Ao Haru Ride is better written (both the story and the characters) than Namida Usagi.
In a certain sense Ao Haru Ride is what the reader would have expected to read in Namida Usagi.
ART
The drawings of this manga seem like a bad imitation of Arina Tanemura's drawings (this was to be expected because the author of this manga was an assistant of Arina Tanemura in the past)
5/10
CHARACTERS
The characters are flat and stereotyped. They often say or do ridiculous things.
I expect something like this if I read a manga like Sensei Kushu which tries to make a deliberate comedy out of these facts or dialogues, but in this manga they take themselves seriously and this makes them quite cringe.
In fact, reading this manga is often embrassing.
An honorable mention goes to the protagonist's best friend and her boyfriend, who are the stupidest and most insufferable supporting characters I've ever found in a shoujo manga.
5/10
STORY
The first volumes (especially the first) are nice, but the further the story goes the more boring and embarrassing it becomes.
I recommend you read the first volumes and then stop reading when the two main protagonists get together.
The subsequent volumes lengthen the plot without having substance.
COMPLETE MANGA
5/10
ONLY THE FIRST VOLUME
6.50/10
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I recommend this manga ONLY to those who are VERY YOUNG (this fact mostly due to the immaturity of the dialogues and actions of the main and non-main characters) and who have LITTLE EXPERIENCE reading shoujo manga.
It's not the best shoujo manga you'll find around, but if you're new to it and if you are looking for a nice romantic light read, this shoujo manga will probably be right for you.
However, if I can be honest, I recommend you read Ao Haru Ride instead of Namida Usagi (or read both) since Ao Haru Ride, if it were focused on photography, would objectively be the improved version of this shoujo manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 20, 2024
ENG
I started this manga thinking it was a shoujo parody manga, but instead I was pleasantly surprised by a sweet romantic story.
Don't be fooled by the hilarity of the male protagonist wearing a paper bag on his head, there is a reason behind this bizarre custom.
The male protagonist of this story is the real gem of this manga. Trust me, you'll love he after just a few pages!
I recommend it to anyone looking for something sweet, romantic and relaxing to read.
Story: 7/10
Characters: 7/10
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Art: 8/10
ITA
Ho letto questo manga pensando che fosse una parodia degli shojo manga, e invece mi sono felicemente imbattuta in uno degli shojo manga più dolci che io avessi mai letto!
Mi raccomando, non fatevi ingannare dal fatto che il protagonista maschile indossi una busta di carta in testa. C'è una ragione che verrà spiegata più avanti nella storia, riguardo a questa sua peculiare abitudine.
Lo raccomando a tutti quelli che siano in cerca di qualcosa di romantico, dolce e rilassante da leggere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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